How many would be interested...

[Stryker]

How many of you would be interested in an online calendar system? Before hitting that vote button just yet, hear some of my ideas out.

Basically, calendars as they stand are static. Sure, you're able to schedule events on them, and some of them even give you both daily and monthly schedules. However, they are mostly dumb--they don't attempt to figure anything out on their own.

My idea is to create a dynamic calendar that, based on events and project deadlines you feed it, will create a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule for you. Basically, instead of putting an event on your calendar that says \"Project X is due Wednesday\" and working on it whenever, you can simply add Project X to this new calendar system and have the calendar automatically figure out the best times for you to work on each particular project based on a few factors like the estimated working time necessary to complete a project. Of course, you can also schedule normal, single events, as well as repeating events, and the scheduler will work around these events.

Since the calendar system would be online and account-based with a strong security system, you and only you would be able to access it from anywhere you could find an internet connection. If the idea gains a lot of interest, I'd certainly consider adding specialized support for mobile devices as well.

Another possible upgrade for businesses would be an employee scheduler--instead of simply having a lot of employees scheduling all their own events, companies could set up their own account with a certain number of employees. The employers could then schedule project deadlines of their own, schedule company meetings, and prioritize deadlines.

Plus, using this type of calendar system, one can quite literally prove to one's boss that one needs more hours in the day to complete that project.

So, what do you guys think? Yea or nay? Or perhaps you already have something that does this?

I am already well into development on this project, and have implemented a very strong security suite. I am posting this poll on several BBs I frequent in order to gauge interest for this project--it's not worth spending time on it if no one would use it. Your responses are appreciated.

Also note that I would be very interested in some aid from web security experts in testing how well the security system performs.

[TIGERassault]

I voted no; I have no use for something like this.

[roid]

i'm prettysure these already exist.
google calender has the online features you talk about
www.google.com/calendar

i guess your idea is that, with some inteligence tacked on. Inteligence is good, more things should have it.

but i wouldn't use it, i avoid all calenders coz they give me the creeps.

[Stryker]

The main difference between Google's calendar, Microsoft Outlook's calendar, and my calendar is that mine will actively create a daily schedule for you, giving you recommendations for what to work on when based on project deadlines, time estimates, and possibly a priority system. Basically, a calendar that doesn't simply react to your schedule additions, but takes a bit of initiative and attempts to develop an hour-by-hour (or, with the way I've got it set up now, potentially minute-by-minute or even as detailed as seconds) schedule for your day, instead of just showing the events you manually mark.

Plus, I can keep developing upgrades for it, as well--possible ideas are:

--Taking travel time into account; you specify two locations, the approximate time between them, and where certain events take place, and the scheduling system attempts to determine the most efficient itinerary

--\"Friends\" system that allows people you mark as \"friends\" to view your calendar

I'm sure there are a lot more potential ideas out there as well.

[Kiran]

Eh, I'd put in my vote about the idea but there's no option for: \"No, I would not use for this kind of calendar\".

It seems to make things more complicated just putting things down in a calendar when you put it in that kind of concept. That's what agenda books are for!
Also, I don't think relying on a computer-based agenda to figure out what is best for you to do would be very efficient. I don't see how I can depend on a computer to tell me which project is best to work on now and which is easier to do and which is not as well as when to do each. Unexpected things occur, you fall behind computer-based schedules, and next thing you know, you're very unorganized just because things didn't follow with the computer calendar's schedules.

Then again, I may be disagreeing because I have not lived in your world yet and therefore I cannot see or understand the benefits of what you are offering. The way I do it is to just put down when things are due, what is going on that day, and list things to work on and list things to have finished by a certain day. I have been doing this since I started college and so far it's going well.

[Ferno]

I'm sorry but this screams \"You can't manage your own time? that's okay. Technology will fix that for you.\"

I vote with a resounding no.

[Testiculese]

I wrote an entire online calendar system at my last job..wait, my last, last, last job. If you can market it to big business like we did (We got C-Span, AOL, and a host of other companies as clients) as a branded event calendar, then you could do OK. Just don't snort your profits like the president did (he snorted some 70mil in VC).

We marketed it to other businesses as their internal collaberation tool, and it was working out well, until Outlook became more dominant. That's what most businesses will use nowadays.

Personally, my PDA Phone has my calendar, I've no need to have one online.

[JMEaT]

It's a good idea but you will have to provide something that the other big guys don't have.

My current job uses Outlook 2003 for scheduling.

[Genghis]

How are you going to code the planner part? Use a heuristic-augmented SAT-planner? It's not trivial, but you can grab one of a dozen research versions.

[Stryker]

I may try something with time-of-day heuristics, optimal work length for a subject for the average human, and deadline planning (does the user work better during a \"crunch time\", or is it better to give him/her a more evenly distributed schedule?) as options for users--I'll definitely want to do a bit of research into them, if for no other reason than the learning experience. I'm not sure about SAT-planners though--do you have any information on it that I might be able to use?

The planner part will basically be coded using an \"estimated time\" for each project, provided by the user. Each project will also have a \"priority\" setting, which the calendar will then use in conjunction with deadline dates (and possibly the factors above) to determine which projects need the most time spent on them, and weight the lengths of time a project is scheduled accordingly. If it determines that more time is available for a user than is currently being spent, it will expand a project's time beyond the user's estimate.

JMEaT--what I (will) have that the big guys don't is a calendar system that, when expanded for businesses, is capable of managing employee workload automatically. My dream is to have an employer from anywhere be able to figure out if he needs another worker scheduled--or even have the calendar itself figure out if another worker needs to be scheduled on a project and send out e-mails to candidates.

Testiculese--Don't worry; I won't be filching money any time soon. There's a long road ahead before I even make any from this.

Ferno--it's not meant as a replacement for time management; rather it's designed to be a tool to make time management a heck of a lot easier. I'm not an organized person myself by nature--I almost never use calendars, day planners, notebooks, or anything of the sort if I can help it, simply because I'm able to remember all my appointments. However, I can't tell you how many times I've had people show up late or not show up at all to an important event because A. they forgot it, B. they didn't write it down in their planner, or C. they never heard of it in the first place. This idea isn't designed to replace common sense; rather its purpose is to augment it and give those who are chronically late a kick in the seat of their pants to get themselves places--preferably on time.

[snoopy]

MS project is somewhat similar to this. It doesn't have the logic behind it to automatically schedule things, but I've got a suspicion that it would take a lot of individual \"teaching\" for each user to end up with the scheduling style they like. By the time you spend all that time teaching the program, you might as well just control flow yourself.

[Isaac]

Mead MEMO is one of the world’s smallest mempads and packs all of the power of an organizer. It comes complete with memo sheets, multimedia capabilities and expandable memory (like sticky notes). And it offers users everything else they would expect from a memo device – including tic tac toe games, text messaging (tape not included), instant messaging (pages crumple), organizer applications, animation flipbook and toilet paper.

[Kiran]

Mead MEMO is one of the world’s smallest mempads and packs all of the power of an organizer. It comes complete with memo sheets, multimedia capabilities and expandable memory (like sticky notes). And it offers users everything else they would expect from a memo device – including tic tac toe games, text messaging (tape not included), instant messaging (pages crumple), organizer applications, animation flipbook and toilet paper.

I like this guy.