Looking for distributed calendaring/scheduling tool

[Morris J. Schwartz (gt7491a)]

Hello Netusers,
For the design project of a Software Engineering class at
Georgia Tech, our group has been assigned the new development
of a _distributed_calendaring_tool_, to be accessible from
multiple platforms. This is a "real" project, in the sense
that it will be used by real people for real purposes, so it
isn't simply a class assignment.

At this point we would like to perform a Market Survey to find
out if anything like this exists, even if only similar to the
system we want. We are mostly interested in packages that
are relatively cheap, or shareware/freeware, but would like
to find out about anything out there that fits our needs.

We are also very interested in hearing from people that may
have a comment or suggestion about developing such a system.
Either from the point of view of someone who has designed a
similar system and is able to provide us with helpful hints;
or someone who has ideas of what functionality such a system
should or shouldn't have.

If you believe that this message has been posted to the wrong
newsgroups, please suggest a more appropriate newsgroup.

Here's a brief description of the system, and some preliminary
requirements:

- This system will be in charge of handling calendar scheduling
for all people in the Georgia Tech community.
- The tool should allow distributed sharing and scheduling of shared
resources (such as conference rooms)
- The system would be available to the majority of campus users,
regardless of platform.
- A simple interface is required. A GUI is recommended if possible.

1. Must be able to schedule people and their personal schedules.
A. Look at Month/Week/Day views
B. Have private notes -- personal notes that anyone else
cannot see.
C. Remote user can only see open slots -- not what is in the
filled slots (they just know it is not open)
D. Multiple authorization levels -- managers want secretaries
to have full acces to their schedules, but only want others
to request a block.
E. Request Appointments -- Remote user asks another user to
block off a time slot for an appointment. This is only a
request and needs confirmation.

2. Find open slot between a group of people. Look at all the people
in a list and pick some time when every member can meet or take
the time when most people can attend.

3. Facility Scheduling
A. Be able to schedule conference rooms, TVs, VCRs, overheads, etc.
B. Know equivilancy groups (any overhead will do since they are
all the same)

4. Handle group listings -- similar to Unix distribution list

5. Print schedule capabilities -- Print Month/Weeek/Day

Please direct all comments, suggestions, and descriptions of
existing systems and their availability to either of the following
e-mail addresses. Please don't send your replies to the newsgroups.

Thank you in advance,

Stephen Jobe psy...@cc.gatech.edu Project Manager
Morris Schwartz gt7...@prism.gatech.edu Project Member
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