Patent ID: 6988127
Filing Date: 2006-01-17
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An information processing apparatus for managing a plurality of communities in a virtual space, comprising: first storage means for storing pieces of positional information of the respective communities in the virtual space; second storage means for storing information relating to bulletin boards that are provided in the communities, wherein when positional information of a newly generated community is stored in the first storage means, and wherein information relating to the newly generated community and which is to be written to bulletin boards of communities that are near the newly generated community in the virtual space is generated and stored in the second storage means; extracting means for searching among the information stored in the second storage means for each of the communities, for time points indicating when messages were written to the bulletin board and extracting a time point corresponding to a time when a latest message was written; and sending means for sending an e-mail to an owner of a bulletin board having the latest message if the time point extracted by the extracting means is before a prescribed time point, wherein the information relating to the bulletin board that is stored in the second storage means includes at least one of a community ID for identification of the community, a message ID for identification of a message on the bulletin board, a time when the message was written, a user ID that is assigned to a user who wrote the message, and a message ID of another message that is included if the message is a reply to said another message.