Providing enterprise management of amorphous communities

A community management system comprising:

• a first tier providing a user interface through which users access online communities maintained by the community management system and an authentication module authenticating users of the online communities maintained by the community management system;
• a second tier comprising a service layer retrieving data and performing actions requested through the first tier and an authorization module verifying member permissions with respect to online communities with which the members are associated;
• and
• a third tier comprising a directory access module accessing directory services external to the community management system, a database comprising a plurality of online community profiles, wherein each online community profile specifies members of the online community represented by that online community profile and a role for each member for that online community.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer-usable medium having computer-usable program code that manages online communities, said computer program product including:
• computer-usable program code that declaratively specifies a taxonomy of online community types;
• computer-usable program code that declaratively specifies a plurality of roles for members of online communities;
• computer-usable program code that declaratively specifies a security policy that associates permissions with roles and online community types;
• computer-usable program code that maintains a plurality of online community profiles, wherein each online community profile represents an online community, specifies an online community type from the taxonomy, and specifies a list of members of the online community and an associated role for each member;
• and
• computer-usable program code that provides access to a selected online community according to the online community type of the selected online community, a role within the selected online community associated with a user attempting to access the selected online community, and the security policy.