Providing Access to Presence Information Using Multiple Presence Objects

• US 20090006566A1
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tang, Lan, Gordon, Stephen, Manne, Ramesh, Leung, Kitty L., Vyaghrapuri, Ramesh K., Dani, Nishant V., Veeramachaneni, Jithendra K., Parker, Chris G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,291,067 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information

Abstract

An approach is described for maintaining multiple presence objects associated with a single entity. The different presence objects correspond to different respective aspects of the entity'"'"'s presence. Each presence object includes subscriber information and permission information associated therewith. The subscriber information identifies the subscribers that subscribe to receive notifications for a particular presence object. The permission information identifies the users who are entitled to receive notifications for the particular presence object. By virtue of the use of multiple objects, the entity can control access to its presence information with a high degree of granularity.

Claims

1. A method for providing notifications based on presence information, comprising:

providing presence information associated with an entity in the form of a plurality of presence objects, wherein the plurality of presence objects correspond to different respective aspects of the entity'"'"'s presence;

receiving presence data in response to a publication event, the presence data being associated with at least one of the plurality of presence objects; and

using said at least one of the plurality of the presence objects to provide a notification to at least one subscriber that subscribes to receive notifications from said at least one of the plurality of presence objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least part of the presence information is still made available when the entity is no longer engaged in functionality that is associated with said at least part of the presence information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one of the plurality of presence objects describes at least one characteristic of the entity'"'"'s presence in the context of an application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the application is an instant messaging application.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the application is a social network application

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the entity, the application, and the plurality of presence objects are related by a hierarchical structure.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising associating at least one feature with at least one node in the hierarchical structure, wherein said at least one feature applies to said at least one node and any node that depends on said at least one node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of presence objects has at least one subscriber associated therewith.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality presence objects has permission information associated therewith, wherein the permission information identifies one or more subscribers that are entitled to receive notifications generated in association with said each presence object.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the publication event corresponds to an identified change in a feature of presence associated with said at least one of the plurality of presence objects.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the notification is an incremental notification that selectively notifies said at least one subscriber of the change in the feature.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a query and responding to the query based on the presence information.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a presence-based infrastructure of an instant messaging system is used to manage publications, subscriptions, and notifications associated with the plurality of presence objects.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the presence data originates from at least one application that is external to the presence-based infrastructure of the instant messaging system.

15. One or more machine-readable media containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 1.

16. One or more computing devices, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory to store computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform the method of claim 1.

17. A system for providing notifications based on presence information, comprising:

a store for storing presence information associated with an entity in the form of a plurality of presence objects, wherein the plurality of presence objects correspond to different respective aspects of the entity'"'"'s presence; and

a presence-based infrastructure of an instant messaging system, the presence-infrastructure comprising;

a subscription module configured to allow at least one subscriber to subscribe to at least one of the plurality of presence objects;

a publication module configured to receive presence data in response to a publication event, wherein the presence data is associated with said at least one of the plurality of presence objects, wherein the publication module is further configured allow said at least one subscriber to receive the publication data based on permission information associated with said at least one of the plurality presence objects; and

a notification module configured to send a notification to said at least one subscriber if so authorized by the permission information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the presence-based infrastructure also includes a query module that is configured to process a query that is made regarding the presence information

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the presence data originates from at least one application that is external to the presence-based infrastructure of the instant messaging system.

20. One or more machine-readable media including a data structure stored therein, the one or more machine-readable media comprising:

presence information associated with an entity in the form of a plurality of presence objects, wherein the plurality of presence objects correspond to different respective aspects of the entity'"'"'s presence,

wherein each of the plurality of presence objects has;

at least one subscriber associated therewith as represented by subscription information; and

permission information associated therewith, wherein the permission information identifies whether said at least one subscriber is entitled to receive notifications generated in association with said each of the plurality of presence objects.