Patent ID: 7860804

Claim:
A method of notifying consumers of available content in a content distribution system, the method comprising: providing a community portal for consumers, the community portal allowing consumers to search communities, join a community as a member and end membership in communities; associating a consumer with a community in response to input from the consumer through the community portal requesting that the consumer be identified as a member of the community; presenting first content to the consumer for viewing; determining existence of a content event related to second content; associating the content event and the second content with the community; notifying the consumer who is a member of the community of the content event by sending a notification to the consumer, the notification presented to the consumer as a window presented overlaying the first content being viewed by the consumer; and providing access to the second content related to the content event upon request by the consumer: wherein the content event is submitted by an other consumer; wherein associating the second content with the community includes associating a community designated by the other consumer with the second content.