Method and system for providing expanded presence information when a user is offline

• US 20060195587A1
• Filed: 02/25/2005
• Published: 08/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raghav, Amritansh, Cadiz, Jonathan J., Shtiegman, Eran, Setty, Venkateshaiah
• Granted Patent: US 7,801,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method and system for providing expanded presence information of publishers to subscribers is provided. The presence system receives expanded presence information from a publisher. A client component of the presence system sends the expanded presence information to a presence server of the presence system. Upon receiving the expanded presence information, the presence server stores the expanded presence information in association with the publisher. When the presence server is to provide the presence information of a publisher to subscribers, the presence server identifies the current presence state of the publisher and retrieves the expanded presence information. The presence server then provides the current presence state and the expanded presence information to the subscribers.

Claims

1. A method in a server for providing expanded presence information, the method comprising:

receiving expanded presence information from a publisher of presence information;

storing the expanded presence information in association with the publisher;

receiving from a subscriber a request to subscribe to presence information of the publisher; and

when the publisher'"'"'s presence state is offline, providing to the subscriber an indication that the publisher is offline along with the stored expanded presence information for the publisher.

2. The method of claim 1 including providing the expanded presence information to a subscriber when the publisher is online.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the expanded presence information includes an out-of-office message.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the expanded presence information is supplied by the publisher.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the expanded presence information includes information automatically collected from data sources associated with the publisher.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the expanded presence information includes calendar information.

7. The method of claim 1 including providing the expanded presence information to subscribers whenever the publisher'"'"'s presence state changes.

8. A method in a server for providing calendar information of a publisher of presence information to subscribers, the method comprising:

receiving calendar information of the publisher of presence information;

storing the received calendar information in association with the publisher; and

when the publisher'"'"'s presence state changes, providing to a subscriber of the publisher'"'"'s presence information the publisher'"'"'s presence state along with the stored calendar information of the publisher.

9. The method of claim 8 including when the subscriber requests presence information of the publisher, providing to the subscriber the publisher'"'"'s presence state along with the stored calendar information.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the calendar information is provided to subscribers even when the publisher is offline.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the receiving includes receiving from the publisher incremental updates to the calendar information.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the server is a presence server.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the calendar information is automatically extracted from data of a calendaring system of the publisher.

14. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to provide expanded presence information while a publisher is offline, by a method comprising:

receiving expanded presence information from a publisher of presence information;

storing the expanded presence information in association with the publisher; and

when the publisher'"'"'s presence state is offline, providing to subscribers an indication that the publisher is offline along with the stored expanded presence information for the publisher.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 including providing the expanded presence information to a subscriber when the publisher is online.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the expanded presence information includes an out-of-office message.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the expanded presence information is supplied by the publisher.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the expanded presence information includes information automatically collected from data sources associated with the publisher.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the expanded presence information includes calendar information.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 including providing the expanded presence information to subscribers whenever the publisher'"'"'s presence state changes.