Method and apparatus for anonymous group messaging in a distributed messaging system

• US 7,512,788 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2002
• Issued: 03/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nagar, Shailabh, Ravindran, Rajan, Choi, Jong Hyuk, Franke, Hubertus
• Primary Examiner(s): Brown; Christopher J
• Application Number:
  US10/316,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111612A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,303 Days
• Field of Search: 713/163, 713/182, 726/27
• US Class Current: 713/163
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0421 Anonymous communication, i.e. the party's identifiers are hidden from the other party or parties, e.g. using an anonymizer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

A group messaging system enabling anonymous collective communications in a group which is locally defined in association with a group owner'"'"'s messaging account, wherein messaging software at the group owner converts a group message into multiple one-to-one group messages destined to each group member in collaboration with the said group membership resolution process. The invention further includes a group message reply process wherein the messaging software at a recipient'"'"'s side composes a reply message and transmits it to the group owner messaging software which then forwards it to the group members in collaboration with said group membership resolution process, thereby providing a means of designating the identity of a group in the group owner messaging account, sending a group message, and hiding the identities of individual recipients during the lifetime of the group message. The group owner side can additionally perform access control for group communications.

Claims

1. A distributed message exchange system for exchange of messages among a plurality of distributed message locations, comprising:

an automatic group messaging agent located at a first message location of a group owner, said group messaging agent comprising;

at least one group storage location in local storage comprising a dynamic address store server for determining members of a group dynamically out of a set of messaging addresses according to attributes and relationships to the group owner and to one another and a static address store for storing group identification information including group identity and identities of members of said group and additionally storing access control information of messaging accounts in association with group information, wherein said group is maintained in the context of a messaging account at said first message location,

a group membership resolution module to retrieve group information from said at least one group storage location for messaging, and

a group message distribution module to convert a single group message addressed to a group having naming scope and management domain in the context of the group message agent into a plurality of individual messages having group message routing information comprising naming scope, semantic context and management domain information for the group messaging agent, an individual message being provided for each group member, and for sending said plurality of individual messages to group members, wherein the identities of the group members are kept undisclosed to one another and said group message routing information is attached for successive group message exchanges;

control means for verifying access control rights based on said access control information; and

a plurality of messaging agents, one at each of successive ones of said plurality of message locations, to exchange electronic group messages anonymously with said plurality of message locations by transmitting group messages to said group messaging agent identified by said group message routing information, where said group message is distributed to said plurality of message locations.

2. The distributed message exchange system of claim 1 wherein said group message information comprising group routing information, group identity and the group messaging agent location, is transmitted as one of a separate user defined field, a tag, and a virtual recipient in the message header in order to facilitate successive message exchanges in a group message thread, and wherein a message transfer agent does not deliver said message by using said group message routing information as one of message destinations.

3. The distributed group message exchange system of claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of messaging agents is additionally adapted to generate a group discovery request to determine a group information such as group identity and group message routing information for a group of said plurality of message locations to initiate a group message.

4. The distributed group message exchange system of claim 3 wherein said group messaging agent is additionally adapted to receive a group discovery request, to search said at least one group storage location to retrieve said group information, and to transmit a response to said group discovery request to a requesting messaging agent, said response including said group information.

5. The distributed group message exchange system of claim 4 wherein each of said plurality of messaging agents additionally comprises at least one agent storage location for storing said group information.

6. The distributed message exchange system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of messaging agents transmit said group message as a reply to the previous group message by using said group message information contained in the message header of said previous group message.

7. The distributed message exchange system of claim 1 additionally comprising a group messaging proxy agent, said group messaging proxy agent collecting group information of one or more group messaging locations and relaying group messages on behalf of group messaging agents of said group message locations by using said collected group information.

8. The distributed message exchange system of claim 1 wherein said at least one group storage location comprises both a static permanent unchangeable storage location and a temporary ephemeral storage location.

9. A communication system comprising:

a plurality of distributed nodes comprising a group node and a plurality of successive nodes, each of said nodes comprising at least one communications module for sending and receiving electronic messages;

a group messaging agent located at said group node, said group messaging agent comprising;

at least one local group storage location comprising a dynamic address store server for determining members of a group dynamically out of a set of messaging addresses according to attributes and relationships to the group owner and to one another and a static address store for storing group identification information including the group identity and identities of member of said group and additionally storing access control information of messaging accounts in association with group information, wherein said group is maintained in the context of a messaging account at said group node,

a group membership resolution module to retrieve group information from said at least one group storage location for messaging, and

a group message distribution module to convert a single group message addressed to a group into a plurality of individual messages each having group message routing information comprising naming scope, semantic context and management domain information for the group messaging agent and to deliver one individual message to each group member, wherein the identities of the group members are kept undisclosed to one another and the group message routing information is attached for successive group message exchanges; and

control means for verifying access control rights based on said access control information; and

a plurality of messaging agents, one at each of said successive nodes, to exchange electronic group messages anonymously with a plurality of locations at a plurality of message nodes by transmitting group messages to said group messaging agent identified by said group message routing information, where said group message is distributed to said plurality of locations at said plurality of message nodes.