Contact management in a serverless peer-to-peer system
First Claim
1. A method for managing contact information for use in a peer-to-peer system, the method comprising:
- storing contact information in a contact store on one or more peer computing systems associated with a user entity, the contact store including a plurality of data structures wherein each data structure of the plurality of data structures corresponds to a different other entity of a plurality of other entities, and wherein the content information in the each data structure includes;
a secure unique identifier for the different other entity,a human readable alias for the different other entity, andan indication of at least one property of the different other entity, including at least one of an indication of an authorization of the user entity to monitor the at least one property of the different other entity or an indication of an authorization of the different other entity to monitor at least one property of the user entity, wherein;
the at least one property of a given entity includes presence information and at least one of capability information or objects information;
the presence information of the given entity includes a presence state of the given entity corresponding to an ability of the given entity to communicate with another given entity;
the capability information of the given entity includes at least one of;
an indication of a capability of a configuration of a computing system of the given entity to execute a particular software application, an indication of a presence of a particular hardware component on the computing system of the given entity, or a real-time capability of the given entity with respect to a currently executing software application; and
the objects information of the given entity includes at least one of;
a data object, a file, a structure, a picture, a sound, a description, a meta-data, a name-value pair, information specific to the currently executing software application, or real-time information;
modifying the content information in the contact store to indicate a first set of the plurality of other entities to which presence information of the user entity is to be transmitted by the one or more peer computing systems associated with the user entity to peer computing systems associated with the first set of the plurality of other entities; and
modifying the content information in the contact store to indicate a second set of the plurality of other entities to which presence information of the second set of the plurality of other entities is to be received by the one or more peer computing systems associated with the user entity from peer computing systems associated with the second set of the plurality of other entities;
wherein the first set of the plurality of other entities is capable of being different than the second set of the plurality of other entities.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are described that facilitate the management of contact information, at least some of the contact information related to entities in a serverless, peer-to-peer system. A contact store may store information regarding which other entities of a plurality of other entities are authorized to monitor presence of a user entity. Presence of an entity may generally indicate the willingness and/or ability of the entity to communicate and/or collaborate with other entities, for example. The contact store may also store information regarding which other entities of the plurality of other entities the presence of which should be monitored by the system. A user entity may be able to add contacts to and/or delete contacts from the contact store, for example. The user entity may also be able to modify the contact store to modify which other entities are authorized to monitor presence of the user entity and/or which other entities the presence information of which should be monitored by the system, for example.
57 Citations
14 Claims
-
1. A method for managing contact information for use in a peer-to-peer system, the method comprising:
-
storing contact information in a contact store on one or more peer computing systems associated with a user entity, the contact store including a plurality of data structures wherein each data structure of the plurality of data structures corresponds to a different other entity of a plurality of other entities, and wherein the content information in the each data structure includes; a secure unique identifier for the different other entity, a human readable alias for the different other entity, and an indication of at least one property of the different other entity, including at least one of an indication of an authorization of the user entity to monitor the at least one property of the different other entity or an indication of an authorization of the different other entity to monitor at least one property of the user entity, wherein; the at least one property of a given entity includes presence information and at least one of capability information or objects information; the presence information of the given entity includes a presence state of the given entity corresponding to an ability of the given entity to communicate with another given entity; the capability information of the given entity includes at least one of;
an indication of a capability of a configuration of a computing system of the given entity to execute a particular software application, an indication of a presence of a particular hardware component on the computing system of the given entity, or a real-time capability of the given entity with respect to a currently executing software application; andthe objects information of the given entity includes at least one of;
a data object, a file, a structure, a picture, a sound, a description, a meta-data, a name-value pair, information specific to the currently executing software application, or real-time information;modifying the content information in the contact store to indicate a first set of the plurality of other entities to which presence information of the user entity is to be transmitted by the one or more peer computing systems associated with the user entity to peer computing systems associated with the first set of the plurality of other entities; and modifying the content information in the contact store to indicate a second set of the plurality of other entities to which presence information of the second set of the plurality of other entities is to be received by the one or more peer computing systems associated with the user entity from peer computing systems associated with the second set of the plurality of other entities; wherein the first set of the plurality of other entities is capable of being different than the second set of the plurality of other entities. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A peer computing system comprising:
-
a contact store to store contact information at a user entity associated with the peer computing system, the contact store including a plurality of data structures, wherein each of the plurality of data structures corresponds to a different other entity and includes; a secure unique identifier for the different other entity, a human readable alias for the different other entity, and an indication of at least one property of the different other entity, including at least one of an indication of an authorization of the user entity to monitor the at least one property of the different other entity or an indication of an authorization of the different other entity to monitor at least one property of the user entity, wherein; the at least one property of a given entity includes presence information and at least one of capability information or objects information; the presence information of the given entity includes a presence state of the given entity corresponding to an ability of the given entity to communicate with another given entity; the capability information of the given entity includes at least one of;
an indication of a capability of a configuration of a computing system of the given entity to execute a particular software application, an indication of a presence of a particular hardware component on the computing system of the given entity, or a real-time capability of the given entity with respect to a currently executing software application; andthe objects information of the given entity includes at least one of;
a data object, a file, a structure, a picture, a sound, a description, a meta-data, a name-value pair, information specific to the currently executing software application, or real-time information;a contact manager coupled to the contact store and enabling an application to read or modify the contact information via a set of application program interfaces (APIs), the set of application program interfaces including an add contact API, a delete contact API, an update contact API, a get contact API, an export contact API, an enumerate contacts API, and a get contact from XML data API; and a presence system coupled to the contact manager, a presence store, a capabilities store and an objects store, the presence system configured to transmit the at least one property of the user entity to peer computing systems associated with a first set of other entities authorized to monitor the at least one property of the user entity, and configured to request, receive and store from peer computing systems associated with the second set of other entities monitored by the user entity the at least one property of each member of the second set of other entities. - View Dependent Claims (14)
-
Specification