windows program "people near me"...?

[?Erin?]

On my Windows Vista computer, I have a program called People Near me... It allows me to sign in, but does nothing else. I'm just wondering, what does it do, and how does it work??

[RR92]

Taken from Microsoft's TechNet:

"People Near Me (PNM) is a new capability of the Microsoft® Windows® Peer-to-Peer Networking platform for Windows Vista™ that allows applications to discover people connected to the local subnet and easily invite them into a collaborative activity. People Near Me provides a common user experience for sending and receiving invitations and application programming interfaces (APIs) for discovering people and publishing information."