[uf-discuss] Joining CalConnect?

[Chris Messina]

Yeah, I'd agree with your reasoning on the benefits Tantek... and it
is too bad that they didn't realize that.

It seems to me that, like Janrain.com is doing for OpenID, we need to
be baking microformats into the libraries and frameworks that power
tools so that publishers (I'd consider 37Signals a publisher) don't
even have to think about it.

Strategically:

* get microformats into PHP systems like Drupal, WordPress and Joomla
* bake microformats into Rails itself
* bake support into WebKit  and Gecko (both are open source)

37Signals shouldn't have to do *yet another implementation* of
microformats when Rails itself could be the carrier.

Seems to me that that's they layer of leverage that we should be operating on.

Chris


On 8/8/06, Tantek Çelik <tantek at cs.stanford.edu> wrote:
> Here is the irony.
>
> It is *easier* and takes *less time* to offer iCalendar feeds to customers
> by:
>  * marking up your events with hCalendar
>  * using an hCalendar->iCalendar proxy
>
> Rather than:
>  * pick another URL for the .ics
>  * setup your web server to do proper mimetypes
>  * figuring out how to export a .ics file (learn new format)
>  * debug it in whatever iCalendar consumers your users use
>
>
> Chris, the reason to implement hCalendar *is* iCalendar support for end
> users.  hCalendar is the fastest way to implement iCalendar.
>
> The user benefits of directly using hCalendar are *secondary*.
>
> Implementing hCalendar is very much following 37Signals' philosophy of doing
> less and getting more.
>
> Thus 37Signals spent *more time* than they needed to, by directly
> implementing iCalendar, when they could implemented hCalendar instead.
>
> My guess is that they just didn't know that this more efficient
> implementation route existed and did all the extra work.
>
> Once they had done the extra work (to offer less functionality, again,
> ironically), they certainly didn't want to spend any more time adding
> hCalendar support.  Makes sense in a sad sort of way.
>
> Tantek
>
> P.S. Lots of key folks in CalConnect know about hCalendar.
>
> If you want to follow CalConnect discussions, sign up for the ietf-calsify
> discussion list.  I've been on it for quite some time now, and post once in
> a rare while.
>
>
> On 8/8/06 12:14 PM, "Chris Messina" <chris.messina at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > It doesn't and won't.
> >
> > According to Jason Fried, who I spoke with about it, he says that it's
> > not worth their time and that I'm not their typical user, so there's
> > no benefits for their customers.
> >
> > http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/07/27/backpack-gets-a-calendar/
> >
> > I respectfully disagree, but I highly doubt you'll bring those guys
> > around any time soon. Unfortunately.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > On 8/8/06, Edward Summers <ehs at pobox.com> wrote:
> >> Speaking of calendars--has anyone checked out http://backpackit.com/
> >> calendar to see if it supports any hCal goodness?
> >>
> >> //Ed
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> microformats-discuss mailing list
> >> microformats-discuss at microformats.org
> >> http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
> >>
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
>


-- 
Chris Messina
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