Patent ID: 8930472
Filing Date: 2015-01-06
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: in a network communication environment in which communicants operating respective client network nodes connect to different server applications that are hosted by one or more server network nodes, wherein each server application supports realtime communications between co-present communicants in a respective virtual area comprising zones, ascertaining ones of the communicants who are related to a target one of the communicants, determining statuses of the ascertained communicants with respect to the different server applications, generating a contact list comprising a linear sorted listing of the ascertained communicants, wherein the contact list groups the ascertained communicants into respective application groups according to their respective memberships in the virtual areas, and within each application group the contact list further groups ones of the ascertained communicants who are co-present in respective zones of the respective virtual area into respective zones of co-presence and prioritizes the listing of co-present ones of the communicants in the zones of co-presence ahead of non-co-present ones of the ascertained communicants who are present in respective ones of the zones of the respective virtual area in which fewer than two communicants are present, to the client network node of the target communicant, transmitting the contact list, the determined statuses of the ascertained communicants, and indications of realtime activity states of respective ones of the ascertained communicants to display the contact list as a linear array of the application groups containing graphical representations of respective ones of the ascertained communicants in association with respective indications of the determined statuses and realtime activity states of the ascertained communicants, wherein the graphical representations of the co-present ones of the ascertained communicants are grouped together in the respective zones of co-presence to show that ongoing communications between the co-present communicants are occurring, and the graphical representations of the non-co-present ones of the ascertained communicants are shown segregated from the zones of co-presence.