Re: [CODE4LIB] Calendar Data Exchange

2008-09-18 Thread John Fereira

Miriam Goldberg wrote:

I'd go with icalendar. It plays nicely with most major calendar applications.

also, at the risk of sounding like a shill, I'm helping develop a web
app (www.fusecal.com) that'll make it easier for web publishers to get
their calendar information into users personal calendars and keep the
information up to date as the calendar changes.


I'd also take a look at Bedework (http://www.bedework.org)

The problem that I have with Calendar systems is not technical but a 
social issue.  We've got several calendar systems at our campus, but 
other than the Oracle Calendar system that is used to schedule meetings 
I don't use them.


The problem is that, in the case of events, while the person responsible 
to announcing the event might put it into a calendar, they also try to 
advertise the event as far and wide as possible so they post a notice to 
all of the relevant mailing lists that they can think of.  Since I'm on 
a lot of mailing lists, I might get 5-6 copies of an announcement of an 
event I have no desire in attending, then get reminders on those same 
list a few days prior to the event.  Then there may be someone reading a 
mailing list, see the announcement and think that it should be forwarded 
to another mailing list they read (which I'm also on) so I get more 
copies of the event announcement in my email inbox.   Unless it's 
mandated by an institution that events and other calendar related 
announcements should *only* go on the institutional calendaring system 
and not be distributed on mailing lists there really is no point in 
consuming calendar events from the calendaring system if I'm just going 
to get them pushed into my email inbox anyway.


Re: [CODE4LIB] Calendar Data Exchange

2008-09-18 Thread Cloutman, David
Thanks. Again, we're not looking so much for an application, but a
_format_ that we can publish from our existing CMS in such a way that we
could reasonably expect other organizations to import into their
systems. Because it is likely that some of our community partners will
need to create the importing capability, I need the format to be well
documented and easy to build software for. I would prefer something XML
based because one can almost always write some XSLT to turn the data
into something that can work with their system, regardless of target
software or programming language.

What about xCal (iCalendar based XML format)? Does anyone use this
technology? It is possible to do it with Atom Feeds? Other ideas?



---
David Cloutman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Electronic Services Librarian
Marin County Free Library 

-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
John Fereira
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 4:04 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Calendar Data Exchange


Miriam Goldberg wrote:
 I'd go with icalendar. It plays nicely with most major calendar
applications.
 
 also, at the risk of sounding like a shill, I'm helping develop a web
 app (www.fusecal.com) that'll make it easier for web publishers to get
 their calendar information into users personal calendars and keep the
 information up to date as the calendar changes.

I'd also take a look at Bedework (http://www.bedework.org)

The problem that I have with Calendar systems is not technical but a 
social issue.  We've got several calendar systems at our campus, but 
other than the Oracle Calendar system that is used to schedule meetings 
I don't use them.

The problem is that, in the case of events, while the person responsible

to announcing the event might put it into a calendar, they also try to 
advertise the event as far and wide as possible so they post a notice to

all of the relevant mailing lists that they can think of.  Since I'm on 
a lot of mailing lists, I might get 5-6 copies of an announcement of an 
event I have no desire in attending, then get reminders on those same 
list a few days prior to the event.  Then there may be someone reading a

mailing list, see the announcement and think that it should be forwarded

to another mailing list they read (which I'm also on) so I get more 
copies of the event announcement in my email inbox.   Unless it's 
mandated by an institution that events and other calendar related 
announcements should *only* go on the institutional calendaring system 
and not be distributed on mailing lists there really is no point in 
consuming calendar events from the calendaring system if I'm just going 
to get them pushed into my email inbox anyway.

Email Disclaimer: http://www.co.marin.ca.us/nav/misc/EmailDisclaimer.cfm


Re: [CODE4LIB] Calendar Data Exchange

2008-09-18 Thread Ross Singer
I doubt xCal is nearly as widely supported as iCal.

Although not a 'standard', per se, Google Calendar's Atom extensions
are also a possible option, given that anything that Google does has
pretty broad support.

http://code.google.com/apis/calendar/

-Ross.

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 12:25 PM, Cloutman, David
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Thanks. Again, we're not looking so much for an application, but a
 _format_ that we can publish from our existing CMS in such a way that we
 could reasonably expect other organizations to import into their
 systems. Because it is likely that some of our community partners will
 need to create the importing capability, I need the format to be well
 documented and easy to build software for. I would prefer something XML
 based because one can almost always write some XSLT to turn the data
 into something that can work with their system, regardless of target
 software or programming language.

 What about xCal (iCalendar based XML format)? Does anyone use this
 technology? It is possible to do it with Atom Feeds? Other ideas?



 ---
 David Cloutman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Electronic Services Librarian
 Marin County Free Library

 -Original Message-
 From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
 John Fereira
 Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 4:04 AM
 To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
 Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Calendar Data Exchange


 Miriam Goldberg wrote:
 I'd go with icalendar. It plays nicely with most major calendar
 applications.

 also, at the risk of sounding like a shill, I'm helping develop a web
 app (www.fusecal.com) that'll make it easier for web publishers to get
 their calendar information into users personal calendars and keep the
 information up to date as the calendar changes.

 I'd also take a look at Bedework (http://www.bedework.org)

 The problem that I have with Calendar systems is not technical but a
 social issue.  We've got several calendar systems at our campus, but
 other than the Oracle Calendar system that is used to schedule meetings
 I don't use them.

 The problem is that, in the case of events, while the person responsible

 to announcing the event might put it into a calendar, they also try to
 advertise the event as far and wide as possible so they post a notice to

 all of the relevant mailing lists that they can think of.  Since I'm on
 a lot of mailing lists, I might get 5-6 copies of an announcement of an
 event I have no desire in attending, then get reminders on those same
 list a few days prior to the event.  Then there may be someone reading a

 mailing list, see the announcement and think that it should be forwarded

 to another mailing list they read (which I'm also on) so I get more
 copies of the event announcement in my email inbox.   Unless it's
 mandated by an institution that events and other calendar related
 announcements should *only* go on the institutional calendaring system
 and not be distributed on mailing lists there really is no point in
 consuming calendar events from the calendaring system if I'm just going
 to get them pushed into my email inbox anyway.

 Email Disclaimer: http://www.co.marin.ca.us/nav/misc/EmailDisclaimer.cfm



Re: [CODE4LIB] Simulating off-campus for testing

2008-09-18 Thread Samuel Liston
Just getting a DSL line is pretty cheap.  Using a DSL like to test lets
you remove a lot more of your network from the equation than vpn'ing out
or tunneling stuff over tor.  Plus if your main connection out ever went
down (not that _yours_ would, but that might factor into the decision
making process for smaller institutions) you could get out via DSL.
 
A previous employer had a couple EVDO cards/dongles for laptops to
fulfill the same goals -- external testing and emergency access.
 
Samuel Liston
Library Technology Analyst, Oceanside PL
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
desk: 760-435-5628
cell: 760-521-4065