Extensible chat rooms in a hosted chat environment

Abstract

A method for extensible chat rooms in a hosted chat environment includes providing multiple different chat rooms, each executing in a separate process address space of at least one computing device. Each of the chat rooms includes a textual transcript of chat postings and a video feed of a subject. A catalog of extensions available for provisioning in connection with the different ones of the chat rooms is displayed to different moderators of the different ones of the chat rooms. Thereafter, in response to a selection of one of the extensions by one of the moderators, the selected one of the extensions is provisioned for use in connection with processing a particular event in a corresponding one of the chat rooms. Specifically, the extension pre-processes the particular event as the particular event occurs in the chat room before permitting the chat room to process the particular event.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method for extensible chat rooms in a hosted chat environment, the method comprising:
 providing multiple different chat rooms, each executing in a separate process address space of at least one computing device in a hosted chat room environment, each of the chat rooms including a textual transcript of chat postings and a video feed of a subject;   displaying to different moderators of different ones of the chat rooms, a catalog of extensions available for provisioning in connection with the different ones of the chat rooms; and,   responding to a selection of one of the extensions by one of the moderators by provisioning the selected one of the extensions for use in connection with processing a particular event in a corresponding one of the chat rooms, the extension pre-processing the particular event as the particular event occurs in the chat room before permitting the chat room to process the particular event.