Shared tags are a good idea, how do we agree on them?

Earlier this month Brad Templeton posted an interesting list of possible tags that could add rich meaning to the events entered in one's calendar:

Here are some levels I think one might set on tagging an external event (or even a personal one) into your day.

• I will not attend this event (usually means it will not be shown.)
• I will not attend but need to keep track of this event.
• The event is canceled.
• I have not made any decision (default behaviour.)
• There is some chance I will attend (perhaps a percentage can be applied.)
• I want to attend, but something may change my mind.
• I plan to attend. (A typical default.)
• I am central to this event (speaking, leading meeting etc.)

This is a neat list. Is anyone working anywhere to standardize such a set of tags, so they may have shared meaning between people?

Musings on Palm and Google

The Palm Foleo, announced today, and Google Gears, being announced tomorrow, both have impacts on the calendar landscape. The Foleo offers a "large screen" cell phone experience, but the initial product doesn't bring cell phones' calendars to the large screen unless they're Web-based. Google Gears will, in time, make Google Calendar truly an "always-on" app by allowing easy offline access.

Palm missed an opportunity to lure back some customers lost to other calendars, or even paper, since using a calendar on a typical cell phone is cumbersome at best, and adoption of Web-based calendars over cell phones is just beginning.

Google still has yet to address growing privacy concerns. For instance, when will Google Calendar users be able to store encrypted calendars? Simply storing them with a secure HTTP connection (https) would be an improvement, wouldn't it?

Google missed an opportunity to address this, but since taking Web applications offline represents such a large step from the state of the art, the world will forgive Google for now.

None of which has much to do with improving calendar interoperability. Generally, I avoid commenting on calendar tech in itself here. But I've been thinking of tweaking the mission of Calendar Swamp from plain "interoperability" to "security and interoperability." Let me know if you support the idea, or if you consider it mission creep.

Whoomp! There it is

Turns out Google Calendar for Mobile Phones was announced a couple of days ago. Thanks to my commenters for quickly pointing this out. I'll have to try it out.

The pressure will be on Google now to provide some kind of true sync to certain phones, particularly the iPhone.

Google Calendar for mobile devices?

Maybe this sync-with-my-native-calendar stuff is a blind alley. Maybe the best way forward is to put Google Calendar everywhere and just finish figuring out how to sync everything else to it. (That is, if you don't mind Google knowing where you are going to be from hour to hour.)

However, listen to Dave Taylor, writing back in January: "Google Calendar, however, is completely incompatible with the [Blackberry] Pearl and any other mobile device."

Gmail has worked fine on my Pocket PC for a while now. I wonder when we'll see Google Calendar on mobile devices?

Any DeskNow users out there?

DeskNow has calendar-sharing server software for Mac, Windows and Linux. It requires Java and MySQL, and before I install all this as well as the trial version, I would be interested in feedback from anyone out there who has tried DeskNow. Better yet, if you've successfully integrated Apple iCal with a Windows Mobile calendar using DeskNow, let me know. Its ability to share calendars behind a firewall is what caught my attention.

Java mobile reboot: Where's the calendar?

I'm not at JavaOne -- too much else to do -- but on first blush, Sun's reboot of mobile Java doesn't talk about calendaring on Java mobile devices, other than an vague reference to "PIM and phone apps." I was hoping there would be a more coherent calendaring (and calendar sharing) story coming out of JavaOne.

Mylo on trial: $349 and no offline calendar?

I'm curious what folks out there think of Sony's new Mylo, a "personal communicator" that draws much of its usefulness through Skype and the Web. Why would anyone pay $349 for a device that doesn't contain an offline calendar? Even the cheapest iPod Nano, at $149, includes an offline calendar. (Okay, yeah, so it's read-only. But that's good enough for now.)

The evening after

So much for the great Daylight Savings Time brouhaha. Now, back to improving calendar interoperability. Too bad the latter didn't get any kind of boost from the former.

Extended DST on Windows? No worries, mate

Just the thing to liven up a Saturday night after the wife and kid are in bed: running the Extended Daylight Savings Time update on my Windows XP and Windows Mobile 5.0 computers. Boy that was fun...not! And according to this Microsoft page, some Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC users weren't able to download the update until February 26. ("We apologize for the inconvenience" says Microsoft.)

Anyway, my update's all done. Now if only it works without a hitch one week from tonight. Good thing I don't demand proof ahead of time. Also a good thing I don't mind changing my time zone twice at the end to make the update "stick" on my Pocket PC, updating my Mobile software, updating my copy of Outlook, updating my Windows XP, and creating a System Restore Point at the very start, because after all the fix messes with my Windows Registry. Sheesh!

Microsoft gets daylight savings act together

There's now a central Web page at Microsoft with detailed instructions on updating Microsoft operating systems to deal with Extended Daylight Savings Time, which begins March 11. About time, so to speak.

USB cables = primitive synch

Dave Winer: "USB cables are very primitive channels for synchronization. Way too limiting." Amen.

Windows Mobile patch for Daylight Savings Time change

Network World has a story this week about the newly-early arrival of Daylight Savings Time on March 11. Over on the microsoft.public.pocketpc news group, they're talking about Microsoft's fix for Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. According to Bill Dougherty, the Microsoft registry fix was intended to be pushed out by carriers: "Most of the carriers, in their infinite wisdom, have neglected to do so. If you rely on your Windows smartphone, you need this fix. Microsoft published the registry fix here. This fix requires you to build a CAB file and then install it. To save you the trouble, I have bundled the CAB file for you." If, like me, you have a Windows Mobile PDA not provided by a carrier, this fix may be your only bet.

Sign the Calendar Swamp Frappr map

I've created a Frappr Map for Calendar Swamp. Sign in and give us a shout-out. Be sure to pick from the appropriate map pin, so we can see what you use for your primary calendar.

Microsoft.com is being hammered

I tried to get more information tonight about Windows Vista Calendar, but Microsoft.com is being hammered, so instead of reaching the Vista Productivity page, the Web site told me: "We’re sorry, but we were unable to service your request."

Hey Vista Calendar users! Are you able to sync with Windows Mobile?

There's enough Windows Vista out there now for me to ask if Vista Calendar syncs with Windows Mobile calendars. Tonight I published an anonymous comment from a Vista user who couldn't figure out how to do it.

Calendar Swamp in Dreaming in Code

Scott Rosenberg's new book, Dreaming in Code, gives Calendar Swamp a mention on 335. Since I started this blog in June 2005, interest in calendar interoperability has been on a steady growth path. Thanks to all you who are commenting, emailing suggestions, and passing the word about Calendar Swamp. I couldn't do it without you. Meanwhile, check out my new Opening Move conversation with Scott Rosenberg, and buy his book via the Amazon link there, which helps support my podcast.

SyncMyCal works better than GooSync

This morning I have a new favorite: SyncMyCal. Thanks to whoever commented here and clued me in.

SyncMyCal does everything GooSync does and more. It lets me not sync private events. Instead they show up as "busy" on my Google Calendar. This is a good step forward. SyncMyCal is awarded +2 SwampDrain points of their own.

The only reason you'd want to still use GooSync is if you don't like to sync Outlook to Google Calendar; GooSync (and OggSync) sync directly from Windows Mobile to Google. A Windows Mobile version of SyncMyCal is in development.

Will the iPhone kill Internet sync, or will lack of Internet sync kill the iPhone?

Ed Bott: "The biggest missing piece in the iPhone is its ability to sync calendars and e-mail effortlessly."

I also liked Bott's additional comment in the voluminous comments to his post: "That cool phone is not so cool when you miss an urgent notification of a change in a meeting because you weren't able to sync up your calendar or get an e-mail message pushed to your phone. That's how business works in 2007."

Let the drumbeats of discontent grow. You can bet calendar sync over Cingular's network was something Cingular would love to have provided, because it would have consumed so many uber-profitable data minutes. Certainly Cingular has other phones it would like to sell you if you need that essential feature. Maybe it's just a way to get more customers in the store?

(Note: Apple's "push" email through Yahoo! indicates the email situation may not be as bad as the calendaring. Thus Apple's guilty of the general crime of not treating calendaring as seriously as email, which is why so many of us still arrange our calendars via grossly inefficient email.)

Jewish calendar home automation

Time It Right, home automation for the Jewish home:

Never set another Shabbos clock! Time It Right™- the ultimate in home automation for the Shomer Shabbos family. Time It Right™ is the only home automation system with a built in Jewish calendar. Time It Right™ is custom scheduled around YOUR Zemanim and lifestyle, controlling your home according to your specific needs . Unlike other home automation systems, Time It Right™ adjusts your schedule for Shabbos and Yom Tov week by week, with no action from you, making it the ideal system for the Jewish home, Shul, or institution.

I don't see any way to exchange info with other calendars however.

Want to sync your Apple iPhone? Looks like you'll need to own Outlook or a Mac as well

Gizmodo reports that "there won't be any WiFi or cellular data syncing, only sync-via-docking" for the iPhone. That will put the Apple iPhone behind the surge of Windows Mobile sync-with-Google Calendar solutions out there that cut Outlook out of the picture entirely. Yep, that's right, to sync to other calendars, you'll either need to own Outlook or a Mac running iCal.

Gizmodo's Brian Lam holds out hope that there will be iPhone syncing outside of iTunes, but now that I understand how iTunes is the software that syncs calendars to the iPod today, I hold out 0% hope that there will be another way to do it with the Apple iPhone.

I'll give the Apple iPhone a SwampDrain score of -1 for that boneheaded move.