Cronofy joins CalConnect

Calendaring systems have been around for many years and the work that has been undertaken to help them interoperate is of key interest to us. Be it a common understanding of timezones or being able to query availability across multiple services, standards encapsulate deep consideration and planning in order to make these interactions possible.

Whilst not every calendar service provider adheres to the agreed standards, it is important that the Cronofy plaform can deliver a rich experience for users who use a standards compliant calendar service. Plus, if there is an opportunity to guide future development of standards to better serve the calendar use cases we see, we have a responsibility to do so.

To this end, Cronofy is now a member of CalConnect, the calendaring standards body.

CalConnect

CalConnect’s purpose is to improve all aspects of calendaring and scheduling, particularly interoperability. Its membership comprises key industry figures like Apple and Google as well as focussed service and software providers for whom calendaring is a crucial component. Now Cronofy has joined the core gathering.

CalConnect and its members focus on improving existing standards, developing new standards, offering interoperability testing for calendaring and scheduling systems and tools, collaborating with other organizations with similar goals, and conducting periodic conferences where engineers and customers meet and interact in a collegial atmosphere.

Although CalConnect is not a formal standards development organization, virtually every important calendaring or calendaring-related standard over the last five years has been authored, edited and/or co-edited by members of a CalConnect Technical Committee.

At the core of Cronofy’s mission is making it super-easy for any developer to integrate their apps with their users’ calendars. As a result, contributing to the work of CalConnect is crucial to ensuring calendars evolve into the platform upon which we can run our lives.

CalConnect XXXVI in Hong Kong

CalConnect meet three times a year, and it was to one of these meetings that Garry and I were invited to meet other members and start to understand the inner workings of the organisation. We participated in the strategy discussions, engaged with members of the technical commmittees, and learned where we could most add value.

The work of these meetings is generally behind closed doors; however at this meeting, a public day split the interoperability testing and the conference. As newcomers, this was a welcome intro to the organization as we learnt about its origins and how it has evolved since its founding in 2004. We also participated in panel sessions covering calendaring for developers (Garry) and the future of calendaring (Adam).

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We learned a lot about how the calendaring standards are developed and we’re looking forward to an active membership of CalConnect.