CALENDAR INTEROP UW's View on Objectives, Status & Obstacles
CALENDAR INTEROP UW's View on Objectives, Status & Obstacles. Terry Gray. 03 June 2010. MEETING OBJECTIVES. Shared view of current pain, opportunities, and challenges Brainstorming on options and Best Ways Forward Foundation for future progress. AGENDA. Introductions
CALENDAR INTEROP UW's View on Objectives, Status & Obstacles
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Presentation Transcript
CALENDAR INTEROP UW's View on Objectives, Status & Obstacles Terry Gray 03 June 2010
MEETING OBJECTIVES • Shared view of current pain, opportunities, and challenges • Brainstorming on options and Best Ways Forward • Foundation for future progress
AGENDA • Introductions • Setting the Stage -Terry • Google Perspective -Chris • Microsoft Perspective -Paul • UW Perspectives -Erik, David, Brad • Update on CalConnect -Paul • Converging on Key Issues -All • Identifying Best Approaches -All
THE PROBLEM Google Calendar User Outlook/ Exchange User IT Staff http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/bobhope/images/vcvg20.jpg
CONTEXT: Research Universities • Mission: discovery & innovation • Means: extreme collaboration • Globally, at scale • Culture: decentralized; diffuse authority • Collections of many independent businesses • A microcosm of “the Internet” http://liu.english.ucsb.edu/wiki1/images/4/4c/Collaboration.gif “Industry turns ideas into money; Universities turn money into ideas.” --Craig Hogan
COLLABORATION VISION the illusion of simplicity and coherence! • Seamless & simple collaboration across multiple platforms & orgs • Cal/Scheduling “just works” • Doc sharing invitations “just work” • User & resource discovery is easy no matter where data is hosted. • Robust federation replaces “Multiple Account Madness”
THE PLAYING FIELD UW Exchange Servers Microsoft Live@edu + BPOS Other cloud services UW SharePoint Servers Other universities Google Apps UW IMAP & Web Servers The IT challenge: make collaboration work in this context!
CLASSES OF USERS (both MS & Google) • Within a given collaboration platform: • Full suite of apps • Basic email/cal services • Calendar only • Collaborator only • Across collaboration platforms • Entitled users • Invited collaborators (should not need local credentials)
INTEROPERABILITY ELEMENTS • Access control to calendar data; account assumptions • Data format (e.g. iCal, .ics) • Transfer/Access protocol (e.g. CalDAV, Web Svcs API) • Autodiscover for authoritative data (per user, per group) • Client design re profiles, individual v. group context/domain • System-wide vs. per-user configuration
IDEALLY • Exchange & Gcal users can be freely intermixed • At both department and individual level • Existing tools work the same for scheduling all users • Don't need accounts for everyone on each system • System admins can easily configure things for everyone • Delegation, Resources, and Recurring meetings work • Scheduling works across institutions, not just across depts • Don't need to keep an Outlook client running to sync • Solution works Live@edu, not just on-prem Exchange
THINGS WE'VE TRIED • Google server-to-Outlook sync tool (deprecated) • Google server-to-server sync tool (permissions issues) • Google apps sync plugin for Outlook (separate Profile) • DIY Exchange web svcs to web page tool(s) • DIY One-way Google → Exchange sync tool
KEY ISSUES • Is CalDAV still important (vs. Web Svcs APIs)? • Server-to-server vs. client-to-other-guy's-server approaches • Autodiscover vs. configured precedence lists • Account & access control assumptions • Client design assumptions (“native” vs. “foreign” users) • Scheduling resources (rooms) • Departmental domains vs. selective group access
Lifting the fog at UW... DISCUSSION