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.