Team Calendar 2.0 ??

November 17, 2007 4:54 AM

Our team needs a better scheduling/calendar application. (I've created a mockup (see inside) of one desired outcome.) Its a small team (under 10ppl) but we work 24/7 and would like the schedule to be easy to update/modify. There must be some kind of Web2.0/Ajax-ified hotness for this out there somewhere, I'm just not finding it.

My team has about 7 members.. and we work on a 24hour clock. Typical shifts are : midnight to 8am.... 8am to 4pm... 4pm to midnight. However adjustments are made on the fly, and we have a variety of meetings/events,etc.

Right now our boss posts the schedule in a spreadsheet/table type of format that is not very easy to read and horrible if you want to cross-reference your shift against other shifts/events.

I'm looking for any suggestions of great scheduling/calendar software we might upgrade to. Online is fine, .. an open-source, in-house application would be better. Below is one mockup idea I came up with (pardon my photoshop skillz)

http://www.aberrantreality.com/askmefi/mockup.jpg

I've done a little initial searching.. and I am finding a slew of online calendaring app's.. but rather than slogging through 25 to 30 websites .. I'd rather know what Mefi'tes think is the best... :P

posted by jmnugent to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Google calendar will do something like this, only vertically.

Free, online, AJAX-y. Not FOSS though.
posted by unixrat at 5:34 AM on November 17, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks Unixrat,

I've looked at Google calender, but (unless this has changed).. you cant have different colored events in Gcal... I know my boss has a generic Google logon.. (cause i've seen him in there working on it).. but no one has made any mention of transitioning to it.

vertical or horizontal makes no difference.. although I personally think horizontal is more "intuitive". ;P
posted by jmnugent at 6:09 AM on November 17, 2007

Seconding google calendar. You'd need to play around with it to see what I mean, but you can get different colored events by making multiple calendars. Think of them like layers in photoshop. You can have a jesus-robot calendar, a john calendar, etc., with every individual's schedule, then a "tasks" calendar, or whatever you'd envisioned that lower portion to represent. Then, to see everything, you just view all the calendars simultaneously.
posted by kickback at 6:41 AM on November 17, 2007

Response by poster: Kickback

Thanks for the 2nd opinion.. I'm playing with it at this very moment...

The problem I'm seeing is this.. I'd have to create 7-ish calendars (one for each team member's schedule).. and then I'd have to make all 7 of those calendars "public"....

Could each individual team member click a bookmark link and see ONE page with all 7 public calendars showing (layered) ??
posted by jmnugent at 6:49 AM on November 17, 2007

You don't have to make them public. Keep them private, but all your members have to invite all the other members to view their own calendar and vice versa. It's a pain, but it works once it is all set up. You are looking for the little drop-down that says "Share this calendar" on the sidebar.
posted by typewriter at 7:20 AM on November 17, 2007

Response by poster: Typewriter
"but all your members have to invite all the other members to view their own calendar and vice versa."

Which means they all have to have Gmail ?... 'cause I doubt they all do.
posted by jmnugent at 7:23 AM on November 17, 2007

Well, they just have to get google accounts to do this; those are free and no longer require invites. Not a big limitation.
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:02 AM on November 17, 2007

Yes, they all have to get a gmail account. But probably jesusrobot is probably already taken. :)

If not I want it! :)
posted by typewriter at 8:05 AM on November 17, 2007

You don't need a GMail account, but you will need a Google account. There is a link to make one right on the calendar login page.
posted by chunking express at 10:08 AM on November 17, 2007

I have two separate colored calendars under my one Google login. Wait, no, three. I have one for my work hours, one for my personal schedule, and one for my fiance's schedule.

SO SO SO easy to use. Seriously.
posted by santojulieta at 6:21 PM on November 17, 2007

You don't need a gmail account if you go the Google Apps route, you can use your own domain name.
posted by so_ at 1:52 AM on November 18, 2007