Providing access to presence information using multiple presence objects

• US 8,291,067 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Veeramachaneni, Jithendra K., Manne, Ramesh, Vyaghrapuri, Ramesh K., Dani, Nishant V., Leung, Kitty L., Parker, Chris G., Gordon, Stephen, Tang, Lan
• Primary Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUI, JONATHAN A
• Application Number:
  US11/772,113
• Publication Number:
  US 20090006566A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,936 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/204
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information

Abstract

An approach is described for maintaining multiple presence objects associated with a single entity. The different presence objects correspond to different respective aspects of the entity'"'"'s presence. Each presence object includes subscriber information and permission information associated therewith. The subscriber information identifies the subscribers that subscribe to receive notifications for a particular presence object. The permission information identifies the users who are entitled to receive notifications for the particular presence object. By virtue of the use of multiple objects, the entity can control access to its presence information with a high degree of granularity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with processor-executable instructions,

receiving a first presence data from a first presence information source, the first presence data including a first presence information describing a first presence relating to an entity in a context of the first presence information source;

receiving a second presence data from a second presence information source, the second presence data including a second presence information describing a second presence relating to the entity in a context of the second presence information source;

storing the first presence data in a first presence object and the second presence data in a second presence object;

storing a respective permission information and a respective subscription information in a respective presence object from the first presence object and the second presence object, the respective permission information identifying one or more users who are entitled to receive the respective presence information from the respective presence object, the respective subscriber information identifying one or more subscribers that subscribe to receive the respective presence information from the respective presence object;

allocating the respective presence object to administer distribution of a respective presence data; and

conveying the respective presence information of the entity to one or more authorized subscribers based on a comparison of the respective permission information and the respective subscriber information of the respective presence object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the respective presence data, via the respective presence object, when the entity is disengaged from the respective presence information source.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the respective presence data describes at least one characteristic of the entity'"'"'s presence in a context of the respective presence information source.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first presence information source and the second presence information source are selected from a group comprising:

an instant messaging application, a social network application, a gaming application, a media consumption application, a calendar application, and a geographical location application.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the respective permission information and the respective subscriber information to automatically determine the one or more authorized subscribers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity, the respective presence information source and the respective presence object are related by a hierarchical structure.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first presence information source is unrelated to the second presence information source.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more subscribers are associated with the respective presence object.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more subscribers are listed in both a permission list generated by the entity and one or more subscribers lists generated by the one or more subscribers.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the conveying comprises conveys information associated with the first presence data to one or more authorized subscribers who are authorized to receive the information associated with the first presence data and conveying information associated with the second presence data to one or more authorized subscribers who are authorized to receive the information associated with the second presence data.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the first presence data from the first presence information source with the second presence data from the second presence information source in response to a received query.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a presence-based infrastructure of an instant messaging system manages at least one or more of publications, subscriptions, and notifications associated with the respective presence object.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first presence information source is external to the presence-based infrastructure of the instant messaging system.

14. A system for a presence-based infrastructure comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory having stored thereon processor-executable modules that are executable by the one or more processors, the processor-executable modules comprising;

a store that stores a plurality of presence data associated with an entity in a plurality of presence objects, the plurality of presence data originated from a plurality of presence information sources, each of the plurality of presence data including a respective presence information describing a presence relating to the entity in a context of a respective presence information source, and stores a respective permission information and a respective subscription information in a respective presence object, the respective permission information identifying one or more users who are entitled to receive the respective presence information from the respective presence object, the respective subscriber information identifying one or more subscribers that subscribe to receive the respective presence information from the respective presence object;

a subscription module that receives the respective subscription information;

a publication module that receives publication data including at least a portion of the respective presence information from the respective presence object in response to a publication event, saves the publication data associated with the respective presence object in the store, and publishes the publish data; and

a notification module that sends a notification to the at least one subscriber in response to the publication event if the at least one subscriber is an authorized subscriber based on a comparison of the respective permission information to the respective subscription information from the respective presence object.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the presence-based infrastructure further includes a query module that processes a query associated with the presence information.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the presence-based infrastructure is part of an instant messaging system and the at least one presence information source is different from the instant messaging system.

17. One or more memories having stored thereon processor-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform actions comprising:

receiving a first presence data from a first presence information source, the first presence data including a first presence information describing a first presence relating to an entity in a context of the first presence information source;

receiving a second presence data from a second presence information source, the second presence data including a second presence information describing a second presence relating to the entity in a context of the second presence information source;

storing the first presence data in a first presence object and the second presence data in a second presence object;

storing a respective permission information and a respective subscription information in a respective presence object from the first presence object and the second presence object, the respective permission information identifying one or more users who are entitled to receive the respective presence information from the respective presence object, the respective subscriber information identifying one or more subscribers that subscribe to receive the respective presence information from the respective presence object;

allocating the respective presence object to administer distribution of a respective presence data; and

conveying the respective presence information of the entity to one or more authorized subscribers based on a comparison of the respective permission information and the respective subscriber information of the respective presence object.

18. The one or more memories of claim 17, further comprising maintaining the respective presence data, via the respective presence object, when the entity is disengaged from the respective presence information source.

19. The one or more memories of claim 17, wherein the respective presence data describes at least one characteristic of the entity'"'"'s presence in a context of the respective presence information source.

20. The one or more memories of claim 17, wherein the first presence information source and the second presence information source are selected from a group comprising:

an instant messaging application, a social network application, a gaming application, a media consumption application, a calendar application, and a geographical location application.