Abstract: A method to selectively disseminate information in a distributed computer system of the type having a plurality of originating and target nodes. A publisher is associated with an originating node and is authorized to provide an informational message defined by a set of attributes to the system. A subscriber is associated with a target node and is authorized to receive information from the system. Each subscriber may establish a set of content filters to identify the attributes of informational messages of interest to such subscriber. The informational messages may then be screened to determine the subscribers that should receive the informational message based on the subscriber's content filters. In order to transfer the published informational message from the originating node associated with the publisher to the target nodes associated with all subscribers determined to receive the message, a description of the first informational message is transmitted to the target nodes associated with such subscribers.