Patent ID: 8161106

Claim:
A computer-implemented communications system comprising: at least one processor; an activity component for monitoring and tracking activity of an activity initiator, the activity occurring in association with at least one activity domain based on a computer system activity, and generating activity information associated with the activity; a notification component for automatically sending a notification over a communications framework from the activity initiator to one or more users-of-interest as to availability of the activity information associated with the activity, the notified one or more users-of-interest becoming one or more activity-aware users based on the notification; a presentation component that provides a user interface for exposing the activity information to the activity initiator and the one or more activity-aware users independent of the one or more activity-aware users interacting in a more specific way with the initiator, the notification provides an implicit invitation to the one or more activity-aware users to optionally interact with the initiator via the presentation component, the notification maintains an awareness to the one or more activity-aware users of the activity and a content or topic of the activity; and a ranking component for ranking users participating in the activity, activity-aware users and activity domains according to ranking criteria.