Patent ID: 7043760

Claim:
A method for providing assurance that an electronic pseudonym belongs to a member of a particular organization, said method comprising the steps of: registering the organization with an authentication authority; distributing a membership token from the authentication authority to the organization; distributing the membership token to the member; registering the pseudonym with the authentication authority; and associating the pseudonym with the organization using the membership token to establish a relationship between the pseudonym and membership in the organization, thereby enabling a user of the pseudonym to communicate in an electronic forum or community as an authorized member of the organization while protecting the user's identity from other participants in the electronic forum or community, wherein other participants in the electronic forum or community are able to validate that the user of the pseudonym is a member of the organization via the authentication authority, wherein the membership token is useable to establish the relationship between the pseudonym and membership in the organization for various electronic forums or communities, such that the user of the pseudonym is able to communicate as an authorized member of the organization across multiple electronic forums or communities.