I often marvel at the number of colleagues and groups I belong to who still use email in order to set up meetings. How long does this take when there are more than two or three people involved? the answer is - too long!In fact, often longer to set up the meeting than to hold it! Tools like Outlook Calendar make such things simple: they enable us to view a whole group's calendars and identify slots where the meeting could be scheduled - BUT ONLY IF THE WHOLE GROUP AGREES TO USE IT SENSIBLY! It only takes one person not keeping their calendar up to date, or not making it 'open' for others to see, to wreck it for everyone. Of course, some people are sensitive about having their calendar open for everyone to view. They should remember that not ALL appointments need to be viewable - it is quite proper for some parts of the day or week to be marked as 'private appointments' or for certain times to be marked as not available for meetings. It's not necessary to make your calendar so open that others can book time without your permission. They can identify when you are free and invite you to attend a meeting - still giving you the option of sugggesting an alternative time, or even declining the meeting altogether.

Google Calendar is another Wiki tool that works well for sharing of Calendar information for business and personal scheduling. With Google Calendar it is very simple to keep many separate but cross related calendars for both business and personal activities, specific contacts can be invited to share calendar information at various access levels.

I didn't know about google calendar. thanks for the heads-up. i will give this a test run from a 'newbies' perspective and report back on ease of use, and simplicity. take care. mjl

contributed by Michael Laine on Aug 13 9:07am