INTERFACING WITH A SPATIAL VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT

1 - 65 . (canceled)

66 . A method, in a network communication environment in which a user and one or more other communicants operating respective network nodes establish respective presences in virtual locations in which the communicants are represented by respective avatars, the method comprising:

administering realtime communications between the network nodes of communicants who are present in respective ones of the virtual locations;

recording a history comprising a temporally ordered list of presences states of the user in respective ones of the virtual locations;

presenting navigation controls for navigating the user's presence from a current one of the virtual locations in which the user is present to a selected one of the virtual locations in the history.

67 . The method of claim 66 , further comprising:

displaying user-selectable links, wherein each of the links references a respective one of the virtual locations, and the links are displayed hierarchically according to the positions of the referenced virtual locations in a hierarchical model that organizes the virtual locations into a hierarchy of successive levels where each successive level is contained by preceding ones of the levels; and

based on user selection of a respective one of the links, navigating the user to the virtual location referenced by the selected link.

68 . The method of claim 67 , wherein ones of the user-selectable links reference virtual locations that are defined by respective zones of a virtual area in which the zones are arranged in a spatial layout defined by the hierarchical model.

69 . The method of claim 68 , wherein respective ones of the zones are associated with respective graphical representations of physical spaces associated with a building that are demarcated by respective visual geometric boundaries in the spatial layout.

70 . The method of claim 68 , wherein each of one or more of the zones contains one or more respective objects each of which represents a respective interface element for establishing a respective communication channel for realtime communications between respective ones of the communicants in the zone.

71 . The method of claim 70 , wherein a particular one of the zones contains a viewscreen object that has a respective graphical representation in the particular zone and is associated with functionality for sharing renderings of contents of data files between communicants who are present in the particular zone.

72 . The method of claim 67 , wherein ones of the user-selectable links reference virtual locations that are defined by multiple virtual areas, each of the virtual areas is represented by a level in the hierarchical model and is a separate and distinct computer-managed space that comprises a respective spatial visualization and a respective set of one or more zones each of which defines a respective one of the virtual locations.

73 . The method of claim 66 , wherein the presenting comprises depicting a backward control enabling the user to incrementally change the user's current virtual location of presence to preceding ones of the virtual locations in the history.

74 . The method of claim 66 , wherein the presenting comprises depicting a forward control enabling the user to incrementally change the user's current virtual location of presence to successive ones of the virtual locations in the history.

75 . The method of claim 66 , wherein the presenting comprises presenting a placemark control enabling the user to create a placemark that references a particular one of the virtual locations.

76 . The method of claim 75 , further comprising:

presenting the placemark to the user; and

based on user selection of the placemark, navigating the user's presence to the particular virtual location referenced by the placemark.

77 . The method of claim 66 , further comprising:

presenting different views of respective ones of the virtual locations as the user navigates from one virtual location to another; and

based on user input, creating a placemark comprising an image of a current one of the views and a reference to a respective virtual location in the current view.

78 . The method of claim 77 , further comprising:

presenting a placemarks window comprising images of respective ones of the views that have been associated with respective placemarks, wherein each of the images in the placemarks window is associated with a respective user-selectable link that references a respective one of the virtual locations; and

based on user selection of one of the links in the placemarks window, automatically displaying a current view of the respective virtual location referenced by the selected link.

79 . The method of claim 78 , wherein at least one of the images presented in the placemarks window corresponds to a live visualization depicting realtime interactions of communicants in the corresponding virtual location.

80 . The method of claim 79 , wherein the virtual locations are defined by one or more virtual areas each of which is associated with a respective spatial graphical representation, and the views show respective ones of the communicants' avatars in respective ones of the graphical representations of the one or more virtual areas in their respective virtual locations of presence.

81 . The method of claim 66 , further comprising depicting a home button that is associated with a respective one of the virtual locations, and based on user selection of the home button navigating the user's presence from a particular one of the virtual locations in which the user currently is present to the respective virtual location associated with the home button.

82 . The method of claim 81 , further comprising:

automatically establishing a network connection between the user and another communicant who is present in the particular virtual location; and

based on user selection of the home button, automatically disconnecting the network connection between the user and the other communicant who is present in the particular virtual location.

83 . The method of claim 66 , further comprising presenting a leave button in association with a particular one of the zones in which the user currently is present and, based on a user selection of the leave button, terminating the user's presence in the particular zone.

84 . At least one computer-readable medium having embodied therein computer-readable program code that, when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to perform operations in a network communication environment in which a user and one or more other communicants operating respective network nodes establish respective presences in virtual locations in which the communicants are represented by respective avatars, the operations comprising:

administering realtime communications between the network nodes of communicants who are present in respective ones of the virtual locations;

recording a history comprising a temporally ordered list of presences states of the user in respective ones of the virtual locations;

presenting navigation controls for navigating the user's presence from a current one of the virtual locations in which the user is present to a selected one of the virtual locations in the history.

85 . Apparatus, comprising

a computer-readable medium storing computer-readable instructions, and

a data processing unit coupled to the computer-readable medium, operable to execute the instructions, and based at least in part on the execution of the instructions operable to perform operations in a network communication environment in which a user and one or more other communicants operating respective network nodes establish respective presences in virtual locations in which the communicants are represented by respective avatars, the operations comprising:

administering realtime communications between the network nodes of communicants who are present in respective ones of the virtual locations;

recording a history comprising a temporally ordered list of presences states of the user in respective ones of the virtual locations; and

presenting navigation controls for navigating the user's presence from a current one of the virtual locations in which the user is present to a selected one of the virtual locations in the history.

86 . A method, in a network communication environment in which a user and one or more other communicants operating respective network nodes establish respective presences in virtual locations in which the communicants are represented by respective avatars, the method comprising:

administering realtime communications between the network nodes of communicants who are present in respective ones of the virtual locations;

depicting a home button that is associated with a respective one of the virtual locations; and

based on user selection of the home button navigating the user's presence from a particular one of the virtual locations in which the user currently is present to the respective virtual locations associated with the home button.