okay, all your ideas just got me thinking: let's write a php community program.
it's be a lounge/forum/chat/hangout/cafe program. we'll have many rooms, areas, etc and represent people by avatars and/or names/aliases. we'll have a map view showing where users are currently.
people can talk one on one, group chats, whole community chat, speeches, etc.
think of it like a virtual assembly 🙂
i'll post details later if i ever get around to coding any of it!
-sridhar