Abstract: A community, which is a group of users having common interests, has attributes such as the name of the community, the interests shared, the number of members, average age of the members, gender ratio of the members, and so forth. Corporations provide services to the users of a community to which the corporations have permission to access. The corporations can know a portion of the attribute information of the community, but cannot know the personal information of the individual users. Distribution firms can obtain personal information of users belonging to a community and deliver merchandise thereto, by entering into contract with that community. The distribution firms receive merchandise shipping commissions using serial numbers, so there is no exchange of personal information between the corporations and the distribution firms. Accordingly, services can be provided from corporations to users without disclosing personal information of the users to the corporations.

Abstract: A community, which is a group of users having common interests, has attributes such as the name of the community, the interests shared, the number of members, average age of the members, gender ratio of the members, and so forth. Corporations provide services to the users of a community to which the corporations have permission to access. The corporations can know a portion of the attribute information of the community, but cannot know the personal information of the individual users. Distribution firms can obtain personal information of users belonging to a community and deliver merchandise thereto, by entering into contract with that community. The distribution firms receive merchandise shipping commissions using serial numbers, so there is no exchange of personal information between the corporations and the distribution firms. Accordingly, services can be provided from corporations to users without disclosing personal information of the users to the corporations.

Abstract: In a virtual space system, it is made possible to freely set a region where a chat is recorded, without reducing a chat feasible region and complicating the system. A server is provided with user objects for holding latest position information of a transmitter in a virtual space and transmission region definition information for defining a transmission region, and chat reception objects for holding latest position information of application objects and reception region definition information for defining a reception region, and only contents of a chat issued from the transmitter in the reception region or only contents of a chat issued from the transmitter when the reception object enters the transmission region are stored in a chat storage file.

Abstract: An information processing device and method, and a recording medium for enabling several users to participate as respective avatars in a virtual space constructed on a network and to have conversations with other users. The data regarding the feeling expressions of an avatar, which correspond to a user's conditions, are managed. Then, the image displays of the avatar are controlled based on the storage of data on the image displays.

Abstract: An information processing device and method, and a recording medium for enabling several users to participate as respective avatars in a virtual space constructed on a network and to have conversations with other users. The data regarding the feeling expressions of an avatar, which correspond to a user's conditions, are managed. Then, the image displays of the avatar are controlled based on the storage of data on the image displays.

Abstract: A community, which is a group of users having common interests, has attributes such as the name of the community, the interests shared, the number of members, average age of the members, gender ratio of the members, and so forth. Corporations provide services to the users of a community to which the corporations have permission to access. The corporations can know a portion of the attribute information of the community, but cannot know the personal information of the individual users. Distribution firms can obtain personal information of users belonging to a community and deliver merchandise thereto, by entering into contract with that community. The distribution firms receive merchandise shipping commissions using serial numbers, so there is no exchange of personal information between the corporations and the distribution firms. Accordingly, services can be provided from corporations to users without disclosing personal information of the users to the corporations.