Patent ID: 8356011

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for managing presence information, the method comprising: creating, and storing in one or more computer storage media, collections of publications for a publisher including a first collection and a second collection, each publication having a type and value, wherein the publications comprise a status indicating the availability of a user, and wherein the first collection has a first publication of a first type and a first value, and wherein the second collection has the first publication of the first type and a second value, and wherein the first value comprises more detailed information than the second value; receiving a request from a subscriber to subscribe to the first type of publication within the collections of publications; in response to the request, determining that the subscriber should be subscribed to the first collection, wherein the first collection comprises a highest rank of collections that contains the first publication of the first type, wherein the determining comprises: identifying a membership type for the subscriber, wherein the membership type is of a highest membership priority, wherein the highest membership priority is based on identifying members specifically; determining whether at least one of the collections of publications includes the membership type; and determining that the first collection includes the membership type; upon receiving an update to the first value of the publication of the first collection assigned the highest rank, updating the first value of the publication within the first collection assigned the highest rank by storing the update in the one or more computer storage media; and sending a notification to the subscriber to the first collection assigned the highest rank.