Method and process for signaling, communication and administration of networked objects

A system for supporting a message delivery service, comprising:

• a media gateway to process one or more signals, associated with an incoming call, from a telecommunications switch into a digital representation, and extract from one or more of the signals an inbound address and a message being one of a voice message and a fax message;
• a call management system capable of communicating with the media gateway, to verify that the inbound address is that of an authorized customer of the message delivery service and determine based on the inbound address a set of attributes that indicates a destination for delivering the message, and determine whether the authorized customer can accept the message via an instant messaging protocol;
• and
• a communication server capable of communicating with the call management system and the authorized customer, to initiate the sending of the message to the user via said protocols.

A method for supporting a message delivery service, comprising:

• receiving a first set of incoming call signals that include an inbound address of a customer of the message service and one of an audio and facsimile message;
• determining, based on the inbound address, a set of attributes that describe how to process the message and how to deliver the message to its destination;
• encapsulating some of said set of attributes using a markup language together with the message;
• and
• delivering the message to its destination via a network, using said set of encapsulated attributes to define a path through the network.