Patent ID: 7653715

Claim:
A method for aggregating presence information associated with a plurality of computing devices that are associated with a user, the method comprising: receiving from a first computing device a first presence document comprising a first availability level indicating whether the first computing device may receive a communication and a first activity level indicating action in which the user is engaged; receiving from a second computing device a second presence document comprising a second availability level indicating whether the second computing device may receive a communication and a second activity level indicating action in which the user is engaged; comparing the first activity level with the second activity level, wherein the second activity level is higher than the first activity level; based upon the comparison, selecting the first activity level from the first presence document as an aggregate activity level; creating an aggregate presence document, wherein the aggregate presence document includes the aggregate activity level and an aggregate availability level that is the first availability level of the first presence document; and providing the aggregate presence document to a watcher device, wherein the aggregate availability level and the aggregate activity level are sufficient to permit the watcher computing device to determine how to submit a communication to the user.