[PLUG] [OT] Optionally using google calendar to also mark PLUG events?

[Navin Kabra]

Shirish, I'm not sure I've understood what you are really looking for, hence
asking for some clarifications inline:

On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 10:27 PM, shirish <shirishag75 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 16:56, Navin Kabra<navin.kabra at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> <snipped>
>
> Hi Navin,
>
> > There's already a calendar for tech events in Pune at upcoming.org. See
> > http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/5007/
> > It has facilities for automated notifications.
>
> Right. But it also needs that I be a yahoo user. :(
>

It doesn't require a login to view the events. It does not require a login
to subscribe to events.

It does require a login to add events - and that is a good thing. Any online
shared service is going to require some login/password or some other sort of
authentication mechanism to prevent the spammers and trolls from taking
over. If there is an alternative that doesn't require that, I'd be
interested in exploring that. Please suggest. (plug.org.in also does the
same thing.)



> <rant>
> From my perspective, the way I see these kind of services as an
> island.


I don't see why you say that http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/5007/ is an
island. Anyone can join. Anyone can add events. Would you say wikipedia is
an island?


> What I'm looking for say, subscribing to your calendar and you
> perhaps to mine.


I'm not sure I understand you - but are you suggesting that we all maintain
our own separate calendars and then subscribe to each other's calendars like
we subscribe to blogs? I can see that as having value, but in addition there
is also a different value in having a common, shared calendar that an
average techie just wants to subscribe to.


If you're talking about having separate calendars for separate purposes
(i.e. one for tech events in pune, one for FOSS, one for python events),
then that can already be done at upcoming. And events can be shared across
calendars (need to be added only once). And people can subscribe - to
individual calendars, or to tags, or to locations, or a bunch of other
things.


> Why are we still stuck in the domain thing.
>

I have no clue what this means. What "domain thing"?


> The way I would have liked is to be able to subscribe to say Pune
> Tech's calendar and in turn Pune Tech could subscribe to my FOSS
> calendar (or public calendar or whatever I wanted to share. )  This
> would have been so much nicer, easier and happier for both of us.
>

Already possible with incoming.

In anycase, the "Pune Tech calendar on incoming" is not one user. It is 45
people who are interested in keeping track of tech events in Pune. So, what
exactly do you mean by "Pune Tech could subscribe"? Are you talking about
the online shared calendar merging with another online calendar or are you
talking about me as a user subscribing to your calendar?



>  Also if you make the effort of calendaring and want to credit, there
> could be a small logo which is along with the event which I could
> forward if & when I forward the event to somebody.
>

Forget credit.
Let us figure out a system that is usable and meets people's needs.
I don't think anybody in this space is particularly interested in credit.

What I would like is the existence of an easy to use calendar, a
one-stop-shop for all tech events in Pune. Something that an average techie
can subscribe to easily, and that's it - s/he gets info about all the
events.


> That would be cool. If somebody wants to works on it they could
> probably use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar as a starter.
>
> As always feedback is appreciated.
>

I'd like to understand what your problem with incoming is, so what we can
figure out what the solution is.

navin.