Patent ID: 7379087

Claim:
A chat management system comprising: a plurality of accepting means for, when receiving a reservation request for a video chat from a user terminal, acceptance processing of the reservation request; reservation means for, when one of the plurality of accepting means performs acceptance processing of the reservation request, if there is availability in resources of a video chat device assigned to the accepting means, making a reservation for use of the resources, wherein the plurality of accepting means are located at a site different from a site where the reservation means is located, and when resources of the video chat are assigned on a site basis and there is availability of resources of the video chat device assigned to a site having accepting means that has performed acceptance processing of a reservation request, the reservation means makes the reservation for use of the resources; resource providing means for, when a resource providing request is received from a site having therein an accepting means that has performed acceptance processing of a reservation request, providing a resource of the video chat device assigned to a site to which the resource providing means belongs, and, when the resources of the video chat device, which is assigned to the site to which the accepting means that has performed the acceptance processing of the reservation request belongs, are insufficient, the accepting means outputs a resource providing request to the resource providing means; and control means for controlling execution of the video chat device according to details of the reservation made by the reservation means.