The goal of our project is to design a complete calendar network solution which will be deployable on the U.C. Berkeley campus. This calendar network should allow all campus calendars to manage and store event information in such a way that it can be easily shared with other calendars. It should be attractive to a range of users, from "high-level" calendars with complicated data models for an event and calendars with more features as well as "low-level" calendar owners who may currently use a simple static list of events for their calendar, or who many not even have a calendar on their website.
The most critical project requirement is that we design a solution that is as appealing as possible to campus calendar administrators. This is a very important consideration because a critical mass of calendars using the system must be attained in order for the calendar network to be successful. If too few calendars are using our system to share event information, it may not be worthwhile for other calendar administrators to make the effort to switch over to this new system. In order to convince current calendar owners to switch over to our system, we must provide them with a comprehensive solution which meets or exceeds their needs.
In order to fulfill this critical project requirement, we must make sure our system fulfills the current needs of as many calendar owners as possible. The major needs that we have identified include:
The ability to store and display all event information
The ability to share event information with other calendars in an automated fashion
The ability to either reproduce the current calendar's "look and feel," create a new calendar with a look and feel that integrates effectively into the organization's website, or continue to use the current calendar
To fulfill these requirements, our objective is to create a system that consists of:
a standard data model of an Event which is flexible and scalable enough to accommodate the requirements of most calendars on the Berkeley campus, encoded in an XML schema to facilitate data transmission
a Calendar Management Tool which allows users to manage their events stored in a central repository, easily share their events with other campus calendars and customize their calendar's appearance
a visually compelling dynamic web-based calendar for administrators who do not currently have the resources to create their own
a design for a system architecture consisting of a centralized event repository based on the Event data model which allows for XML feeds to and from the repositories for "high-level" calendar administrators who choose to maintain their own website and repository