To further expand on that, it would be a great solution to finding times to meet with others from a class to arrange group projects or study sessions.  The idea of a central, university-wide calendaring system only makes sense.  Having every unit essentially be its own entity works fine from within, but with faculty being members of different colleges and departments, something that spans beyond local borders needs to be established.

From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Troy Murray
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 12:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] University-wide messaging and calendar system

Tom,

I routinely have to setup a meeting with different individuals all over campus, including booking the room to use or any resources, yet not everyone uses Exchange so there is a flurry of e-mail back and forth since everyone uses something different.  If I was able to go to a calendar, create a meeting request, like Exchange does, punch in a date and time and the people to invite and at least see their free/busy time as well as a room on campus, that would be a huge time saver.  Being able to add notes to that appointment, maybe a phone number of access code for a phone conference or a URL for a WebEx would be nice.

I'm not a student, but I were and had the ability to "subscribe" to my class calendar, maybe to see notes from the class or an outline of what would be discussed, the ability to see the professors office hours or time I could stop in to ask questions would be nice.

Just some incomplete thoughts.

--
Troy Murray
Informatics Specialist
Michigan State University
Biomedical Research & Informatics Center (BRIC)
100 Conrad Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-432-4248
Fax: 517-353-9420
E-mail: [log in to unmask]



-----Original Message-----
From: MSU Network Administrators Group on behalf of Tom Rockwell
Sent: Mon 10/15/2007 12:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] MSUMAIL: Re: [MSUNAG] University-wide messaging and calendar system

You raise an important point --- just how valuable would a centralized
calendar system be?  What features have what value?  Procurement of such
a system would probably start with these types of question as well as a
study of use cases.  This discussion has jumped past these issues to a
discussion of individual software packages.

How would people use such a system?  Where is the value?

Cheers,
Tom

Laurence Bates wrote:
> That is a valid consideration but many of our Mac users are now requiring
> Windows on their Intel Mac computers and so the problem for them could be
> worked around.  AD is also a valid objection and I'm not sure that an
> adequate work around could be found for that.  The benefits or trying to
> find one, however, are quite substantial.  I have to believe that MSU is a
> significantly less efficient organization by virtue of not having a
> centralized calendaring system.
>