I got our Virtual Private Server all set up at work so now I can get to the business of actually putting up webby things. I’d really love to create some sort of Staff Intranet where we can post announcements and info so that our email boxes don’t become clogged with them. I was thinking of installing a WordPress Blog and MediaWiki and just see what the staff likes to use. One other thing I’d really love to get is a good calendaring application where we can both have our own personal calendars that everyone can see and a collective calendar with meetings that involve more than one or two staff members. It’s so difficult to schedule all-staff meetings because it’s impossible to keep track of everyone’s schedules. If we had a calendaring application, I think that might make things easier.
So I’m trying to find a good calendar application. Right now, I’m really impressed with AirSet which has a nice-looking interface and a great ability to do group scheduling. At a small library like ours (less than 20 staff members), this may be a good solution. Looking at eHub, which has an amazing list of social software apps, there are very few free applications that would fill our needs. I requested an account with Calendar Hub , which is in limited Beta release. It’s difficult to tell from their website what it’s going to be like. Kiko and Planzo are both AJAX-based calendars. I love the fact that they give you the ability to type something directly into the calendar rather than going to a separate page to enter the event. I also love the drag-and-drop functionality. While they might be good just for my own personal use, I don’t think they’d be great for an organization.
Does anyone out in the blogosphere know of a calendaring program that would fit our needs? What sort of calendaring programs do you use at your library or organization? Are you happy with them? Any insights and advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated, whether you use free software applications or not. Feel free to respond to this post or contact me privately.
I have found that when Microsoft Outlook is used properly, its calendar aspect is excellent and works across a large number of staff. At one place I worked at we used the diary function across a whole city council with ease.
Meredith, this may be more than what you’re looking for, but someone just showed me Zimbra, which has a pretty nice looking calendar component.