Sharing calendars and Invitations

Status Putting together a proposal to review with Mitch for .5

Big question If an item is sent out as a message and then added to a shared collection (ie. OSAF or Mitch's calendar), will the recipients of the message end up with 2 copies of the same item? OR can Chandler match them up?

Use cases

• One-way: Mitch and Esther: Esther manages Mitch's schedule
• Two-way: Mitch and Freada: Mitch and Freada want to be aware of each other's schedules
• Few with Many: OSAF organizational calendar: A few people are primary keepers of the calendar but everyone can contribute to share general interest events and meetings

Mitch and Esther

• Mitch shares his calendar

1. Click Calendar
2. Select Calendar collection (Dashboard)
3. Select Share collection from Menu
4. Creates new rule-based Untitled collection: Add all "Dashboard" calendar items.
5. Detail view now displays detail view of new Untitled collection
6. Add recipients
7. Set ACLs
8. Click Send

• Esther

1. Receives Mitch's calendar
2. Needs to choose: Add or Keep out of my Dashboard calendar
3. Both Esther and Mitch can add non-calendar items to this shared collection since rule-based collections accept inclusions and exclusions

• Esther setting up events

1. Is CC:d or is the direct recipient of most invitations for Mitch
   • Esther receives Chandler readable calendar invite for Mitch OR
   • Esther receives Email and stamps it as a calendar event
   • As a result, Esther ends up with a lot of Mitch's calendar events in her Dashboard calendar
2. Adds Mitch to the To field
3. Clicks schedule to view free / busy time of participants (if available)
4. Updates event item and sends update to all participants
5. Manually adds event to Mitch's calendar

1. Receives calendar event from Mitch to set up
2. Adds participants
3. Clicks schedule to view free / busy time of participants (if available)
4. Updates event item and sends invitation to all participants, including Mitch
5. [OI^?] Original calendar event from Mitch was already on Mitch's calendar, so Esther shouldn't need to manually put update on Mitch's calendar again

1. Receives task item from Mitch to rearrange tomorrow afternoon
2. Goes to Mitch's calendar to move items arround
3. Mitch receives an email notification of changes to the collection OR
4. Esther clicks Update on all the events she changed in order to notify Mitch (she would need to do this anyway if any of these events involved any participants other than Mitch)

• Esther managing her own calendar
• Because Esther's calendar gets polluted with a lot of Mitch's items, she will have to manually manage her own events, by adding invitations she receives in the Dashboard to a separate collection she designates for own calendar items.
• She also can't assume than any events she creates in the Dashboard will end up on her calendar. Instead, she will have to create her items in-place.
• While this is a pain and slightly inconsistent for Esther, Esther's situation is a special and rare case and most users (including Mitch) will only create and receive invitations in their Dashboard collection that are relevant to them. In the interest of this overwhelming majority, we want to stick with "the Dashboard collection calendar is the user's main calendar model"

• Mitch managin his own calendar
• Need to talk to Mitch

Mitch and Freada

• Mitch shares his calendar with Freada
• Freada does the same with Mitch

• [OI^?]
• Are most of the items they create on each other's calendars also events they would want to have on their own calendars? (ie. events they are both attending). If not, they will have to maintain separate "personal" calendar collections as well, like Esther
• Will Mitch and Freada want to set up a general purpose shared collection that includes their personal calendars?

OSAF calendar

• Blue sets up OSAF collection and sends out an invitation to share the OSAF collection and add items
• Is it necessarily true that OSAF will only want to share a calendar collection not a general collection?
• Chao adds standing Design meetings
• Katie adds standing Apps team meetings
• Esther adds standing staff meeting
• Blue adds a picnic event
• Lori adds email she's sent to OSAF + HR forms attached

• [OI^?]
• Who is in the to field of these items and events?
• Do company members confirm that they are coming to an event in the detail view of the event? ie. by adding themselves to the To field of
• How do they get notifications of changes?
  • Through individual item updates? OR
  • Through email notifications of changes to the entire collection?
• Is stamping shared? ie. I mark an email from Lori to fill out some HR forms as a Task

Levels of use

• Most basic use cases: I manage my own time, I don't manage anyone else's time: My calendar = Dashboard calendar
• I mostly manage my own time, but I may also subscribe to some group calendars (ie. OSAF): My calendar mostly = Dashboard calendar.
• (Mitch) My time is managed by someone else: My calendar mostly = Dashboard calendar.
• (Mitch?) I'm often cc:d on my spouse's events: My calendar is mostly = Dashboard calendar. I may want to create a separate personal calendar that is purely my own.
• (Esther) I manage someone else's time. My calendar must be a separate collection from my Dashboard calendar.

-- MimiYin - 08 Oct 2004