Patent ID: 7107312

Claim:
A method for use in a conference arrangement comprising the steps of: enabling a plurality of participants in a group to participate in an ongoing conference; automatically collecting participation information of each of said participants in said group, by monitoring the states of communication devices associated with said participants and making that information available to all participants; automatically determining which of said participants in said group are currently active in said conference; and dynamically displaying a visual representation indicating which of said participants in said group are active in said conference; wherein different ones of said participants in said group may be in different participation modes at a given point in time, the participation modes including at least an active mode in which a given participant is currently active in said conference and a monitor mode in which the given participant is monitoring said conference but is not currently active in said conference; wherein the step of automatically collecting participation information by monitoring the states of communication devices associated with said participants further comprises monitoring the states of communication devices associated with said participants regardless of whether particular ones of said participants are in the active mode or the monitor mode; and wherein the step of dynamically displaying a visual representation indicating which of said participants in said group are active in said conference further comprises dynamically displaying a visual representation comprising participation history information indicative of which of the participation modes particular ones of said participants have been in at certain points in time.