When the Zoom link isn't in the email invitation, check the .ics file

 Today I was invited to a Zoom conversation by a major university and in the confirmation email, there was no link to the Zoom. However, they did invite me to add the conversation to my calendar with a .ics file attachment. I opened the .ics with Microsoft Notepad, because I'm not in the habit of adding .ics files to my calendars. Embedded in the text of the .ics file was the Zoom link I needed.

I'm glad .ics files exist, but they are most useful for me to unearth missing Zoom links in confirmation emails.

Dave Thewlis R.I.P., 1942-2025, founding executive director of CalConnect

Not long after I started this blog, I was contacted by Dave Thewlis, who just a few years earlier had started CalConnect, the sole organization focused on improving calendar interoperability. Today, I learned that Dave passed away at age 82 on June 17. I was honored to serve on CalConnect's board from 2012 to 2018, including a stint as chairman. The organization was filled with top-notch technical talent and genuine collegiality.

It is no fault of CalConnect -- nor of Dave's -- that the technology industry never fully embraced the standards they promulgated. The problems this blog and CalConnect identified more than 20 years ago continue, at least in part, due to this lack of embrace. It would be a fitting testimonial to Dave's memory if the industry didn't morph into error-prone AI-powered solutions to calendar interoperability. Sometimes, it takes embrace of true standards and not vendor lock-in strategies. That day cannot come soon enough.

AI commentary on Calendar Swamp's 20th anniversary

Google AI, June 16, 2025: "Calendar sharing between different vendors can be challenging due to compatibility issues and varying permission levels. While some platforms offer limited sharing capabilities with external users, full editing access is often restricted. Sharing calendars across different platforms often requires workarounds like publishing calendars or using intermediary tools."

A word about Skylight

I've seen the ads, heard the reviews. If this is calendar interoperability nirvana, with a dash of AI, it didn't come cheap. The industry failed the rest of us.

Overloaded women need shared calendars but vendors need to step up -- still!

 "One local mum I know says a shared calendar has helped her and her partner both be across their weekly schedule without each having to check in with the other. Another couple of two children organise the extracurricular schedules of one child each, which involves researching, booking and transporting them to it. For this type of organisation to work, they say regular communication is key."

Did you catch the need for a shared calendar? We should demand truly shareable calendars, not calendars that lock us into a particular platform. My message for nearly 20 years has been this message.

TidyCal

This blog has always been about calendar and schedule sharing, but apparently, Calendly pioneered something called the calendar management and scheduling category. Now there's a Calendly competitor called TidyCal. Here's a review. Free to try, $29 for lifetime access. Advanced stuff requires programming skills, and as always, who knows if the API access included today will always be there. History says it will end someday.

That calendar-sharing service you use may be harvesting your personal scheduling data for artificial intelligence purposes

A Facebook friend of mine just posted that "Calendly is now data harvesting for 3rd party AI features. Guess it's time to cancel it."

Read those privacy policy updates closely folks.

CalDAV remains the standard, but compliance still varies

Around the 1:55:00 mark, this week's Windows Weekly podcast hosts discuss CalDAV, but we are reminded that although CalDAV is a standard, complaince various from product to product, and implementation to implemenation, discouraging adoption and use.

David Mills, R.I.P.

I never met David Mills, but like you I've been a beneficiary of his work, which underlies calendar and schedule sharing on the internet, and a whole lot more. Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols just wrote an obituary about David.

Cupla rates five shared calendar apps for couples - you'll never guess who won

I guess it's okay to do this kind of marketing these days. Cupla, which I just posted about, posted a comparison of five different shared calendar apps. Of course, Cupla's own app wins. Your milage might vary. Also, some of these are free AND ad-free. So exactly how do they make money?

A romantic shared calendar for iOS and Android

Romance is in the air - courtesy of a new shared calendar app called Cupla, featured in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. It's $2.50 per person per month. I hope their privacy policy keeps it privacy-safe and ad-free. There's a two-week free trial available. No word on a thruple version.

Long lost and lamented: private, portable calendars

Last Sunday's episode of Ask the Tech Guys (#2006) includes an interesting discussion about the fact that most modern mobile calendars have some sort of cloud component. In particular, Windows users have to use cloud-enabled Outlook to sync with the iPhone calendar. The long-gone, long-lamented Palm Pilot arrangement came up. It predates the cloud and the sync between the Palm Desktop and Palm OS never shared your data with data sellers or brokers. The hosts couldn't name a modern equivalent. (Although, if you have a Mac paired with that iPhone, it's cloud-free calendaring, correct? Anyway, check it out starting at the 1:22:51 time stamp.

A tribute to Dave Thewlis

Dave Thewlis retired early this year as executive director of CalConnect, the Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium, on whose board I serve for several years. Back in January, CalConnect wrote a tribute to Dave. I offer my own belated congratulations to Dave for a lifetime of service to the calendaring and scheduling community, which basically includes all of us.

Tools for time zone management

No sooner do people start talking about sharing calendars and schedules, then they have to deal with time zones. This Wall Street Journal story from February 2023 offers some tips.

Calender privacy 101

From February 2023: The horror of realizing everyone can see your work celandar entries.

Yes there are ways to prevent this from happening!

R,I.P. Ribose

Calendar sharing continues to decline outside of Big Tech silos. I just received an email that Ribose is shutting down on November 1.

More calendar helper - ad infinitum

So email is email and it pretty much works. But calendar and schedule sharing remains something that often requires Buying Something Else.

Google Calendar - Outlook love

I don't use either Google Calendar or Outlook, so I don't care much aboutr this news item from May. But what about you? Is this a breakthrough?

Google Calendar gets improved interoperability with Outlook

iPhone-Android love. But calendaring love?

The Wall Street Journal says it's all love between iPhone and Android. But they left out calendaring and scheduling from this August 2022 story. I bet that's still not so lovey-dovey (unless you use Outlook on both, ugh).

Client-side encryption in Google Calendar

 Will this impact interoperablity? This story does not say.