Programmable presence proxy for determining a presence status of a user

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided that evaluate a number of different sources of presence information to determine a presence status of a user. The presence status of a user is determined by obtaining presence information from a plurality of presence data stores; translating the obtained presence information from at least one of said presence data stores into a standard format; and determining the presence status of the user based on the obtained presence information. Presence information can also be based on user-specified rules. Presence information is obtained from a number of presence data stores and the presence status of a user is determined based on one or more rules that are applied to the obtained presence information. The rules may include, for example, aggregation rules that determines the presence status based on one or more of the obtained presence information or filter rules that determine who may receive the presence status.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is related to United States Patent Application entitled “Method and Apparatus for Delivering an Electronic Mail Message With an Indication of a Presence Status of a Sender,” (Attorney Docket Number 502063) and United States Patent Application entitled “Method and Apparatus for Delivering a Voice Mail Message With an Indication of a Presence Status of a Sender,” (Attorney Docket Number 502054), each incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to communication methods and systems, and more particularly, to methods and systems that determine the presence of a user based on multiple sources of presence information. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] A number of techniques have been proposed or suggested for determining whether or not a person is “present” at a given device. Herbsleb et al., “Introducing Instant Messaging and Presence Into the Workplace,” Proc...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] The present invention provides methods and systems that evaluate a number of different sources of presence information to determine a presence status of a user. The presence status of a user is determined by obtaining presence information from a plurality of presence data stores; translating the obt

Problems solved by technology

Presence information based solely on login activity, however, can grow stale over time, since a user may remain logged in to an application for several days at a time.

While existing presence awareness systems allow a user to make a more informed decision about how to best communicate with an intended recipient, they suffer from a number of limitations, which if overcome, could further improve the ability of users to efficiently communicate.

In addition, existing presence awareness systems do not support multiple, simultaneous log-ins, such as when a user has multiple devices providing information, such as an office computer and a personal digital assistant, or when a user remains logged in to a service from an office computer while attempting to log in to the same service from home.

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