Two way communication is provided in a one to many pub/sub environment. A community of users admitted to the community by subscription authorization receive messages (preferably Instant Messages) published from a requesting user. The request message is sent to a robot user (program application) that represents the community of users but appears to the community as simply another user. The robot user publishes the request message (using a pub/sub service) to the community of users. A user in the community of users receives messages to the community according to his personal message filter. The user responds to the requesting user with a response message. The response message includes information identifying the request message.