Calendar Federation and XMPP
Monday, July 13, 2009 by darcoWhy can't sending an event invitation to someone be as easy as sending an email? Why can't I check a friend's availability if they aren't using the same calendar server? Why can't I share a calendar with my friends who don't have an account on my calendar server?
For some reason or another, the concept of Calendar Servers has captured my imagination over the past year or so. I believe this technology could change how people think of time management, but I think it needs three things before it can get to that point:
- Ability to invite someone to an event who is using a different calendar server.
- Ability to view availability of someone who is using a different calendar server. (And, as a corollary, the ability to control who can see your availability)
- Ability to share calendars and events with people who don't have an account on my calendar server.
The key to make all of this possible is something I call Automatic Federation.
UPDATE: After writing this post, individuals have brought to my attention RFC-2446, RFC-2447, and the iSCHEDULE Technical Committee. At first glance, it looks like this may make the stuff I was proposing here somewhat irrelevant, but some investigation is still warranted. I'm not yet sure how these specs prevent abusive things like spoofing and who is allowed to see free-busy information.