A long time ago I wrote some sort of a web based calendar application, and one of the things we included in it was the ability to download the events to your computer's electronic calendar. It's so long ago that I almost forgot about it.
Either way, lately I've been trying to free up my head from remembering things like dates and times and really started getting back into organising my computer's and phone's calendar. They're synchronised so I don't have to worry about that. My mail application helps me a bit with these smart tags (or whatever they're called) so that I get this little highlight and a drop down on words that resemble dates and times. It's really easy for me to create a calendar event from it.
But 99% (not scientific 99%) of all websites I visit that have some sort of events do not supply any way for me to easily enter that into my calendar. What's wrong with these people?! Don't they want me to attend their events?!
Let me give you a few examples;
I like watching The Gadget Show, if not simply for the content but also to see how much Jason Bradbury's eyewear frames have grown since the last episode. I went to Five.tv's website to look for a program schedule - there was none, and natually there wasn't an iCal/vCal download.
I want to go to Silverstone Classic, so naturally I'd like to mark it in my calendar. You guessed it, no event iCal/vCal.
I use RadioTimes.com website to check when stuff is on TV... That's correct, there's no easy way to enter that data into my calendar.
I wanted to track Apple's WWDC 2009 keynote. I checked several websites for info, none of them had a downloadable iCal/vCal calendar entry.
I've been to several high-profile concerts this year and last, and none of the vendors of the tickets, including Ticketmaster and Seetickets, offered iCal/vCal downloads.
And so forth, and so forth. Not a single one! None!
I seldom get very animated by stuff like this, but here goes;
WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?!?!?
Don't you want people to attend your events? Don't you want people to watch your shows?Here's a tip for all of you web developers and web development sales guys/project managers out there; Have a look on your clients website and see if there's any information pertaining to dates and times on the site, and if there is, go sell them "your new downloadable calendar entry". Go do it!
Here's a tip for all of you content providers and event organisers; DEMAND THIS NOW. NOW!
Thank you. I feel better now (until next time I sit there copy-pasting dates incrorrectly from a web page to my calendar).