USER PRESENCE AGGREGATION AT A SERVER

• US 20070276937A1
• Filed: 05/23/2006
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raghav, Amritansh, Chavda, Ankur, Venkateshaiah, Setty, Rao, Sira P., Shtiegman, Eran
• Granted Patent: US 9,241,038 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• 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 presence aggregation system provides a presence aggregation server that allows for the publication of presence state of a publisher from the publisher'"'"'s multiple endpoints. A presence state includes an availability value and an activity. An activity may include an activity token and/or a custom string. When any one of the publisher'"'"'s endpoints makes a presence state publication on the presence aggregation server, the presence aggregation server generates an aggregated state of the publisher (i.e., the availability of the publisher aggregated across all of the publisher'"'"'s endpoints) and publishes the generated aggregated state to each of the publisher'"'"'s endpoints. The presence aggregation server may also provide the publisher'"'"'s aggregated state to the subscribers of the publisher'"'"'s aggregated state information.

Claims

1. A method in a server system for aggregating presence across multiple endpoints, the method comprising:

providing a collection of presence state publications for a publisher, each presence state publication having an availability value and an activity; and

upon detecting a change in the publisher'"'"'s state,

generating an aggregated state of the publisher from the collection of presence state publications; and

publishing the aggregated state of the publisher.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the presence state publication is a user state publication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the presence state publication is a machine state publication.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the presence state publication is a phone state publication.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the presence state publication is a calendar state publication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the presence state publication is a conference state publication.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated state is published to each of the publisher'"'"'s endpoints.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated state is published to each subscriber of the publisher'"'"'s aggregated availability.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

upon detecting the change the publisher'"'"'s state,

determining an aggregated machine state; and

publishing the aggregated machine state.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the aggregated machine state is published to each of the publisher'"'"'s endpoints.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

identifying the publisher'"'"'s most active machine; and

publishing an indication of the publisher'"'"'s most active machine.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the indication of the publisher'"'"'s most active machine is published to each of the publisher'"'"'s endpoints.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

upon detecting the change in the publisher'"'"'s state,

determining a current activity of the publisher from the collection of presence state publications; and

publishing the current activity of the publisher.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the current activity is a default string that represents the publisher'"'"'s aggregated state.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the current activity is a custom string included in a presence state publication.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

upon detecting the change in the publisher'"'"'s state,

determining an aggregated availability of the publisher from the collection of presence state publications; and

publishing the aggregated availability of the publisher.

17. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for facilitating at a server system aggregation of presence across multiple endpoints, by a method comprising:

providing a collection of presence state publications for a publisher, each presence state publication having an availability value and an activity;

subscribing subscribers to receive notifications of aggregated state of the publisher; and

upon detecting a change in the publisher'"'"'s state,

generating an aggregated state of the publisher from the collection of presence state publications;

sending a notification of the aggregated state of the publisher to each of the publisher'"'"'s endpoints; and

sending a notification of the aggregated state to each subscriber of the aggregated state of the publisher.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the change in the publisher'"'"'s state results from a presence state publication by an endpoint of the publisher.

19. A system for aggregating presence across multiple endpoints, the system comprising:

a component that receives from endpoints presence state publications for publishers; and

a component that monitors the presence state publications to detect a change in a state of a publisher, and upon detecting a change in a state of a publisher,

generates an aggregated state of the publisher from the collection of presence state publications; and

publishes the aggregated state of the publisher.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a presence state publication is received from an endpoint of the publisher over a network.