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CalConnect’s first Asian event: CalConnect XXXI in Hong Kong

Registration is now open for CalConnect’s first event in Asia:  CalConnect XXXVI, April 18-22 2016, in Hong Kong, hosted by Ribose and OGCIO (the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer).

CalConnect XXXVI will be a first for us in other ways:  in addition to being our first Asian event, it will be our first CalConnect as part of a larger event, Hong Kong’s 2016 ITFEST.  This three-week series of programs, sessions, forums and other IT-related programming will include a CalConnect Public Day on Wednesday the 20th, and a CalConnect Seminar Tuesday evening at Hong Kong University.

Our regular event schedule will be modified to enable us to offer the Public Day:  Monday and Tuesday will be the Interoperability Test Event, Wednesday the Public Day, Thursday and Friday will be the conference.

CalConnect’s Asia/Pacific presence has begun to grow, with members in Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia, and it is our intent that CalConnect XXXVI will be the first, but by no means the only, CalConnect event in Asia.

We encourage CalConnect members to join us in Hong Kong, and we encourage non-members to join us as observers at our conference, and perhaps to observe — or participate — in the interoperability test event.  For mroe information about the event venue (Cyberport), hotels, registration information, and schedule, please see CalConnect XXXVI.

CalConnect Implements New Website

We welcome you to the new CalConnect website at www.calconnect.org.  The new site is easier to navigate and is mobile device friendly.

We are in a transition period during which some pages and content from the old website will still be needed, so the old site has been retained at calconnect.org with suitable cautions and links to the new site.

Only three weeks to CalConnect XXXV January 11-15 2016

Well, actually it’s a few days more than three weeks. BUT the point is, if you’re planning to come to AOL in Palo Alto for CalConnect XXXV, it’s time to register and make your arrangements. Info about CalConnect XXXV can be found at http://www.calconnect.org/calconnect35.shtml; registration info is at http://www.calconnect.org/regtypes.shtml .

Early registration will end on 27 December for the conference; as of 28 December it will go up to $395.

Remember, you can come to a CalConnect conference as an observer to decide if you want to be involved without joining first.

See you in Palo Also!

 

CalConnect Welcomes Eventable

CalConnect welcomes Eventable as a member of the Consortium. Eventable, based in New York City, makes it easy for any organization to send and share events on the web.

CalConnect is seeking a web development company for a new website

CalConnect has issued an RFP for development of a new website.  If you are part of or know of a web development company that you think would be interested and appropriate, please forward the link to the RFP to them, or send us contact information at the e-mail address below.

The RFP is available for download from the CalConnect website at http://www.calconnect.org/documents/RFP%20CalConnect%20Website%2020151103_3.pdf.
The RFP is for a public website to replace our current website, and we are hoping to move extremely quickly — responses are requested by the end of the day Wednesday the 11th, with a selection to be made as soon as possible afterwards so work can begin.

Responses to the RFP should be made to the CalConnect Executive Director, Dave.Thewlis@calconnect.org by midnight UTC on Wednesday 11 November.

Feel free to contact me with any questions

Dave Thewlis, Executive Director, CalConnect

Registration is open for CalConnect XXXV at AOL in Palo Alto, California, January 11-15, 2016

Registration is now open and hotel reservations may be made for CalConnect XXXV in Palo Alto, California, January 11-15, 2016, hosted by AOL.

The CalConnect XXXV web page is located at http://www.calconnect.org/calconnect35.shtml and contains hotel information and booking, airport and transfer information, meeting venue, international travel information, etc.

We have moved the event forward two weeks because the Superbowl will be in Santa Clara in early February, which means that hotel bookings are already getting difficult and rates are going up even for our new dates of 11-15 January. Therefore, if you are planning or considering coming to this event we strongly encourage you to book your hotel as soon as possible! And you are encouraged to register at the same time.

The conference hotel is Dinah’s Garden Hotel in Palo Alto. The hotel is offering an AOL rate of $240 per night, however that may depend on availability as the hotels in the area are already filling up and raising their rates. The conference hotel is about 1.5 miles from AOL’s headquarters at 395 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, California 94306. The web page for the event also lists other hotels which may or may not offer an AOL rate during our target week.

We will be at AOL’s headquarters for the entire week, as noted above at 395 Page Mill Road, about 1.5 miles from the conference hotel.

Please note that, to obtain the AOL rate at the Conference Hotel, you cannot book online. The event web page offers telephone numbers for the hotel; please call the hotel to book, and say you want the AOL rate.

A preliminary schedule for the week ss posted on the event web page. The interoperability test event will take place Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning; the Conference will be Wednesday afternoon through Friday. We will be using our new format for the conference; most conference sessions will be higher-level strategy and cross-TC, with some specific very detailed discussions held during the interoperability test event. We expect that the schedule and program will evolve over time, so check the web page periodically. The conference program has not been determined as yet so only an outline of meal and break times is available. We will announce immediately when the conference program has been finalized.

Highlighted Sessions at CalConnect XXIV in Amsterdam

We have several sessions planned for the CalConnect Conference in Amsterdam (September 30 – October 2) that we feel are of special interest and should be highlighted:

Wednesday September 30

1400-1445
Event-type Registry:
Developing standard categorizations for event publication to aid searching and relating events.

1600-1800
Calendaring in Government Panel Discussion:
Citizens, companies and governments are looking for ways to ease and standardise communication. Time related information could very well be communicated via existing standards and systems. Topics include what makes governments special when it comes to C&S; what are governmental use cases?
This session is open to the public by invitation; e-mail us if you are interested in attending.

Thursday October 1

0830-0930
API – JMAP+REST
Developing a new lighter-weight API for calendaring.

1600-1700
Scheduling model changes
Extend the enterprise scheduling model to support the social calendaring interactions which takes place today. For example, multiple organizers, self-invitation(signup) etc.

1700-1800
Recurrences – alternative models
A new model to avoid the issues with long running recurring events that are always modified. For example the weekly meeting with a different agenda.

Friday October 2

0945-1030
RSCALE – non Gregorian calendar scales
How RSCALE allows non-Gregorian recurrences to be specified as part of iCalendar events.

1330-1430
Publishing events with QRCODE and data URI
Formulate an approach to publishing events within the limitations of QRCODEs and data URIs; develop rules for publishing recurrences and instances.

For the complete schedule of the CalConnect Conference please see http://www.calconnect.org/calconnect34.shtml#schedule.

Registration is open for CalConnect XXXIV in Amsterdam 28 September – 2 October 2015

Registration is now open and hotel reservations may be made for CalConnect XXXIV in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Sep 28 – Oct 2 2015, hosted by Gershon Janssen.

The CalConnect XXXIV web page is located at http://www.calconnect.org/calconnect34.shtml and contains hotel information and booking, airport and transfer information, meeting venue, international travel information, etc.

The conference hotel is The Motel One Amsterdam-RAI which is brand new (it opens in mid August) and doesn’t have a web page yet. Our host, Gershon Janssen, has arranged a special room rate of about €110 per night at the hotel (this is an average for a single room; prices Sunday-Tuesday are much higher than Wednesday-Friday). We have a room block of 20 rooms which will expire 1 September after which no guarantees of price or availability.

The hotel is about 800 meters from the venue, The Rosarium Amsterdam. We will be at the Rosarium for the entire week.

Please note that, to obtain the special CalConnect rate, you cannot book online; the event web page offers an e-mail address or a telephone number which you may contact to request a booking, referring to the “CalConnect” group code. The hotel will call back as needed or e-mail you to confirm particulars including a credit card if you wish to guarantee the booking.

If you wish to make alternative hotel arrangements, please be aware that due to a large medical convention in the same area of Amsterdam the same week. hotel rooms are pretty limited, and it would be wise to book as soon as possible.

A schedule and conference program is posted on the CalConnext XXXIV web page. The interoperability test event will take place Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, as usual; the Conference will be Wednesday afternoon through Friday. Our format will follow that of our last meeting: most Conference sessions will be higher-level strategy and cross-TC, with some specific very detailed discussions held during break-outs in the interoperability test event. We expect that the schedule and program will evolve over time, so check the web page periodically.

Hope to see you in Amsterdam for CalConnect XXXIV; please contact us with any questions.

CalConnect Welcomes Open-Xchange

CalConnect welcomes Open-Xchange to the Consortium. Open-Xchange, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, offers OX App Suite, a device independent, highly scalable middleware platform that integrates messaging, collaboration and third-party cloud-based applications into a single browser interface.