Patent ID: 7577743

Claim:
In a system comprising a client, a context management (CM) server, and a network that couples the client to the CM server and includes at least one security facility which prevents the CM server from initiating a connection with the client, the client executing at least one client application that shares a context with another application for a period of time, the CM server executing a context management service to manage the context, the context comprising at least one subject data item usable by the at least one client application and the another application, the at least one subject data item having a set of values comprising a first value corresponding to the at least one client application and a second value corresponding to the another application, a method of facilitating communication between the client and the CM server, the method comprising acts of: (a) establishing a connection, through the network, between the client and the CM server to enable communication between the CM server and the client; (b) employing the connection to transmit one or more communications between the CM server and the client to facilitate sharing of the context by the at least one client application and the another application; and (c) maintaining the connection between the client and the CM server for the period of time during which the at least one client application and the another application share the context.