Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!know!slug!wex From: wex@dali.pws.bull.com (Buckaroo Banzai) Newsgroups: comp.groupware Subject: Re: Groupware Effects on Hierarchie Message-ID: Date: 26 Jul 90 16:46:37 GMT References: <1835688710@JANSSEN.90Jul18175044@holmes.par> <1138200037@cdp> <1990Jul23.004917.6139@mentor.com> <1990Jul25.045719.21115@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Sender: news@pws.bull.com Organization: Bull Worldwide Information Systems Inc. Lines: 61 Nntp-Posting-Host: dali.pws.bull.com In-reply-to: cfields@athena.mit.edu's message of 25 Jul 90 04:57:19 GMT In article <1990Jul25.045719.21115@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> cfields@athena.mit.edu (Craig Fields) writes: [functionality discussion deleted] With the calendar program, the recipients will eventually "incorporate" their new meetings. These new meetings will come up in a distinct window at this point. Meetings may be tagged as "tentative," "final," or "cancelled," though in the case of just having received a new meeting it is much more likely to be "tentative." At this point the recipient has the option of responding to the (proposed) meeting time one of "yes," "no," or "maybe," along with a bit of text for a counter-proposal time or whatever s/he may wish to say about it. In addition to this, the recipient chooses whether to add this appointment to the calendar or not, and whether or not it should show up as time that s/he is "busy." These responses are returned through the server to the initiator of the proposed meeting, who may decide either to finalize that meeting time, or to cancel that meeting proposal and initiate a new one for a different time. Finalizations and cancellations of meetings will again go through the server to the recipients. So does anyone see any major problems with this? Where to begin. First off, nothing I say should be seen as a slam against Craig, his program (which I haven't seen), or anyone else doing calendar/ scheduling systems. Craig wanted to know what the problems might be, so here are a few off the top of my head. First off, there are the standard problems with using email for notifications in that (1) you can't tell when/if a message is delivered; (2) you can't tell when/if someone's read the message you're interested in. Second, the idea of incorporation looks at first glance something like the transaction problem in databases. What will happen when two people have "incorporated" the meeting into their calendars, but then the organizer decides to change it as a result of one person's objection? Can the other calendars be reliably "rolled back" to the state they were in before incorporation? Remember that other (valid) events may have been incorporated between the original time and the time you want to try a rollback. Third, if someone wants to counter-propose, how will they know a good time to suggest? Will they have access to the same set(s) of calendars that the meeting originator did? The concept of adding an appointment but not having the time show up as busy strikes me as kind of odd and likely to increase your rate of collisions. Fifth, if I have made a response/counter-proposal to a meeting, how long must I wait to know if that time is committed or if my suggestion will be adopted? Do I see other people's counter-proposals? None of these are total show-stoppers, but you *did* ask... -- --Alan Wexelblat Bull Worldwide Information Systems internet: wex@pws.bull.com phone: (508) 294-7485 (new #) Usenet: spdcc.com!slug!wex "Zen is the essense of Christianity, of Buddhism, of culture, of all that is good in the daily life of ordinary people. But that does not mean we are not to smash it flat if we get the slightest opportunity."