2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving from the first member a second identifier for a second user of the public network; determining that the second user is a second member of the private network; and creating a link between the database record associated with the first member and a second database record associated with the second member for automatically providing the first member with access to information regarding the second member.
1. A method comprising: receiving from a first member at least one identifier for a user of a public communications network; determining, based at least in part on the identifier, whether the user is one of a member or a non-member of a private network; requesting information from the user via a public communications protocol in response to determining that the user is a non-member of the private network; receiving information from the non-member via the public communications network; and populating at least part of a data object in a database record associated with the first member with the information received from the non-member; sending the non-member a request to update the information received from the non-member; and updating the data object in the database record associated with the first member with updated information received from the non-member without requiring the nonmember to become a member of the private network.