A member accessible information system for managing member information, and selectively
providing member information to individual members. The members, typically belong
to a common industry, such as the food industry and connect through remotely connected
networked computers, such as over the Internet. Members may be food industry members
include suppliers, manufacturers and customers, each accessing information supplied
by members and maintained by the system. Members may search through previously
authorized member provided information. The system includes a central storage which
may be located on a database server and which stores product information, e.g.,
food product information and specifications. Members access the system through
a web server. A security policy server verifies what product information and which
specifications are to be available to each member. Specifications may be stored
centrally or, distributed to member locations. An app server stores and selectively
executes applications used by members. User security profiles are stored on and
managed by a policy server. Each member's security profile indicate the level of
authorization of the corresponding member. A personalization server may be included
to record user member characteristics, i.e., content viewed by the member, and
personalizes content to subsequently automatically make similar content available
to the member. An ad server may be included to schedule, serve and track advertising
content provided to members. Orders may be generated and placed automatically.
Member use may be tracked to generate member bills automatically and bill individual members.