Providing access to documents in an online document sharing community

摘要

Provided are computer program product, system, and method for providing access to documents in an online document sharing community in a network environment including a plurality of participant computers operated by participants in the online document sharing community and a storage system. Document content is processed to add search terms for the document and a document identifier to a search index accessible through a search engine over the network to participants not under an obligation of confidentiality to the owner with respect to the document. Access is provided to the content of the document to the participants in the online document sharing community. A determination is made of a publication time the document was included in the search index and made accessible to the participant computers operated by participants not under the obligation of confidentiality to the owner of the document content.