Network-based communication and file sharing system

A computer implemented method, comprising:

• receiving group membership user inputs from a user;
• generating a group membership indicator indicating a plurality of groups that the user is a member of, based on the group membership user inputs, each group having a plurality of members;
• generating a group communication interface that receives a group message from the user, for a given group, and sends the group message to other members of the given group, the members of the plurality of groups accessing files through the group communication interface;
• identifying the files accessed by members of the plurality of groups through the group communication interface;
• and
• generating a user-interactive list of the identified files for surfacing to the user.

A computing system, comprising:

• group membership logic that receives group membership user inputs from a user and generates a group membership indicator indicating a plurality of groups that the user is a member of, based on the group membership user inputs, each group having a plurality of members;
• a communication system having communication functionality that generates a group communication interface that receives a group message from the user, for a given group, and sends the group message to other members of the given group, the members of the plurality of groups accessing files through the group communication interface, at least two of the files being stored in separate data stores from one another, the separate data stores being remote from one another;
• group identifier logic configured to receive a file request indicative of a file request user input from the user, and identify, as an identified group, the user and the plurality of groups of which the user is a member;
• cache interaction logic configured to obtain, from a file list cache system corresponding to each identified group, a file list that has a file entry for each file, in a set of files, accessed by the corresponding group;
• file list merging logic configured to combine the file lists from each of the file list cache systems, to generate an aggregate file list;
• and
• a group file list surfacing system that generates a user-interactive list of the identified files, in the aggregate file list, for surfacing to the user.