Subject: IETF turns its attention to calendaring specifications (InfoWorld)

From: David Madeo <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 12:11:32 -0500

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchive.pl?/98/50/i07-50.50.htm

<!-- for no Iframes Layers Capable Browsers -->
<A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.infoworld.com/archive;sz=468x60;ord=914000973">
<IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.infoworld.com/archive;sz=468x60;ord=914000973"></A>

December 14, 1998 (Vol. 20, Issue 50)

IETF turns its attention to calendaring specifications

By Emily Fitzloff

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) plans to fill a hole in its standards portfolio by releasing five protocols designed to standardize enterprise calendaring.

Executives from major collaboration and scheduling software providers say they recognize that users want better interoperability among their solutions, and are doing some collaboration of their own to help.

At the core of these new protocols is the Internet Calendaring (iCal) specification, which proposes a standard format for representing calendaring information.

Once the information is presented in a standardized fashion, it can be more easily exchanged among heterogeneous systems, according to Andre Courtemanche, president and CEO of Corporate Software and Technologies (CS&T), a provider of enterprise calendaring systems based in Montreal.

The IETF is also in the final stages of reviewing new specifications that would standardize the mode of transporting iCal information and that would enable collaboration between heterogeneous scheduling systems.

iCal and the other protocols are ready for final interoperability testing -- the last stage before they are available for incorporation into products -- which is scheduled to take place next month in San Jose, Calif.

So far, CS&T, Lotus Development, Microsoft, and Netscape Communications have expressed interest in participating in these tests.

At a meeting of the IETF last week in Orlando, Fla., another calendaring specification was discussed. This proposed protocol, the Internet Real-Time Interoperability Protocol (iRip), would make scheduling over e-mail much more effective, Courtemanche said.

"With iRip, my system queries your system to tell me when you're available instead of me needing to sit and wait for an e-mail response from you before I can schedule a meeting," Courtemanche said.

iRip will likely be completed by the next meeting of the IETF, slated for March.

Finally, the IETF has also proposed a Client Access Protocol (CAP) that would allow users to choose what kind of calendaring client or interface they want to use, regardless of which vendor's system they have running in the back end.

"CAP changes all the rules and will make a very healthy marketplace by allowing for a lot more players," Courtemanche said.

CAP has already garnered support from CS&T, Lotus, Microsoft, Sun, and Netscape.

One Netscape executive agreed that these new protocols are desperately needed.

"Standards for calendaring have really been lacking," said Albert Gouyet, director of Netscape's Messaging Server product marketing. "The standards are ready now, so it's just a matter of vendors implementing them."

Gouyet said Netscape already supports Internet Mail Interoperability Protocol (iMip) in its Communicator Web browser software, and will offer support for the other protocols in subsequent versions of its server software, which are likely to be released in the first half of next year.

The Internet Engineering Task Force can be reached at www.ietf.org.

Calendaring cooperation

The following IETF standards have already received industrywide support.

Internet Calendaring (iCal): a standard format for representing calendaring information

Internet Transport-Independent Interoperability Protocol (iTip): a standard mode of transporting iCal information

Internet Mail Interoperability Protocol (iMip): interoperability among calendaring systems using e-mail as transport

Internet Real-Time Interoperability Protocol (iRip): allows diverse scheduling systems to query each other in real time

Client Access Protocol (CAP): allows any calendaring client to access information from heterogeneous back-end systems

Copyright (c) 1998 InfoWorld Media Group Inc.

Please direct your comments to InfoWorld Electric.

| SiteMap |Search | PageOne | Conferences | Reader/Ad Services |

| Enterprise Careers | Opinions | Test Center | Features |

| Forums | Interviews | InfoWorld Print | InfoQuote |