MANAGING RICH PRESENCE COLLECTIONS

• US 20070100831A1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cox, Shaun
• Granted Patent: US 7,650,337 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A method and system for increasing the computational and network efficiency of presence servers having collections of publications is provided. The presence system uses several techniques that enable a presence server to provide rich presence information without requiring expensive processing. First, the presence system accepts batches of publication updates in a single presence update request. Similarly, the presence system accepts batches of subscription requests. Next, the presence system supports new expiration types for publication update requests that eliminate the need for a publishing user to continually refresh presence information that has not changed. Finally, the presence system accepts access lists that contain membership groups rather than an individual list of users that are to have access to a particular presence collection.

Claims

1. A system of modifying access to presence information published in collections, the collections having a member list, comprising:

a receive request component that receives a request to publish presence information, the request comprising;

a collection identifier that specifies a collection whose member list is to be modified;

a member group for which access is to be modified; and

a modify access component that modifies the access of the specified member group to the specified collection in response to the request.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the member group specifies a domain.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the member group specifies the collection owner'"'"'s contact list.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the member group specifies federated member servers.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the member group specifies a member group defined by an entity external to the presence system.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the request contains more than one member group for which access is to be modified.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the request contains more than one collection for which access is to be modified.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the collections belong to different publishing users.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the request specifies that the member group is to be granted access to the collection.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the request specifies that the member group is to be denied access to the collection.

11. The system of claim 1 further comprising a receive subscription request component that receives a request to subscribe to the presence information from a subscribing user.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the collections and member lists create a hierarchy of presence information available to subscribing users having a level of detail that differs based on the identity of the subscribing user.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the request uses the SIP protocol.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein some components of the system are located at a presence server and other components are located at a presence client.

15. A method of modifying access to presence information published in collections, the collections having a member list, comprising:

receiving a request to publish presence information, the request comprising;

a collection identifier that specifies a collection whose member list is to be modified;

a member group for which access is to be modified; and

modifying the access of the specified member group to the specified collection in response to the request.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the member group specifies a domain.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the request contains more than one member group for which access is to be modified.

18. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for modifying access to presence information published in collections, the collections having a member list, by a method comprising:

sending a request to publish presence information to a presence service, the request comprising;

a collection identifier that specifies a collection whose member list is to be modified; and

a member group for which access is to be modified,

such that the request instructs the presence service to modify the access of the specified member group to the specified collection in response to the request.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the member group specifies the collection owner'"'"'s contact list.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the request contains more than one collection for which access is to be modified.