Disclosed are methods and apparatus for effectively provisioning services
for access by other entities or services. In general, a service manager
is configured to manage the provisioning of services between remote
entities within a computer network. In general terms, a remote entity
offers a service to another remote entity through the service manager.
The service manager facilitates formation of the offer to one or more
Invitee(s) specified by the service provider. After an offer is formed,
it may then be provided to the specified Invitee(s). After an Invitee
receives an offer, the Invitee may accept the offer through the service
manager or let the offer expire. The service manager also preferably
tracks the status of each offer and whether each specified Invitee has
accepted such offer. After an Invitee accepts an offer, the service
manager preferably records information sufficient for the Invitee to use
the offered service.