We asked this question of 500 smartphone users to find out what they thought of a unique smartphone application - Live Address Book - designed to share real-time status information, including mobile phone presence (on/off the phone), calendar availability, and physical location information with specified, trusted individuals in their smartphone contact lists and address books. We have transformed this real-time status information into what we call "deep presence," and the three dimensional - status, availability, location - connections enabled by deep presence.

Deep presence is a user's multi-dimensional status. It is derived by aggregating and federating rich presence information from a variety of disparate sources- the phone, social networks, calendar applications, location-based services, and instant messaging networks - all in a single, easy-to-use mobile application. Using this mobile address book can benefit both business users and personal users who want to share their information with others.

Survey respondents liked the idea of sharing real-time status information, especially mobile phone presence, and agreed that a key feature would be "you control what information is exchanged with your contacts." They indicated that they would download the mobile address book because of these features.

In this age of transparency and social networks, where people have a Facebook wall, and LinkedIn and Twitter account ,we asked people - "What level of information are you comfortable sharing?" Their answer: phone presence is most likely to be shared, followed by calendar availability, then location. They are willing to share all levels of information with immediate family, and friends, while others specified what information they would share with co-workers and trusted business contacts. On average, people would invite more friends and family contacts to download the Live Address Book than business contacts.

Even though people want to share status information and be transparent, they also want assurances that privacy is an opt-in service with secure settings to guarantee and safeguard privacy:

• Share what you are up to at any moment, where you are and the best way to reach you
• Protect your privacy: you decide when, how much, and with whom to share your information.

We also discovered that across all deep presence features - mobile presence, calendar availability, and location - the respondents would share deep presence information with family and friends even if not shared with them. Also, they would share with co-workers and external business contacts even if not shared with them. Not surprising since many people are tweeting, texting, and updating their Facebook status in order to let everyone know what they are doing, where they are going, and where they have been.

Here are some quotes from survey respondents about sharing with a Live Address Book:

"I would use it to keep in touch and know what is going on with the people you care about."

"Wow, live updates on your contacts"

"I could know where people are instead of calling to ask them."

"I would have more information on the availability of my contacts."

"Could eliminate voice mail and phone tag"

This Live Address Book concept survey helped us to design and develop 3deep - a mobile application that taps into the smartphone-as well as calendar applications, instant messaging, social networks, and location-based services-to reveal the deep presence of the contacts stored on your phone's address book. Register for the upcoming beta and see for yourself how useful and convenient sharing deep presence can be.