GroupDAV: Another puzzle piece

From the home page of GroupDAV.org:

"GroupDAV is an effort to create a 'down-to-the-earth' protocol to connect OpenSource groupware clients with OpenSource groupware servers... GroupDAV has a very specific focus which is connecting the three popular OpenSource clients - Kontact, Evolution and Sunbird - with the broad range of OpenSource 'groupware' servers."

Work on GroupDAV started in 2004, so it's proceeding slowly. But there is a mailing list with a bit of activity on it. But it's not clear to me what its relationship is to CalDAV. This post, dating from 2005, sheds precious little light on that question.

Vista sync problems prompt some to retreat to XP

Jason Dunn: "Some people are having so many problems with Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) that they're actually leaving Windows Vista and and going back to Windows XP."

More Mac iCal liberation news

Yesterday Ben Brown clued me into NotMac, "a free, open-source utility for using the client-side dotMac services provided by Apple." Interesting that Dave Winer (or someone claiming to be him) contributed $100 toward its development.

This could be the thin end of a wedge that turns Apple's iCal calendaring services into an open standard that could be moved to any non-Apple platform. This might all happen much faster than the prospect of Apple reaching out to sync with non-Apple calendars.

In fairness to Apple, the next release of Mac OS X, called Leopard, will also help open up iCal to wider use. Quoting from this Apple developer Web page:

"The Calendar Store lets any application display, create, and edit iCal data."

BusySync gets a SwampDrain point

Gus Mueller, quoting from the BusySync Web site:

"BusySync lets you share iCal calendars with family and coworkers on a local area network without a dedicated server and with full read/write access."

I haven't given any SwampDrain points for a while. BusySync gets +1 SwampDrain point. Now if they could make it work with something on the Windows side, that would be peachy. MonoCalendar might be a good place to start.

The iPhone sync process could be simpler

Apple gets lots of flak for not syncing with non-Apple calendars, but even those who live entirely within the Apple world need simpler sync. Ben Brown writes:

"I don’t like that the iTunes sync does not fire off a chain of child-syncs for related applications. As it is, before I can even connect my iPhone, I have to open iCal and have it refresh all of my calendar subscriptions, then do a manual refresh on my Podcast subscriptions within iTunes. Then, after I connect the phone, I have to do a manual import in iPhoto for my photos. Why can’t that be one step?"