Five Laws of Calendars
I found five-laws-of-calendars.txt sitting in my home directory. I don’t remember if I wrote this or stole this. But I’m sure it was when I was thinking in a very Ranganathan-ian way. Topical again as campus switches to Exchange for calendaring and we still have scheduling/announcement problems. It’s not a technology problem, it’s a way of thinking problem. These rules might help.
1st law: Calendars are for use
Don’t hold them on a pedistal or behind glass: work with them, share them, use them.
It’s okay to put home and work things on the personal calendar. Splitting the two might be more work than its worth.
2nd law: Every scheduler his or her calendar
No hidden calendars
Open scheduling
Open process for reservations and meeting requests
Inverse of the third law w/ focus on the viewer
3rd law: Every calendar its viewer
Inverse of the second law w/ focus on the calendar
Make your calendars findable, shareable, browseable so your community can get the most out of them
No unused calendars (if it has no viewer, why have it?)
4th law: Save the time of the scheduler
Make it easy to invite people, setup new appointments, see availability
Have as many calendars as you need, but no more.
5th law: The calendar is a growing organism
Make it easy to get data in, out
Work with other devices, signage, displays, reporting, mashups
Be flexible
Create new calendars when needed, remove old ones
