SHARED VIRTUAL AREA COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT BASED APPARATUS AND METHODS

• US 20090254843A1
• Filed: 04/03/2009
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sococo, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Social Communications Company
• Inventors: Van Wie, David, Brody, Paul J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,191,001 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/757
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/157 defining a virtual conference space and using avatars or agents computer conference optimisation or adaptation H04L12/1827

Abstract

Improved systems and methods for navigating and interacting in virtual communication environments. At least some of these systems and methods provide a framework that includes one or more virtual areas and supports realtime communications between the communicants. At least some of these systems and methods provide an interface that includes navigation controls that enable a user to navigate virtual areas and interaction controls that enable the user to interact with other communicants in the one or more virtual areas.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining interaction options from results of querying at least one database comprising interaction records describing respective interactions of a user in a virtual communication environment comprising virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and other communicants, wherein each of the interaction records comprises a respective place attribute value that identifies a respective one of the virtual areas in which a respective one of the interactions occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction in the respective virtual area;

on a display, presenting a user interface comprising graphic representations of the interaction options in association with a respective set of one or more user-selectable controls; and

in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a respective one of the user-selectable controls, initiating an interaction of the user in the virtual communication environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises ascertaining as respective ones of the interaction options one or more of the other communicants with whom the user has interacted in the virtual communication environment, and the presenting comprises displaying in the user interface a respective graphic representation of each of the ascertained other communicants in association with at least one respective user-selectable control for interacting with the respective other communicant.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the ascertaining comprises identifying as respective ones of the interaction options one or more of the other communicants with whom the user has interacted in a particular one of the virtual areas, and the presenting comprises displaying the graphic representations of the identified other communicants in association with a graphic representation of the particular virtual area.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the identifying comprises generating a query on the interaction records, and the query comprises an identifier of the user and an identifier of the particular virtual area.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the displaying comprises displaying the respective graphic representations of the identified other communicants in an array adjacent the graphic representation of the particular virtual area and sorted based on a ranking of the identified other communicants that is derived from an evaluation of the interaction records describing the interactions between the user and the respective ones of the identified other communicants.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the initiating comprises moving a graphic representation of the user into a particular one of the virtual areas in response to the user'"'"'s selection of one of the graphic representations of the other communicants who has presence in the particular virtual area.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the graphic representation of a particular one the other communicants, the initiating comprises transmitting to the particular other communicant an invitation to join the user in a particular one of the virtual areas in which the user has presence.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein

in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the graphic representation of a particular one the other communicants, displaying in association with the selected graphic representation a view of a location in which the particular other communicant has a presence.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising

in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the graphic representation of the particular other communicant, launching a client software application enabling realtime interaction between the user and the particular other communicant in the location in which the particular other communicant has a presence.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the launching of the client software application connects the user to a network video game.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises ascertaining as respective ones of the interaction options one or more of the virtual areas in which the user has interacted, and the presenting comprises displaying in the user interface a respective graphic representation of each of the ascertained virtual areas in association with at least one user-selectable control for interacting with the respective virtual area.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the displaying comprises displaying the respective graphic representations of the ascertained virtual areas in an array that is sorted based on a ranking of the ascertained virtual areas that is derived from an evaluation of the interaction records describing the interactions between the user and the respective ones of the ascertained virtual areas.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the initiating comprises moving a graphic representation of the user into a particular one of the virtual area in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the graphic representations of the particular virtual area.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the displaying comprises for each of one or more of the ascertained virtual areas

displaying a respective two-dimensional graphic representation the virtual area, and

depicting in the respective two-dimensional graphic representation a respective graphic representation of each of the communicants that has presence in the virtual area.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the respective graphic representations of the communicants provides context information from which the user can infer a respective activity currently performed by the respective other communicant in the respective virtual area.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the context information comprises one or more of:

information describing respective positions of the one or more other communicants in terms of virtual area identifiers;

information describing respective locations of the one or more other communicants within the virtual area; and

information describing respective orientations of the one or more other communicants.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the presenting comprises presenting in association with each of the graphic representations of the ascertained virtual areas at least one user-selectable control that enables the user to establish a presence in the respective virtual area.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting comprises displaying a graphic representation of a particular one of the virtual areas in which the user has presence.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the ascertaining comprises identifying as respective ones of the interaction options one or more of the other communicants with whom the user has interacted in the particular virtual area, and the presenting comprises displaying respective graphic representations of the identified other communicants in an array adjacent the graphic representation of the particular virtual area and sorted based on a ranking of the identified other communicants that is derived from an evaluation of the interaction records describing the interactions between the user and the respective ones of the identified other communicants.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the ascertaining further comprises ascertaining as respective ones of the interaction options one or more of the virtual areas in which the user has interacted, and the presenting comprises displaying the respective graphic representations of the ascertained virtual areas in an array adjacent the graphic representation of the particular virtual area and sorted based on a ranking of the ascertained virtual areas that is derived from an evaluation of the interaction records describing the interactions between the user and the respective ones of the ascertained virtual areas.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving a realtime data stream comprising data relating to realtime activity occurring in the particular virtual area, and wherein the displaying comprises displaying in the graphic representation of the particular virtual area a graphic representation of the realtime activity derived from the received realtime data stream.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising, on the display depicting a respective graphic representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area, wherein the depicting comprises changing a particular one of the graphic representations of a particular one of the communicants in response to receipt of a realtime data stream from the network node associated with the particular communicant.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the particular graphic representation corresponds to a two-dimensional presence icon, and the changing comprises displaying different visualizations of the presence icon while the realtime data stream is being received.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the displaying comprises alternately displaying two different visualizations of the presence icon at a fixed rate while the realtime data stream is being received.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the displaying comprises displaying the graphic representation of the particular virtual area in a corner of a desktop interface window on the display.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein

in response to a determination that there is one or more files associated with a particular virtual area, displaying in association with the graphic representation of the particular virtual an iconographic indication of at least one data file.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein a common one of the virtual areas contains the particular virtual area and at least one other one of the virtual areas in accordance with a hierarchical arrangement of the virtual areas, and

further comprising, presenting in the user interface a visualization control having a first visualization mode in which the graphic representation of the particular virtual area is displayed alone and a second visualization mode in which graphic representations of all of the virtual areas contained by the common virtual area are displayed in a spatial layout.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein the displaying of the graphic representation of the particular virtual area comprises importing a realtime data stream feed describing a current state of the particular virtual area.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the importing comprises importing a map of an online game environment comprising the particular virtual area.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the importing comprises importing the realtime data stream feed from a third party server.

31. The method of claim 18, further comprising depicting a respective graphic representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the particular virtual area, and automatically moving one or more of the graphic representations of the communicants in the virtual area in accordance with an instruction that is executed in response to satisfaction of a specific condition.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the specific condition relations to at least one of positions of the graphic representations of the communicants in relation to one another, positions of the graphic representations of the communicants in the particular virtual area, and a change of state of the particular virtual area.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising, on the display presenting an alert interface comprising a description of a meeting in a particular one of the virtual areas, wherein the alert interface comprises a user-selectable control, and further comprising establishing a presence of the user in the particular virtual area in response to user selection of the control.

34. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:

determining interaction options from results of querying at least one database comprising interaction records describing respective interactions of a user in a virtual communication environment comprising virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and other communicants, wherein each of the interaction records comprises a respective place attribute value that identifies a respective one of the virtual areas in which a respective one of the interactions occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction in the respective virtual area;

on a display, presenting a user interface comprising graphic representations of the interaction options in association with a respective set of one or more user-selectable controls; and

in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a respective one of the user-selectable controls, initiating an interaction of the user in the virtual communication environment.

35. Apparatus, comprising:

a display;

a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and

a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising

determining interaction options from results of querying at least one database comprising interaction records describing respective interactions of a user in a virtual communication environment comprising virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and other communicants, wherein each of the interaction records comprises a respective place attribute value that identifies a respective one of the virtual areas in which a respective one of the interactions occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction in the respective virtual area;

on the display, presenting a user interface comprising graphic representations of the interaction options in association with a respective set of one or more user-selectable controls; and

in response to the user'"'"'s selection of a respective one of the user-selectable controls, initiating an interaction of the user in the virtual communication environment.

36. A method, comprising:

on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants;

on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants;

establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area in response to input received from the user via the user-selectable controls; and

on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area, wherein the depicting comprises rendering each of the respective graphic representations of the communicants in a respective position in the virtual area and with a three-dimensional spherical body element supporting a directional graphic sight element that has a variable orientation indicating a direction of attentional focus of the user in the virtual area.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the graphic sight element denotes a line of sight.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the rendering comprises rendering each of the respective graphic representations of the communicants with the graphic sight element denoting a pair of eyes.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the rendering comprises depicting an interaction of each of the body elements with virtual light projected from a respective location in the virtual area.

40. A method, comprising:

on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants;

on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants, wherein the presenting comprises displaying an immersion control interface enabling the user to select a level of interaction with the particular virtual area from a set of different interaction levels;

establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area in response to input received from the user via the user-selectable controls; and

on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the immersion control interface enables the user to change the level of interaction by selectively changing between ones of a three-dimensional graphic interface mode of interaction with the virtual area, a two-dimensional graphic interface mode of interaction with the virtual area, and a non-graphic interface mode of interaction with the virtual area.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein:

in the three-dimensional graphic interface mode of interaction, the depicting comprises depicting the respective graphic representations of the communicants as three-dimensional avatars;

in the two-dimensional graphic interface mode of interaction, the depicting comprises depicting the respective graphic representations of the communicants as two-dimensional sprites; and

in the non-graphic interface mode, the depicting of the respective graphic representations of the communicants is omitted.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein the displaying comprises displaying the representation of the virtual area as a persistent substantially transparent interface that depicts the graphic representations of the communicants in their respective realtime positions in the virtual area.

44. The method of claim 40, wherein the immersion control interface comprises a user-selectable slider control having different positions that correspond to respective ones of the different interaction levels.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the slider control is movable along an axis of a tapered immersion level indicator having a width that is transverse to the axis and decreases along the axis from a first end to a second end, and the level of immersion decreases as the slider control is moved from the first end to the second end.

46. A method, comprising operating a processor to perform operations comprising:

associating place attribute values with realtime interactions of a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communication environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the user and the other communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each interaction involving a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective place attribute value that identifies the virtual area in which the interaction occurred and one or more communicant identifier attribute values that identify respective ones of the communicants that participated in the interaction; and

interfacing the user and the other communicants to the virtual communication environment based on the associated place attribute values.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the generating comprises incorporating in each of the interaction records start and end times of the respective interaction.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein the generating comprises incorporating in each interaction record an identification of any data streams shared during the respective interaction.

49. The method of claim 46, wherein the generating comprises incorporating in each interaction record any hierarchical information relating where the respective interaction occurred to a larger domain.

50. The method of claim 46, wherein each place identifier value identifies a respective one of the virtual areas within the virtual communication environment either by uniquely naming the respective virtual area or by describing a unique address of the respective virtual area

51. The method of claim 46, wherein the interfacing comprises querying the interaction records in response to requests received from requesting ones of the network nodes, and transmitting results of the querying to the requesting ones of the network nodes.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the querying comprises querying the interaction records for one or more of the other communicants with whom the user has interacted in the virtual communication environment, and the transmitting comprises transmitting a list of identified ones of the other communicants with whom the user has interacted.

53. The method of claim 52, further comprising ranking the identified other communicants based on an evaluation of the interaction records describing the interactions between the user and the respective ones of the identified other communicants, and ordering the identified ones of the other communicants in the list by rank.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the ranking comprises determining a respective relevance score for each of the other communicants based on at least one statistic derived from the interaction records, and the ordering comprises ordering the identified ones of the other communicants in the list in an order reflecting the respective relevance scores.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the relevance scores measure frequency of interaction between the user and ones of the other communicants.

56. The method of claim 54, wherein the relevance scores measure recentness of interaction between the user and ones of the other communicants.

57. The method of claim 51, wherein the querying comprises querying the interaction records for one or more of the virtual areas in which the user has interacted, and the transmitting comprises transmitting a list of identified ones of the virtual areas in which the user has interacted.

58. The method of claim 57, further comprising ranking the identified virtual areas based on an evaluation of the interaction records describing the interactions between the user and the respective ones of the identified virtual areas, and ordering the identified ones of the virtual areas in the list by rank.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the ranking comprises determining a respective relevance score for each of the virtual areas based on at least one statistic derived from the interaction records, and the ordering comprises ordering the identified ones of the virtual areas in the list in an order reflecting the respective relevance scores.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein the relevance scores measure frequency of interaction between the user and ones of the other virtual areas.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein the relevance scores measure recentness of interaction between the user and ones of the other virtual areas.

62. The method of claim 46, wherein the interfacing comprises establishing a respective presence of the user in a particular one of the virtual areas based on at least one statistic derived from the interaction records.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the establishing comprises establishing the respective presence of the user in the particular virtual area based on the user'"'"'s frequency of interaction in the particular virtual area.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the establishing comprises:

in response to a determination that the user'"'"'s frequency of interaction in the particular virtual area meets a specified threshold level, automatically establishing the respective presence of the user in the particular virtual area; and

in response to a determination that the user'"'"'s frequency of interaction in the particular virtual area fails to meet the specified threshold level, requiring confirmation by an authorized communicant before establishing the respective presence of the user in the particular virtual area.

65. The method of claim 46, wherein the associating comprises associating a respective current location attribute value with each of the communicants.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein the interfacing comprises selectively enabling the user and the other communicants to access a resource based on the respective current location attribute values in accordance with at least one governance rule.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the enabling comprises comparing the respective current location attribute values in relation to a zone that is associated with the governance rule by a virtual area specification comprising a description of geometric elements of the virtual area.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the governance rule describes criteria for accessing the resource.

69. The method of claim 67, wherein the governance rule describes a scope of access to the resource.

70. The method of claim 67, wherein the governance rule describes one or more consequences of access to the resource.

71. The method of claim 46, further comprising storing the interaction records on at least one computer-readable medium.

72. A method, comprising:

at a predetermined time, presenting on a display an invitation to join a meeting that is scheduled to occur in a virtual area of a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes, and a control for accepting the invitation;

in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the control, establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area; and

on the display, depicting a representation of a virtual area and a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

73. A method, comprising:

on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes;

on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants;

on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has a presence in the virtual area, wherein the depicting comprises determining respective locations of the respective graphical representations of the communicants in the virtual area based on respective realtime differential motion streams that describe movement of the respective graphical representations of the communicants in the virtual area and are received from the network nodes, and automatically repositioning at least a particular one of the graphic representations of the communicants based on at least one of the determined position of the particular graphic representation in the virtual area and proximity of the particular graphic representation to at least one other graphic representation of the communicants in the virtual area.

74. A method, comprising:

on a display, displaying a representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a user and other communicants;

on the display, presenting user-selectable controls that enable the user to manage interactions with the virtual area and ones of the other communicants, wherein the user-selectable controls comprise a modification control that enables the user to initiate a modification of the virtual area on-demand;

establishing a respective presence of the user in the virtual area in response to input received from the user via the user-selectable controls; and

on the display, depicting a respective graphical representation of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

75. The method of claim 74, further comprising

in response to the user'"'"'s selection of the modification control, modifying a specification of geometric elements of the virtual area.

76. The method of claim 75, wherein the modifying comprises changing the specification to add a new region to the virtual area.

77. The method of claim 75, wherein the modifying comprises changing the specification to remove an existing region of the virtual area.

78. The method of claim 75, wherein the modification control is associated with a wall of the virtual area, and the modifying is performed in response to receipt of a command from the user to select the wall of the virtual area.

79. A method, comprising operating a processor to perform operations comprising:

associating place attribute values with data files received from communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communications environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each of the data files shared by a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective one of the place attribute values that identifies the respective virtual area in which the data file was shared and a respective data file identifier that identifies the respective data file; and

managing sharing of the data files between the communicants based on the associated place attribute values.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein the generating comprises, for each of the shared data files, generating the respective interaction record comprising an identification of each of the communicants in the respective virtual area, and a respective file location identifier that identifier a respective location of the respective data file in physical memory.

81. The method of claim 79, wherein the associating is performed with respect to a particular one of the data files in response to a request from one of the network nodes to share the particular data file on a viewscreen object in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas.

82. The method of claim 79, wherein the associating is performed with respect to a particular one of the data files in response to a request from one of the network nodes to share the particular data file via a server process running an application program that is shared by multiple ones of the communicants in connection with a respective one of the one or more virtual areas.

83. The method of claim 79, wherein the associating is performed with respect to a particular one of the data files in response to a request from one of the network nodes to upload the particular data file to a file store associated with a respective one of the one or more virtual areas.

84. The method of claim 79, wherein the associating is performed with respect to a particular one of the data files in response to a request from one of the network nodes to transmit a respective copy of the data file to each of the other communicants who has a respective presence in a particular one of the one or more virtual areas.

85. The method of claim 79, further comprising storing a persistent copy of a particular one of the data files in association with a particular one of the one or more virtual areas in response to a request from one of the network nodes to share the particular data file in connection with the particular virtual area.

86. The method of claim 85, wherein the managing comprises managing sharing of the particular data file in accordance with at least one governance rule associated with the particular virtual area.

87. The method of claim 86, wherein the governance rule specifies at least one of:

a criterion for accessing the particular data file;

a scope of access to the particular data file; and

a consequential task to be performed in response to communicant access to the particular data file.

88. The method of claim 86, wherein the particular virtual area is associated with a governance mesh that associates one or more zones of the virtual area with a digital rights management function that is triggered in response to an action by one of the communicants that involves crossing a boundary of the governance mesh, and the digital rights management function specifies one of more criteria that must be met in order to permit the action.

89. The method of claim 88, wherein the digital rights management function specifies that any of the communicants who is permitted to enter the particular virtual area also is permitted to perform one or more permitted actions on any of the data files that are associated with the particular virtual area.

90. The method of claim 89, wherein the one or more permitted actions comprise:

manipulating the particular data file;

viewing the particular data file;

downloading the particular data file;

deleting the particular data file;

modifying the particular data file; and

re-uploading the particular data file.

91. The method of claim 79, wherein the managing comprises querying the interaction records.

92. The method of claim 91, wherein the querying is specified by a data file identification syntax comprising //hostname:

dbname “

query”

, //hostname is a string of symbols that is uniquely associated with a particular computer, dbname is an identifier of a particular database on the particular computer, and “

query”

is a string of symbols that has relational database semantics.

93. The method of claim 92, wherein the relational database semantics has a schema comprising bit fields for one or more time attribute values that identify one or more times, one or more place attribute values that identify one or more of the virtual areas, and a source attribute value that identifies a source of a data file.

94. The method of claim 91, wherein the querying comprises querying the interaction records based on one or more of:

a time attribute value associated with one or more of the data files;

a place attribute value associated with one or more of the data files; and

a communicant identifier associated with one or more of the data files.

95. The method of claim 91, wherein the managing comprises retrieving a particular one of the data files based on results of the query.

96. The method of claim 95, wherein the retrieving comprises transmitting a storage location identifier associated with the particular data file to a respective one of the network nodes that initiated the querying.

97. The method of claim 95, wherein the managing comprises transmitting information derived from one or more of the interaction records identified in a result of the querying to a respective one of the network nodes that initiated the querying.

98. The method of claim 79, wherein the managing comprises storing on at least one computer-readable medium a multitrack recording of realtime data streams of different data types that are transmitted over one or more network connections with one or more of the network nodes in connection with an interaction of one or more of the communicants in a particular one of the virtual areas, and the multitrack recording comprises a respective track for each of the different data types of the realtime data streams.

99. The method of claim 98, wherein the associating comprises generating a respective one of the interaction records comprising a respective one of the place attribute values that identifies the particular virtual area, and a respective data file identifier that identifies the multitrack recording.

100. The method of claim 98, wherein the storing is initiated in response to a request from one of the communicants involved in the interaction to initiate the storing of the multitrack recording.

101. The method of claim 100, wherein the storing is terminated in response to a request from one of the communicants involved in the interaction to stop the storing of the multitrack recording.

102. The method of claim 101, wherein the requests to initiate and stop the storing of the multitrack recording are received in connection with a communicant-selectable recording object in the particular virtual area.

103. The method of claim 98, wherein the storing comprises storing in the multitrack recording all realtime data streams that are associated with the interaction in the particular virtual area.

104. The method of claim 103, wherein the storing comprises storing in the multitrack recording any realtime data stream type involved in the interaction including all audio, motion, and chat realtime data streams.

105. The method of claim 98, wherein the storing is performed in accordance with a recording rule described in a specification of the particular virtual area, and the specification comprises a description of geometric elements of the particular virtual area.

106. The method of claim 98, wherein the managing comprises respectively transmitting the realtime data streams of the multitrack recording to a particular one of the network nodes as separable data streams that are individually manipulable by the particular network node.

107. The method of claim 106, wherein the transmitting is performed in response to a request from the particular network node to access the multitrack recording.

108. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:

associating place attribute values with data files received from communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communications environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each of the data files shared by a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective one of the place attribute values that identifies the respective virtual area in which the data file was shared and a respective data file identifier that identifies the respective data file; and

managing sharing of the data files between the communicants based on the associated place attribute values.

109. Apparatus, comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and

a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising

associating place attribute values with data files received from communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communications environment comprising one or more virtual areas and supporting realtime communications between the communicants, wherein the associating comprises, for each of the data files shared by a respective one of the communicants in a respective one of the one or more virtual areas, generating a respective interaction record comprising a respective one of the place attribute values that identifies the respective virtual area in which the data file was shared and a respective data file identifier that identifies the respective data file; and

managing sharing of the data files between the communicants based on the associated place attribute values.

110. A method, comprising:

on a display, displaying a graphic representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a first communicant operating on a first network node and a second communicant operating on a second network node;

on the first network node;

executing a first software application that establishes a first realtime data stream connection between the first and second network nodes, wherein the first realtime data stream connection is associated with a reference to the virtual area,

concurrently with the execution of the first software application, executing a second software application that establishes a second realtime data stream connection between the first network node and a third network node on which a third communicant is operating, wherein the second realtime data stream connection is free of any reference to the virtual area, and

producing one or more integrated realtime data streams from realtime data streams exchanged over the first and second realtime data stream connections.

111. The method of claim 110, further comprising rendering at least one of the one or more integrated realtime data streams on the first network node.

112. The method of claim 110, further comprising transmitting respective ones of the one or more integrated realtime data streams to the second and third network nodes.

113. The method of claim 110, wherein at least two of the realtime data streams that respectively are exchanged over the first and second realtime data stream connections are of a particular data type, and the producing comprises mixing ones of the exchanged realtime data streams of the particular data type on the first network node.

114. The method of claim 113,

further comprising on the first network node,

generating a first realtime data stream of the particular data type,

receiving a second realtime data stream of the particular data type from the second network node, and

receiving a third realtime data stream of the particular data type from the third network node;

and

wherein the producing comprises mixing the second and third realtime data streams to produce a first integrated realtime data stream, mixing the first and third realtime data streams to produce a second integrated realtime data stream, and mixing the first and second realtime data streams to produce a third integrated realtime data stream.

115. The method of claim 114, further comprising rendering the first integrated realtime data stream on the first network node, transmitting the second integrated realtime data stream from the first network node to the second network node, and sending the third integrated realtime data stream from the first network node to the third network node.

116. The method of claim 115, wherein the sending comprises passing the third integrated realtime data stream to the second software application.

117. The method of claim 115, wherein the first and second realtime data streams respectively are generated by first and second instances of the first software application respectively executing on the first and second network nodes, and the transmitting comprises passing the second integrated realtime data stream from the first instance of the first software application to the second instance of the first software application.

118. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:

on a display, displaying a graphic representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a first communicant operating on a first network node and a second communicant operating on a second network node; and

on the first network node,

executing a first software application that establishes a first realtime data stream connection between the first and second network nodes, wherein the first realtime data stream connection is associated with a reference to the virtual area,

concurrently with the execution of the first software application, executing a second software application that establishes a second realtime data stream connection between the first network node and a third network node on which a third communicant is operating, wherein the second realtime data stream connection is free of any reference to the virtual area, and

producing one or more integrated realtime data streams from realtime data streams exchanged over the first and second realtime data stream connections.

119. A local network node, comprising:

a display;

a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and

a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising

on the display, displaying a graphic representation of a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between a first communicant operating on the local network node and a second communicant operating on a remote network node;

on the local network node,

executing a first software application that establishes a first realtime data stream connection between the local and remote network nodes, wherein the first realtime data stream connection is associated with a reference to the virtual area,

concurrently with the execution of the first software application, executing a second software application that establishes a second realtime data stream connection between the local network node and a second remote network node on which a third communicant is operating, wherein the second realtime data stream connection is free of any reference to the virtual area, and

producing one or more integrated realtime data streams from realtime data streams exchanged over the first and second realtime data stream connections.

120. A method, comprising operating a server network node to perform operations comprising:

executing an instance of a client software application in association with a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective client network nodes;

receiving realtime input data streams from respective ones of the client network nodes associated with the communicants interacting in the virtual area;

producing a composite data stream from the realtime input data streams;

inputting the composite data stream to the executing instance of the client software application;

generating respective instances of an output data stream from output generated by the executing instance of the client software application at least in part in response to the inputting of the composite data stream; and

transmitting the instances of the output data stream to respective ones of the client network nodes associated with communicants interacting in the virtual area.

121. The method of claim 120, wherein the realtime input data streams are derived from input device events on respective ones of the client network nodes.

122. The method of claim 121, wherein at least some of the input device events correspond to realtime computer keyboard events.

123. The method of claim 121, wherein at least some of the input device events correspond to realtime computer mouse events.

124. The method of claim 120, wherein the client software application is a document processing software application.

125. The method of claim 120, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the instances of the output data stream in association with a viewscreen object in the virtual area.

126. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:

executing an instance of a client software application in association with a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective client network nodes;

receiving realtime input data streams from respective ones of the client network nodes associated with the communicants interacting in the virtual area;

producing a composite data stream from the realtime input data streams;

inputting the composite data stream to the executing instance of the client software application;

generating respective instances of an output data stream from output generated by the executing instance of the client software application at least in part in response to the inputting of the composite data stream; and

transmitting the instances of the output data stream to respective ones of the client network nodes associated with communicants interacting in the virtual area.

127. A server network node, comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and

a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising

executing an instance of a client software application in association with a virtual area in a virtual communication environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective client network nodes;

receiving realtime input data streams from respective ones of the client network nodes associated with the communicants interacting in the virtual area;

producing a composite data stream from the realtime input data streams;

inputting the composite data stream to the executing instance of the client software application;

generating respective instances of an output data stream from output generated by the executing instance of the client software application at least in part in response to the inputting of the composite data stream; and

transmitting the instances of the output data stream to respective ones of the client network nodes associated with communicants interacting in the virtual area.

128. A method, comprising

establishing a virtual area in a virtual communications environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective network nodes;

creating a respective presence in the virtual area for each of one or more of the communicants; and

transmitting information between a file store associated with the virtual area and a wiki resource in response to input received from a respective one of the network nodes associated with a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

129. The method of claim 128, wherein the transmitting comprises importing information associated with the wiki resource to the file store.

130. The method of claim 129, wherein the importing comprises importing to the file store at least one of a message thread associated with the wiki resource and a link to a data file associated with the wiki resource.

131. The method of claim 129, further comprising associate the imported information with a display object in the virtual area.

132. The method of claim 131, wherein the display object corresponds to a web browser window that displays the imported information in its native format.

133. The method of claim 131, further comprising selecting at least a portion of the imported information designated by a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area, and associating the selected information to a viewscreen object in the virtual area.

134. The method of claim 133, further comprising transmitting to each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area the selected information in association with the viewscreen object.

135. The method of claim 133, further comprising allowing a particular one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area to have editorial control of the selected information.

136. The method of claim 135, wherein the editorial control allows the particular communicant to control rendering of the selected information in association with the viewscreen object and to modify the selected information using realtime input data streams transmitted from the network node associated with the particular communicant.

137. The method of claim 129, further comprising generating an interaction record indexing the imported information with respective references to one or more of:

a place attribute value that identifies the virtual area; and

a respective identifier of each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

138. The method of claim 128, wherein the transmitting comprises exporting information from the file store to the wiki resource.

139. The method of claim 138, wherein the exporting comprises exporting to the wiki resource information associated with the virtual area.

140. The method of claim 139, wherein the exported information is associated with a viewscreen object in the virtual area.

141. The method of claim 140, wherein the exported information corresponds to a data file that transmitted in associated with the viewscreen object to each of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

142. The method of claim 139, wherein the exporting comprises exporting the information to a location in the wiki resource designated by a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

143. The method of claim 142, wherein the designated location corresponds to a message thread of the wiki resource.

144. The method of claim 142, wherein the exported information corresponds to a recording of one or more realtime data streams received from one or more of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

145. The method of claim 142, wherein the exported information corresponds to at least one of:

a data file associated with the virtual area; and

a reference to a data file associated with the virtual area.

146. The method of claim 128, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the information through a web browser application.

147. At least one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed by a computer to implement a method comprising:

establishing a virtual area in a virtual communications environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective network nodes;

creating a respective presence in the virtual area for each of one or more of the communicants; and

transmitting information between a file store associated with the virtual area and a wiki resource in response to input received from a respective one of the network nodes associated with a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

148. Apparatus, comprising:

a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions; and

a data processing unit coupled to the memory, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations comprising

establishing a virtual area in a virtual communications environment supporting realtime communications between communicants operating on respective network nodes;

creating a respective presence in the virtual area for each of one or more of the communicants; and

transmitting information between a file store associated with the virtual area and a wiki resource in response to input received from a respective one of the network nodes associated with a respective one of the communicants who has presence in the virtual area.

149. A method, comprising:

associating place attribute values with realtime interactions of a user and other communicants operating on respective network nodes and sharing a virtual communication environment comprising at least one virtual area and supporting realtime communications between the user and the other communicants, wherein each of the user and the other communicants is associated with a respective object in the virtual area; and

interfacing the user and the other communicants to the virtual communication environment based on the associated place attribute values.

150. The method of claim 149, wherein the associating comprises associating a respective current location attribute value with each of the objects.

151. The method of claim 150, wherein the interfacing comprises selectively enabling the user and the other communicants to access a resource based on the respective current location attribute values in accordance with at least one governance rule.

152. The method of claim 151, wherein the enabling comprises comparing the respective current location attribute values in relation to a zone that is associated with the governance rule by a virtual area specification comprising a description of geometric elements of the virtual area.

153. The method of claim 152, wherein the governance rule describes criteria for accessing the resource.

154. The method of claim 152, wherein the governance rule describes a scope of access to the resource.

155. The method of claim 152, wherein the governance rule describes one or more consequences of access to the resource.

156. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises enabling one or more of the user and the other communicants to initiate a multi-track recording of realtime data streams associated with the virtual area based on selection of a recording object in the virtual area.

157. The method of claim 156, further comprising

in response to the selection of the recording object, recording ones of the realtime data streams selected in accordance with a recording rule described in a virtual area specification comprising a description of geometric elements of the virtual area.

158. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises displaying to the user a representation of the virtual area containing depictions of at least one of the objects currently in the virtual area at the object'"'"'s current location in the virtual area.

159. The method of claim 158, wherein the interfacing comprises querying at least one database for records comprising at least one place attribute value associated with the virtual area.

160. The method of claim 159, wherein the querying comprises querying the database for records comprising the place attribute value associated with the virtual area and at least one communicant attribute value identifying the user.

161. The method of claim 160, wherein the database comprises records describing interactions between the user and one or more of the other communicants in the virtual area.

162. The method of claim 161, further comprising presenting to the user an array of graphic representations of the other communicants associated with the virtual area.

163. The method of claim 162, further comprising determining a respective relevance score for each of the other communicants associated with the virtual area based on at least one statistic derived from the records, and the presenting comprises presenting the graphic representations in an order reflecting the respective relevance scores.

164. The method of claim 163, wherein the relevance scores measure frequency of interaction between the user and ones of the other communicants.

165. The method of claim 164, wherein the relevance scores measure recentness of interaction between the user and ones of the other communicants.

166. The method of claim 162, wherein the interfacing comprises moving the object associated with the user into the virtual area in response to user selection of one of the graphic representations of the other communicants associated with the virtual area.

167. The method of claim 160, wherein the database comprises records describing interactions between the user and one or more other virtual areas in the virtual communication environment.

168. The method of claim 167, further comprising presenting to the user an array of graphic representations of ones of the virtual areas.

169. The method of claim 168, further comprising determining a respective relevance score for each of the virtual areas based on at least one statistic derived from the records, and the presenting comprises presenting the graphic representations of the ones of the virtual areas in an order reflecting the respective relevance scores.

170. The method of claim 169, wherein the relevance scores measure frequency of interaction between the user and ones of the other virtual areas.

171. The method of claim 169, wherein the relevance scores measure recentness of interaction between the user and ones of the other virtual areas.

172. The method of claim 158, wherein the querying is initiated in response to user selection of an interface element associated with the representation of the virtual area.

173. The method of claim 158, wherein the depictions respectively comprise names of the ones of the user and the other communicants represented by respective ones of the objects currently in the virtual area.

174. The method of claim 158, wherein the representation provides context information from which the user can infer an activity currently performed by ones of the other communicants represented by respective ones of the objects currently in the virtual area.

175. The method of claim 174, wherein the context information comprises one or more of:

information describing respective positions of the one or more other communicants in terms of virtual area identifiers;

information describing respective locations of the one or more other communicants within the virtual area; and

information describing respective orientations of the one or more other communicants.

176. The method of claim 158, wherein the displaying comprises rendering at least one of the objects with a position in the virtual area and with an orientation that indicates a direction of attentional focus in the virtual area.

177. The method of claim 176, wherein the rendering comprises rendering the at least one object with a graphic sight element denoting a line of sight.

178. The method of claim 177, wherein the rendering comprises rendering the at least one object with the graphic sight element denoting a pair of eyes.

179. The method of claim 176, wherein the rendering comprises rendering the at least one object with a three-dimensional spherical body element supporting the graphic sight element.

180. The method of claim 179, wherein the rendering comprises depicting an interaction of the body element with virtual light projected from a location in the virtual area.

181. The method of claim 158, further comprising updating the representation in real time.

182. The method of claim 158, wherein the interfacing comprises displaying an immersion control interface enabling the user to select a level of interaction with the virtual area from a set of interaction levels.

183. The method of claim 182, wherein the immersion control interface enables the user to change the level of interaction by selectively changing between ones of a three-dimensional graphic interface with the virtual area, a two-dimensional graphic interface with the virtual area, and a non-graphic interface with the virtual area.

184. The method of claim 158, wherein the displaying comprises displaying the representation of the virtual area as a persistent substantially transparent interface that depicts realtime positions of ones of the objects currently in the virtual area and provides the user with at least one control that is manipulable by the user for controlling one or more aspects of the interfacing.

185. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises establishing a connection to a database containing asynchronous data in realtime, dynamically retrieving asynchronous data from the database over the connection, and presenting representations of the retrieved data to ones of the user and the other communicants that are associated with respective ones of the objects currently in the virtual area in realtime.

186. The method of claim 185, wherein the retrieving comprises dynamically retrieving from the database asynchronous media files having a common set of one or more metadata values.

187. The method of claim 186, wherein the retrieving comprises dynamically retrieving the media files from an online social networking service.

188. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises enabling the user to concurrently communicate with a first one of the other communicants through a first realtime communication application running on the user'"'"'s network node and with a second one of the other communicants through a second realtime communication application running on the user'"'"'s network node.

189. The method of claim 188, wherein the enabling comprises

mixing realtime communication streams generated by instances of the first realtime communication application respectively running on the network nodes of the user and the first other communicant to produce a mixed realtime data stream,

passing the mixed realtime data stream to the second realtime communication application,

generating a realtime output data stream from the mixed realtime data stream, and

passing the realtime output data stream to a second instance of the second realtime communication application running on the network node of the second other communicant.

190. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises

generating a respective realtime input data stream at the respective network node of each of the user and at least one of the other communicants,

combining the realtime input data streams into a composite realtime data stream,

in a client application running on an area server network node, processing a document in accordance with the composite realtime data stream, and

rendering the document in the virtual area.

191. The method of claim 190, wherein at least one of the realtime input data streams corresponds to a realtime computer keyboard output data stream.

192. The method of claim 190, wherein at least one of the realtime input data streams corresponds to a realtime computer mouse output data stream.

193. The method of claim 190, wherein the client application is a client document processing application program.

194. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises multiplexing a single terminal server session of a client application program between ones of the user and the other communicants to enable collaboration on a shared document.

195. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises importing wiki information from a wiki resource into the virtual area.

196. The method of claim 195, wherein the interfacing comprises presenting the wiki information on an interface object in the virtual area.

197. The method of claim 196, wherein the importing comprises importing a file referenced in the wiki information from the wiki resource in response to user selection of the reference via the interface object.

198. The method of claim 197, wherein the interfacing comprises rendering the imported file on a view screen object in the virtual area.

199. The method of claim 198, wherein the interfacing comprises modifying the file being rendered on the view screen object in response to input data streams received from the user.

200. The method of claim 199, wherein the interfacing comprises exporting the modified file to the wiki resource for incorporation into a wiki web page managed by the wiki resource.

201. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises exporting information from the virtual area to a wiki resource for incorporation in to a wiki web page managed by the wiki resource.

202. The method of claim 201, wherein the exporting comprises exporting a file associated with the virtual area to the wiki resource in response to dragging a graphic representation of the file into a graphic representation of an interface to the wiki resource.

203. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises associating a file stored on the user'"'"'s network node with the virtual area in response to receipt of an indication by the user to share the file with ones of the other communicants associated with the respective ones of the objects currently in the virtual area.

204. The method of claim 203, wherein the associating comprises copying the file from the user'"'"'s network node to another data storage location indexed with an attribute value identifying the virtual area.

205. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises receiving from the network nodes respective realtime differential motion streams for controlling movement of the objects in the virtual area, determining respective locations of the objects in the virtual area based on the realtime differential motion streams, and automatically repositioning at least one of the objects based on at least one of the determined position of the object in the virtual area and proximity of the object to at least one other object in the virtual area.

206. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises enabling the user to initiate a modification of the virtual area on-demand.

207. The method of claim 206, wherein the enabling comprises modifying a specification of geometric elements of the virtual area in response to a command for the user to either add or remove a region.

208. The method of claim 207, wherein the enabling comprises modifying the specification in response to receipt of a command from the user to select a wall of the virtual area.

209. The method of claim 149, wherein the interfacing comprises querying at least one database for records based on two or more of place identifying attribute values, communicant identifying attribute values, and time attribute values.

210. The method of claim 209, wherein the associating comprises for each of the realtime interactions, storing in the database a respective record comprising an identification of the particular virtual area in which the interaction occurred, an identification of each of the communicants in the particular virtual area when the interaction occurred, an identification of when the interaction occurred, and a file location identifier for each file shared during the interaction.

211. The method of claim 149, wherein the associating comprises associating a respective place identifier value with each realtime communication between the user and one or more of the other communicants, wherein each place identifier value identifies a respective place within the virtual communication environment either by uniquely naming the place or by describing a unique address of the place.