Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed whereby the context of user activity can be used to tailor the ambient information system. The method and apparatus use both short-term context such as recent activity and long-term context such as historical patterns to highlight specific content on channels or widgets that are likely to be of most immediate interest to the user. This contextual information provided by the framework can also be used to make intelligent decisions about how to tailor the user experience after a user has interacted with the item in question. Additionally, context information accumulated on one device such as a mobile phone can be broadcasted to other devices to influence the ambient information display application on a second device such as a desktop based on enabling remote access to the local context repository.