Ask Slashdot: Open Source Calendaring
buzz lightyear asks:
"I'm trying to find out about developments in RFC2445 -
Internet Calendaring and Scheduling...and RFC2447 -
Internet Calendar Messaging. Can you tell me what the
state of play is regarding these functions? eCommerce is
starting to require such connectivity, irritating though
that may be..and I want to find out where the developments
are, if any. Needless to say some propriatary system will
fill the gap if left open long enough."
There is definitely on-going work in the IETF (www.ietf.org) on Calendaring and scheduling. This page..
r .html
a ndardsProcess.html
http://www.imc.org/ietf-calendar/
..is indeed the key resource. Closely following that is the "calsch" working group's "charter page"..
http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/calsch-charte
Before you run off and start doing any of your own things, I urge you to carefully review the current internet-drafts and RFCs produced by this group as well as review the working group's mailing list archive (which is available via the IMC-hosted page pointed-to above).
~Anyone~ is welcome to participate in the IETF. If you have ideas and cycles to contribute to this avenue, then you're definitely encouraged to get involved.
Note that by definition, IETF protocol standards are OPEN. Implementations are often open-source. For any protocol standard to progress beyond the "proposed standard" maturity level, there must be > 1 ~interoperable~ implementations. See this page..
http://www.KingsMountain.com/LDAPRoadmap/IETFSt
..for info about "IETF Document Series and How Standing is Denoted".
If you've never participated in the IETF and are curious about how to get started, take a look at..
http://www.ietf.org/join.html
http://www.ietf.org/newcomer/index.htm
http://www.ietf.org/tao.html
Jeff
http://www.stanford.edu/~hodges/