[Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: A little RSS+events app]]

Hi all,
Libby Miller asked me to share a private conversation about RSS+events
with this list, so here comes:

-----Forwarded Message-----

> On 29 Aug 2002, [ISO-8859-1] Pär Lannerö wrote:
> 
> > Libby Miller wrote:
> > > By the way, how would you as a rss+events creator feel if the events
> > > module was a bit more complicated, e.g. had intermediate nodes for
> > > dates? I've had some complaints that the events module isn't accurate
> > > enough compared with icalendar. what do you think?
> >
> > Here are some preliminary thoughts...
> >
> > According to the KISS doctrine, the RSS+events format is a lot better
> > than iCalendar. It is easy to implement - something which can not be
> > said about iCalendar. But if usage catches on, there will soon be a need
> > for a revised version. The interesting question is whether RSS+events is
> > TOO simple to be useful in real life situations.
> >
> > In order to answer that question, one should first decide what real life
> > situations RSS+events is good for. If the situation is "to function as a
> > synchronization format between desktop calendar applications" then I
> > believe the format is too simple. Desktop calendar apps tend to allow
> > lots of semantics to be associated with a calendar entry. Recurrence
> > rules being just one important example. iCalendar, obviously, has a five
> > year headstart in dealing with this situation.
> >
> > If, on the other hand, the situation is "to allow webmasters to encode
> > calendaring information in a machine readable format for events
> > aggregators to collect" then perhaps RSS+events is just right. I just
> > whish there were a number of those aggregators out there! When will
> > Google publish a specialized events search interface?
> >
> > The situation we have been working with SKiCal is somewhere in between:
> > "allowing large (and sometimes complex) events databases to exchange
> > events with one another". SKiCal, as you may remember, is a superset of
> > iCalendar, thus allowing for all kinds of information about the event.
> > But it has been implemented in no more than a dozen or so systems.
> > Probably because of the relative complexity of the format.
> >
> > I think RSS+events in its current form is good enough to begin with. As
> > you wrote, a natural next step would be to add a second module for the
> > specification of simple recurring rules. Recurrence rules can get
> > extremely complex. A language which can express simple recurrence rules
> > in a simple way (but perhaps not able to express complex rules at all)
> > would be very useful. I think Greg has written a few draft
> > specifications for such languages...
> >
> > As from next week, I will put aside half of my time for a few months to
> > write a report on the SKiCal project. (In the form of a master's
> > thesis.) So I will probably have lots of better thought-through
> > conclusions a few weeks from now. I'd be very glad to discuss these
> > things with you if you like.
> >
> > /Pär
> >
> >
> >

Received on Thursday, 29 August 2002 04:49:12 UTC