Re: [Sml] Use case: Calendar availability

[Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>]

Ben Bucksch <[e-mail]> wrote:
    > I noticed that, while trying to schedule an appointment ..., it took us
    > 6 days to figure out when we were both free. It was already challenging
    > for him to check messages, and when he was available, I wasn't, and
    > vice versa. I thought, 'how easy it would be if I gave him the
    > opportunity to check my calendar and see my availability directly.' He
    > could schedule an appointment in no time.

Many calendaring systems will provide a weakly authenticated freebusy feed in
iCS format. (Weakly authenticated: the URL is sometimes random)
Some provide ics and http interfaces.

In addition there are services that will look at your calendar (via OAUTH or
freebusy feed), and then display that nicely to others, and then can via
calendar integrtion book you.  They generally require a fee (or advertising),
and are limited to top 4 centralized calendaring systems.

    > So, I thought about the possibility of integrating this feature by
    > inserting one's availability (from the calendar we already have)
    > directly into the email we are writing. This way, the recipient just
    > needs to click, see when you are free, figure out a suitable time for
    > him, and respond with the exact day and time.

It's a good idea and I want to encourage you to build something.
How much freebusy information can you include?  How many days/weeks in my
future do you include?   What happens as my calendar fills up between sending
the email and you receiving it?

For this kind of thing, what I'd like to be able to do is specify five or six
possibilities and then have you pick one.   Doing that seems to fall straight
into ICS, and not exactly SML itself.

--
Michael Richardson <[e-mail]>   . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting )
           Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide