1. A method of managing a set of collaborative contacts, the method comprising: obtaining identifying text; obtaining a set of candidate contacts from the set of collaborative contacts using the identifying text, each candidate contact including a set of collaboration capabilities, each collaboration capability corresponding to an ability of each candidate contact to be contacted using a unique collaboration tool, wherein using the identifying text seeks a match for a name of each candidate contact and a contact information for each collaboration capability of each candidate contact; requesting an availability status for each collaboration capability of each candidate contact, wherein the requesting sends a request to each candidate contact's collaboration tool corresponding to the unique collaboration tool, and wherein the requesting receives the availability status from each candidate contact's collaboration tool; ranking the set of candidate contacts based upon the set of collaboration capabilities of each candidate contact; and generating a display that includes the ranked set of candidate contacts and each candidate contact's set of collaboration capabilities, an icon corresponding to a most preferred collaboration capability, and the availability status for each collaboration capability.
1. A method of managing a set of collaborative contacts, the method comprising: obtaining identifying text; obtaining a set of candidate contacts from the set of collaborative contacts using the identifying text, each candidate contact including a set of collaboration capabilities, each collaboration capability corresponding to an ability of each candidate contact to be contacted using a unique collaboration tool, wherein using the identifying text seeks a match for a name of each candidate contact and a contact information for each collaboration capability of each candidate contact; requesting an availability status for each collaboration capability of each candidate contact, wherein the requesting sends a request to each candidate contact's collaboration tool corresponding to the unique collaboration tool, and wherein the requesting receives the availability status from each candidate contact's collaboration tool; ranking the set of candidate contacts based upon the set of collaboration capabilities of each candidate contact; and generating a display that includes the ranked set of candidate contacts and each candidate contact's set of collaboration capabilities, an icon corresponding to a most preferred collaboration capability, and the availability status for each collaboration capability. 3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: obtaining a set of selected contacts, the set of selected contacts comprising a subset of the set of candidate contacts; and requesting a collaboration session with each selected contact in the set of selected contacts.