Patent ID: 7865545

Claim:
A collaboration space created as a web site by a user at a browser including a plurality of rooms in a hierarchical structure with access control list control on rooms and access control list control on forward pointers to child rooms, comprising: said web site residing in a memory of a web server and including a place comprising a plurality of subrooms, each subroom being an independent entity belonging to said place said web server including an HTTP server interfaced with the Internet, said place having a first data note including a directory of members of said place and each subroom within said place having a data note associated therewith containing an access control list of members selected exclusively from said directory of members by a member of said place having manager authority with respect to said subroom for specifying users of said place authorized to access said subroom; forward and reverse pointers for linking said subrooms, each said forward pointer to a child room including indicia identifying said child room, indicia specifying the address location of the entity forming said child room, and a readers field for providing access control list control on said forward pointer; said readers field being a members object for identifying those members of said subset of members of said place authorized to access a parent subroom that are also authorized to access a child subroom and for each member of said subset of members a level of authorization; a document readers field for a document containing data in said subroom being a members object for identifying a subset of members of said place authorized to access a subroom who are also authorized to access said document; and said collaboration space comprising a hierarchy of rooms, each room being a place in collaboration space including said directory of members; said directory of members, said access control list of members, and said readers field selectively providing increased, decreased, and maintained access to a child place in collaboration space, with access at any level of authority to a child place enabled only for those authorized to access a corresponding parent place, and whether a link to a child place will be enabled for a specific user in its corresponding parent place.