Network-aware communications

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a device with a display;

at least one of a device driver or an operating system to detect the device connecting to a network, and to determine an identity of the network responsive to the detecting, the identity of the network comprising at least one of a network name, a network type, a network address range name or gateway information associated with the network; and

a processor configured to:

automatically compose a list of active contacts by selecting at least one contact from an original list of contacts based on the identity of the network and a personal rule set associated with a user of the device;

publish to the display, upon receiving a request, at least a portion of the list of active contacts, while hiding identification of members of a list of inactive contacts included in the original list, and not included in the list of active contacts; and

respond, upon receiving attempted communication from an inactive contact in the original list that is not included in the list of active contacts, to the attempted communication with an automated status message or by rejecting the attempted communication.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a messenger module to receive the active list.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a memory to store the original list of contacts and the personal rule set.

4. A system, comprising:

a first device including at least one of a device driver or an operating system to detect the first device connecting to a network and to determine an identity of the network responsive to the detecting, the identity of the network comprising at least one of a network name, a network type, a network address range name or gateway information associated with the network; and

a second device having a display and a processor configured to:

automatically compose a list of active contacts by selecting at least one contact from an original list of contacts based on the identity of the network and a personal rule set associated with a user of the second device;

publish to the display, upon receiving a request, at least a portion of the list of active contacts, while hiding identification of members of a list of inactive contacts included in the original list, and not included in the list of active contacts; and

respond, upon receiving attempted communication from an inactive contact in the original list that is not included in the list of active contacts, to the attempted communication with an automated status message or by rejecting the attempted communication.

5. The system of claim 4 , further comprising:

a server to store the original list of contacts.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the second device comprises a messenger module.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

detecting a device connecting to a network;

determining an identity of the network responsive to the detecting, the identity of the network comprising at least one of a network name, a network type, a network address range name or gateway information associated with the network;

publishing at least a portion of a list of active contacts to a display of the device, after automatically composing the list of active contacts by selecting at least one contact from an original list of contacts based on the identity of the network and a personal rule set associated with a user of the device, while hiding identification of members of a list of inactive contacts included in the original list, and not included in the list of active contacts;

receiving attempted communication from an inactive contact in the original list that is not included in the list of active contacts; and

responding to the attempted communication with an automated status message or by rejecting the attempted communication.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

receiving, at the device, a request for emergency services from a contact in the list of inactive contacts; and

publishing an alert message to the display, responsive to the request.

9. The method of claim 7 , comprising:

generating at least one of an audio alert or a visual alert when an inactive contact in the original list that is not included in the list of active contacts attempts to establish communication with the device.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the personal rule set comprises:

a set of one or more rules defining a relationship between members of the list of active contacts and the identity of the network as at least one of a named network or a network type.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the personal rule set comprises:

a set of one or more rules defining a grouping relationship between members of the list of active contacts, the grouping relationship established based on content in fields of an address book.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the personal rule set comprises:

a set of one or more rules defining a relationship between members of the list of active contacts and tag information.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the personal rule set comprises:

one or more rules having a hierarchy of precedence.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the network identity comprises an identity of a cellular telephone network.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein network identity comprises a name of a network associated with a range of uniform resource locator addresses.

16. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

publishing a first status indication associated with the user identity to one of the list of active contacts or the list of inactive contacts; and

publishing a second status indication associated with the user identity to the other one of the list of active contacts or the list of inactive contacts, the first status indication being different from the second status indication.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the first status indication comprises at least one of off-line, busy, at home, or at work.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the first status indication comprises one of at work or at home, and the second status indication comprises one of busy or off-line