Tue 13 Dec 2005
Next standards battle: Calendaring
Posted by Sim' under General
One of the next standards battle that will arise is calendaring.
Tools to manage your schedule are already available in most corporate environments, Lotus Notes/Domino, Microsoft Outlook/Exchange … but there has been little development or innovation in this area in recent years - apparently all the attention has been put into email.
So what’s the problem? Don’t the current systems work? Well yes - apparently so, but there are still some things missing - seamless interoperability for starters, plus there is a lack of standards for things like integrating your personal diary in with your corporate diary.
From CNet News.com: Time is of the essence
Tags:No TagsThat’s the impression here at When 2.0, a one-day conference where executives from Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM and Google, as well as a cadre of upstarts, have been discussing what could be the next, albeit somewhat surprising, killer app: calendaring.
In other words, the confab’s list of priorities includes helping you remember your child’s soccer match along with the five scheduled meetings you’re trying to make.
December 14th, 2005 at 6:44 am
If Lotus Notes supported iCal for calendar viewing and updates then the world would be definitely a happier place (at least thru my rose coloured glasses).
This is what I’d love to be able to do:
1. Fire up Evolution.
2. Click update on my Calendar.
3. Using Web Dav, import all of my Notes calendar events.
4. Using Evolution, update those events.
5. Click update again and post my updates back to the Domino server using Web Dav again.
Why? Because there are many programs out there that support iCal and do funky things like allow calendar aggregation, excellent printing options (yay!), palm pilot sync, automatic subscription updates etc. And right now, when my Calendar is in Notes I’ve got 2 options: Notes client or iNotes.
December 14th, 2005 at 8:44 am
Unfortunately, iCal is one of those very loosely defined specifications, and as such - there are some fundemantal compatability problems between calendaring programs that claim to implement it.
It’s a bit like the Web Services standard, where we needed an “interoperability standard” to standardise the standard. *sigh*
Hopefully the IT community can come together and define something more useable and consistent.
December 14th, 2005 at 9:20 pm
I dunno mate, all the standards bickering is bloody stupid and wastes billions $$$.
Well-defined standard or not, I would applaud an attempt on the Notes/Domino side to make the calendar information more accessible, and iCal seems the best way to go.
Anyway, calendar integration is my current axe-grind and so your post was quite timely
Keep up the great work and Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho ho ho ho.