Challenge #15 - Online Calendars

Overbooked? Enter: Online Calendaring.

Today's online calendars allow you to do more than just schedule an event for yourself. Like what, you ask? Well, here are a few of the things you can do:

• Share your schedule with as many or as few people as you want. Here's an example of how I share my calendars: My school calendar is public, but only I can edit it. It's embedded on my school webpage so that people can see when the media center is available. Anytime I make a change to my Google school calendar, it's automatically updated on my website. My home calendar is not shared with anyone -- although if my family were more technologically-savvy, I would share it with them so they'd know where we are and what we're up to. My 5K calendar is shared with my college friends. We've resolved to run one 5K per month during the "nice" months, and we are all able to edit the calendar and add 5Ks from around the state that we might want to consider running. Each calendar is color coded for ease of use.

• Take your calendar on the go. Most online calendars will allow you to sync with your mobile devices.
• Send yourself a reminder. If the calendar is open, you could remind yourself with a pop-up note or an audio alert. If it's not, you can have emails or text messages sent to yourself so you'll never (accidentally, anyway) miss an event again.
• Invites guests and receive RSVPs to events you've scheduled. Guests can respond via your calendar or with an email.
• Sync with your existing desktop applications. Want to add the LHS iCal calendar that Nancy created? No problem. (Note, though, that unless you continue to sync it, additions/changes will not be updated.)
• Stay informed even if you don't have an Internet connection. You can still access a read-only version of your calendar.

Getting started.

There are several online calendaring options out there -- my favorite, of course, is Google Calendar because it syncs my tasks within all my Google apps, and because I've added it as a gadget in my iGoogle page so it's always close at hand. Also available are Bravenet, 30 Boxes, and Yahoo! Calendar, among others.

If you've got time and you're not the type to just dive right in and try things for yourself, you may want to watch the 7 minute video below on how to use Google Calendar. Keep in mind that most of the other calendars mentioned above have the same features...it's just a matter of tweaking to fit your chosen application.



Our Challenge to You:

• Create an account with one of the calendaring options listed above.
• Add some events and explore the features.
• Take a screen capture of your calendar and post it to your blog. (Or if it's one you want to share, embed it into your blog instead.)
• Add a gadget for your calendar to your iGoogle page. (Not yet available with the Bravenet calendar.)

Take It a Step Further: (optional)

• Invite people to view your calendar or make them editors so they can add to it.
• Search through the public calendars for something of interest. Subscribe to it if you like.

Want to Know More?
40+ Tools for Google Calendar - by Mashable
50 Tips, Tweaks and Hacks to Make the Most of Google Calendar - by Virtual Hosting Blog
Rock Your Google Calendar in 18 Ways - by WebWorkerDaily