Method, system and apparatus for matching sellers to a buyer over a network and for managing related information

A data processing system for facilitating a transaction between a buyer and one of a number of sellers, the transaction related to a project, the data processing system comprising:

• a database;
• first means for interacting with a buyer over a communication network to specify a project and storing data related to the project in the database;
• second means for interacting with a number of sellers over the communication network and storing data related to the sellers in the database, wherein certain data associated with a given seller is independent of any information specified by the given seller particularly for the project;
• third means for defining a time period for the transaction;
• fourth means for performing an automated process for identifying a set of sellers represented by the data stored in a database;
• fifth means for automatically classifying at least one seller of the set of sellers as belonging to a particular type associated with the project over a number of successive processing cycles that occur during the time period for the transaction, wherein the automatic classification of the fifth means is based upon the certain data of the sellers stored in the database and irrespective of any information specified by sellers particularly for the project, and wherein the number of sellers classified as belonging to the particular type by the fifth means automatically increases incrementally over the number of successive processing cycles;
• and
• sixth means that automatically enables submission of at least one offer related to the project by the sellers classified as belonging to the particular type, whereby the at least one offer can be accepted by the buyer as part of the transaction related to project.