It’s official. A new IETF working group has been formed to attempt to simplify the Calendaring and Scheduling Standards, including RFC 2445, RFC 2446, and RFC 2447 which were released in 1998.
Click here for the full announcement which includes the description, charter, and mailing list.
A xml version of iCalendar was not included in the charter, so we can push a new release of XCAL (XML for iCalendar) faster.
CalConnect.org has just published the RESULTS FROM FIRST RECURRENCE QUESTIONNAIRE
The results further validate the CALSIFY proposal to remove recurrences rules as they stand in RFC 2445 iCalendar. With respect to VEVENT, only 42% supported recurrence rules in general and the number quickly falls below 15% (2 responders) when adding some of the tricky parts, such as, recurrence id, time zones, and ability to cancel a single event within a recurrence.
I was disappointed that the survey received only 19 responses and that it did not include whether the responses came from commercial, custom, or open-source applications. In addition, it did not state if the same vendor may have responded for different versions of their product. I would also be interested to know if the market share covered 2% or 98% of the market.
A new IETF draft was submitted today which defines a SIP binding to iTIP. per the draft "This memo defines two new event packages for calendaring events; the first allows sharing of calendar events and the second of scheduling events related to calendaring. Using these two event packages, we in effect define an iTIP mapping to SIP." Until posted to the IETF it can be found at: http://people.nokia.net/~aki/drafts/draft-niemi-sipping-cal-events-00.txt
The people here are really great. After dinner, I found out my hotel Hilton Euston was closed as it became part of the crime scene for the London Bus bombing. I am not sure of all the details, but after coming back to the hotel, I was escorted through a set of curtains the police put up around the blast into the front entrance of the hotel. The bus was1/2 block in front of me and I think this picture was taken from the roof or upper floor of the hotel. I was able to quickly pack and the hotel staff reserved another room for me and all their other guests at the Hilton Metropol. The Metropol is across the street from the 3rd blast at Edgware Street Station. This means I am now connected with all four blasts. Outside my original hotel, on my commute through Kings Cross #2, by my client site at Liverpool station #1, and NOW across the street from the new hotel #3.
Today as with many people here I re-boarded public transportation. i TOOK A double Decker bus back to Liverpool street and then the underground or tube back to the hotel. (using the Bakerloo stop) The blast was on the Circle Line which was still closed. Work today reminded me again of 9/11 and the anthrax scare – where every suspicious package meant a call to the police. Which is fine.
Most things seem back to normal – people were at work, stores and restaurants and Starbucks were open, public transportation with a few exceptions running again!!
I will be back!!
I am in London this week on business. I have been staying at the Hilton Euston which is right down the street from Russel square is next to where the bus was blown up. On the way to the client site today, I got off at Liverpool station tube station about 20 minutes before the explosion. Steve, one of the team members, I am with was going through the turnstile at Liverpool when he heard the explosion. At first we all thought it was a power surge – and then later heard more details. I recall 9/11 when I was at another client site 3 blocks from the the White House in Washington.
Walked back from Liverpool station to my hotel this evening and found out that my hotel was cordon off and the bobbies did not know when I can get back in. Took a taxi over to another team members hotel and on the way the taxi and about three other cars got caught in the "sterile area" the bus explosion. Chills.
Well it’s my birthday – so I am heading out for a few pints and a good dinner.
I stopped by CFunited as it is only 15 minutes from my house to learn what Project Aardvark is all about. It is the new product being developed by interns at FogCreek Software. I have been following the blog since I evaluated (and later purchased) Fogbugz FogCreek’s bug tracking software.
Project Aardvark is Remote Control Software that works with any version of windows to provide quick support and sold with a day pass. So anyone out there who needs to support their non-technical relatives – you can use the software to take control of their computer instead of trying to give them step by step instructions over the phone.
For ISV’s who distribute software – they should be able to offer better support. They compare their product (favorable) to VNC and Windows Remote Assistance.
The report of the Calconnect.org Roundtable III and Interop is out. On the testing side, three CalDav servers and four CalDav clients were tested. The CalDav testing script was posted to help others who were not there. More on this when the results are posted.
On the technical side, the group is working on a Glossary and several surveys including: recurrence, events, and timezones. Lastly CalConnect is changing the format of the Calsify committee to work better with the recently proposed IETF Calsify Group.
It has been a pretty busy month. One of the highlights for me was speaking at a Gartner Group’s conference, recognizing my consulting work in Business Process Management.
At the conference, I was asked to write about my methodology on collecting and documenting business requirements and project implementation – targeted for BPM projects. Food for thought to expand my blog.
I was also in London and missed the Scoble’s geek dinner London by a day. Oh Well.
The 2nd CalDAV Interop Test Event of The Calendaring and Scheduling
Consortium will take place Wednesday and Thursday, June 1-2, 2005,
hosted by Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Plus, the 6th version of CalDAV has been posted to the IETF –
Changes in -06 per the authors:
a. Reworded section "Recurrence and the Data Model".
b. Removed timezone collection feature.
c. Removed ability for a server to return the Location header on a
successful PUT request.
d. Clarified restrictions on calendar resources contained in
calendar collections.
e. Added preconditions on PUT in calendar collections.
f. Added informative "Guidelines" section, with information on
locking and how to find calendar collections.
g. Moved "Sychronization Operations" section in the "Guidelines"
section.
