This invention relates to the field of information networks, and more specifically to finding and distributing things to interested parties through a personalized network of trusted parties defined by a member.
Existing methods of finding interested parties for things are inadequate. Most methods of finding interested parties are sent to loosely defined groups and do not allow the differentiation of parties things are available to. Selling things using such services as want ad Web sites and auction Web sites make things available to the entire general public that uses such services. Methods of targeting only certain parties require a great deal of manual labor to complete. To ensure selectivity in which person the thing is made available to, a person must personally ask close friends and family. This would be both time consuming and may not produce fruitful results because the limited size of the pool asked.
Existing methods also do not allow their members to establish a priority between people or different groups of people. Finally, even if an interested party is found, there is difficulty in transferring the thing to the interested party because of varying methods of doing so (e.g., courier services, or mail).
Therefore, what is needed is an electronic or other automated method of creating and storing personalized networks of trusted members on computerized networks.