OPEN MARKET COLLABORATION SYSTEM FOR ENTERPRISE WIDE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

摘要

An enterprise wide electronic commerce system allows trading partners to act as participants in a complex trading process. Participants communicate with one another by joining conversations that are hosted in a collaboration space and managed by a collaboration hub. In this manner, the enterprise workflow may have an effect on, or be affected by, local workflows. The invention provides a message routing system for enterprise wide electronic collaboration. An embodiment of the invention includes a message routing mechanism for a collaboration system, comprising a collaboration hub hosting a collaboration space capable of receiving and sending messages between participants, and a messaging protocol that allows the collaboration hub to determine the status of a conversation and its participants.