Pre-populated and administrator defined groups in contacts lists

• US 8,117,201 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2009
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bhattacharjee, Avronil, Gupta, Amit, Kwan, Cindy
• Primary Examiner(s): MORRISON, JAY A
• Application Number:
  US12/471,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20100299363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 996 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4594 Address books, i.e. directories containing contact information about correspondents telephone directories in user terminals H04M1/27453

Abstract

A contacts list for a subscriber is pre-populated based on information received from various data stores, data mining of applications associated with the subscriber, and administrator defined contacts. The list may be further maintained dynamically based on changes to contact information and/or subscriber attributes.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon for managing contacts list information in a communication system, the instructions comprising:

determining a plurality of contact information sources associated with a subscriber based on at least one from a set of;

a location, an organizational position, a permission level, a relationship within an organization, a preference, and a communication pattern of the subscriber;

receiving contact information associated with the subscriber from the plurality of sources comprising at least one from a set of;

an organizational directory server, a personal directory server, a custom directory server, and a communication server;

deriving entries for a contacts list for the subscriber by analyzing, categorizing, and customizing the received contact information over a predefined period of time, the predefined period of time being determined based on an organizational position of the subscriber;

receiving administrator defined contacts of at least one from a set of local transportation and local helpdesk contacts for the subscriber;

customizing the administrator defined contacts based on the subscriber'"'"'s location, organizational position, and permission level; and

pre-populating the contacts list for the subscriber based on the derived entries and the administrator defined contacts upon one of;

activation of the subscriber'"'"'s subscription and a request by the subscriber.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically updating the contacts list in response to a change in the received contact information, wherein the received contact information includes presence information.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the contacts list is configured to enable the subscriber to facilitate multimodal communications in a social networking environment.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of contact information sources is determined based on at least one of:

analyzing usage and communication patterns of the subscriber and receiving input from the subscriber.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the contacts list is further pre-populated in response to the subscriber joining the multimodal communication system.

5. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device for managing contacts list information in a multimodal communication system, the method comprising:

determining a plurality of contact information sources associated with a subscriber based on at least one from a set of;

a location, an organizational position, a permission level, a relationship within an organization, a preference, and a communication pattern of the subscriber;

receiving contact information associated with the subscriber from the plurality of sources comprising at least one from a set of;

an organizational directory server, a personal directory server, a custom directory server, and a communication server;

deriving entries for a contacts list for the subscriber by analyzing, categorizing, and customizing the received contact information over a predefined period of time, the predefined period of time being determined based on an organizational position of the subscriber;

receiving administrator defined contacts of at least one from a set of local transportation and local helpdesk contacts for the subscriber;

customizing the administrator defined contacts based on the subscriber'"'"'s location, organizational position, and permission level; and

pre-populating the contacts list for the subscriber based on the derived entries and the administrator defined contacts upon one of;

activation of the subscriber'"'"'s subscription and a request by the subscriber.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining at least one data source associated with the subscriber to be data mined; and

data mining the at least one data source to derive additional contact information for pre-populating the contacts list for the subscriber.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one data source includes usage history and communication patterns associated with the subscriber employing a communication application.

8. The method of claim 5, the administrator defined contacts are further customized based on at least one from a set of:

a relationship within an organization, a preference, and a communication pattern.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

dynamically updating the contacts list based on at least one from a set of;

a change in the subscriber'"'"'s attribute, a change in received contact information, and a change in subscriber'"'"'s location.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the analysis, categorization, and customization are performed based on a subscriber'"'"'s attribute.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein at least a portion of the contacts list entries include dynamically updated presence information.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the multimodal communication system is configured to facilitate at least one from a set of:

audio communication, video communication, electronic mail exchange, text messaging, conferencing, application sharing, and data sharing.

14. A communication system for managing contacts list information in a multimodal communication system, the system comprising:

a server configured to;

determine a plurality of contact information sources associated with a subscriber based on at least one from a set of;

a location, an organizational position, a permission level, a relationship within an organization, a preference, and a communication pattern of the subscriber;

receive contact information associated with the subscriber from the plurality of sources comprising at least one from a set of;

an organizational directory server, a personal directory server, a custom directory server, and a communication server;

derive entries for a contacts list for the subscriber by analyzing, categorizing, and customizing the received contact information over a predefined period of time, the predefined period of time being determined based on an organizational position of the subscriber;

receive administrator defined contacts of at least one from a set of local transportation and local helpdesk contacts for the subscriber;

customize the administrator defined contacts based on the subscriber'"'"'s location, organizational position, and permission level; and

pre-populate the contacts list for the subscriber based on the derived entries and the administrator defined contacts upon one of;

activation of the subscriber'"'"'s subscription and a request by the subscriber.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the server is further configured to derive the entries from the received contact information based on at least one of:

data mining usage and communication pattern records associated with the subscriber and analyzing the contact information based on a subscriber'"'"'s attribute.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the server is further configured to derive the entries from the received contact information by categorizing the contacts list entries based on at least one from a set of:

a subscriber preference, an organizational default rule, and attributes of the contacts list entries.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the server is further configured to receive the contact information from at least one from a set of:

a database server and an endpoint of the communication system.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the server is further configured to dynamically update the contacts list entries based on at least one from a set of:

organization level rules, changes to the subscriber'"'"'s attribute, changes in the received contact information, changes in the subscriber'"'"'s location, and a subscriber preference.