Network presence indicator for communications management

摘要

To provide telephony-like interfaces (112, 300) to a computer network (100), a computer system has a visual display device that continually displays a network status icon (200) indicating network status information. The icon (200) can have segments (210, 220, 230, 240) corresponding to different communications environments, and the icon (200) and the segments will change some characteristic, such as shape, size, or color, to indicate the presence of some network event or the status of some network parameter. The segments (210, 220, 230, 240) can be assigned to specific context-relevant environments in which various communication partners are represented by objects. Characteristics of each object may be reflected by a spatial relation or relative location within the segment and icon (200). Variation in the presentation of an object is controlled by messaging within the system generally, to reflect a call state of a corresponding communication partner.