An imaging appliance family is a cooperative system of two or more imaging appliances that are linked together to share images, command and control. Imaging appliances may be linked to each other by introducing the appliances to each other, establishing a communications link, and exchanging appliance information. The appliances may be introduced by a number of different manual or auto-sensing triggers, including buttons and presence detect circuits. Communications may be automatically established in response to the introduction. After communications are established, appliance information is exchanged and the appliances are dynamically configured into a cooperative system. Once linked, the appliances remain logically connected until they are removed from the family.