event-consolidation

event consolidation

Just as identity-consolidation solves the problem of how do I connect all these profiles that all mean "me", event consolidation is a solution to the problem of how do I connect all these different representations of the same event, across blogs, event posting systems, and perhaps the site for the event itself.

problem statement

Why do I have to RSVP on three sites for the same event?

Why can't I just RSVP once and have that RSVP reflected in all the other systems?

examples

These are real world examples of existing events with multiple representations that could benefit from event consolidation.

photomatt bday party 2008

Example of event posted to multiple sites, with some cross-linkage.

• Upcoming
  • viewable without login
  • marked up with hCalendar
  • links to Facebook version of same event
• Pownce
  • viewable without login
  • marked up with hCalendar
  • links to Upcoming and Facebook versions of same event
• Facebook
  • requires login to view

laughing squid pre nye party 2007

Example of an event posted to multiple sites, with star-network linkage from event sites to a blog post, and from that blog post to each of the event sites.

• Scott's blog post
  • viewable without login
• Upcoming
  • viewable without login
  • marked up with hCalendar including link to Scott's post.
• Pownce
  • viewable without login
  • marked up with hCalendar
  • note Tara's comment: "LOL. Replied in 3 places! I think we need an OpenID solution to these puppies!"
• Facebook
  • requires login to view

In this case, note that Scott links from each event posting to his blog post, which then links to all three event postings. If Scott were markup the event in his blog post using hCalendar (including all three event posting URLs), it would be theoretically possible to RSVP to his blog post (assuming his blogging software supported RSVPing to event posts), and have that same code route you to the other event systems and auto-RSVP for your there.

satsifactory cupcakes and cocktails 2007

First event where event-consolidation problem was mentioned conceptually. "the Satisfactory's first weekly "Cupcakes & Cocktails" happy hour"

• Pownce
  • requires login to view
  • marked up with hCalendar
  • note Lane's comment: "there are far too many places to post events these days. need some sort of application to bundle up all of the rsvps in one place."
• Facebook (URL unknown)
• Upcoming (event implied by commentary in Pownce event, URL unknown)

This was perhaps the first instance where I (Tantek) saw a call for event consolidation by concept (" too many places to post events ... need ... to bundle up all of the rsvps in one place ").

recipes brainstorm

Any site that permits the user to post an event should:

• (a) let you post one or more URLs for the event,
• (b) let you pick the "primary" URL for the event,
• (c) published the event info in hCalendar, including the "primary" URL as a uid property value.
• (d) support OAuth access to RSVP to events on your behalf

This would allow any event site (or perhaps a smart desktop calendar app) to RSVP for you across such sites.

lazyweb

We need event posting / RSVPing plugins for blogging tools:

• Wordpress
• MovableType
• ... etc.

An event posting plugin would simply:

1. add just a few more fields (see the differences between how Pownce lets you post a simple note and an event note) to let users easily post info about an event, including URLs to representations of the event on other event posting sites.
2. publish the information in a blog post on your blog with hCalendar (and download/subscribe links using the Technorati Events Feed service).
3. modify the commenting user-interface on such "event" posts to add an "RSVP" field (again, note how Pownce does comments on event notes in contrast to simple notes).
4. since the commenting system knows your URL (either via the form, hCard subscription/import, and/or OpenID), it can retrieve your identity-consolidation from that URL (e.g. your list of "Other Profiles" on your Pownce profile), and go to those systems that are among the set of other event posting sites noted in step 1, obtain access via OAuth, and RSVP for you on your accounts on those other systems.
5. if you update your RSVP, the plugin should propagate that update to the other systems as well.

advocacy

What we need current event sites to do.

facebook

Let's start with please support hCalendar on event postings plus the ability to publish events publicly so that services can do some event consolidation without having to implement additional protocols. Add to that OAuth support for access to private events.

pownce

Pownce rocks because it already supports hCalendar and allows public events! In addition it would be great if they:

• (a) let you post one or more URLs for the event
• (b) let you pick the "primary" URL for the event
• (c) publish the "primary" URL as a "uid" in the hCalendar for the event
• (d) support OAuth access to the RSVP to events on your behalf

upcoming

Upcoming rocks because it already supports hCalendar and defaults to public events! In addition it would be great if they:

• (a) let you post more than one URL for an event
• (b) let you pick the "primary" URL for the event
• (c) publish the "primary" URL as a "uid" in the hCalendar for the event
• (d) support OAuth access to the RSVP to events on your behalf

challenges

• private events. How do you consolidate fully private events? Even assuming multiple event representations, each having URLs which each point to each other, what type of protocols are needed both by the sites themselves to consolidate with the other site(s)? What additional (if any) protocols are needed for a third party site (or a desktop application) to consolidate events across event sites?
• How do you have the RSVP show on some, but not all, of the included sites (for privacy purposes, say)?

see also

• hCalendar
• identity-consolidation
• OAuth