[Calendarserver-discuss] Free Software calendaring and groupware (in and beyond Debian)

[Paul Boddie]

On Tuesday 20. October 2015 08.30.51 Guido Günther wrote:
> > 
> > Is there a consensus about improving Debian's calendaring and groupware
> > offerings, and does Debian offer a venue where such Free Software
> > offerings can be developed and enhanced - a bit like the way Debian
> > offers FreedomBox such a venue - to become a more obvious choice for
> > people wanting to take advantage of such functionality?
> 
> Although the next meeting/sprint is several months off we have s.th. in
> Debian that's exactly for these kinds of topics:
> 
>     https://wiki.debian.org/GroupwareMeeting2015-04-24to26
>     https://wiki.debian.org/Groupware

Yes, I've edited this last page once or twice. I guess what I'm missing is 
whether there's a strategy for delivering groupware components that get people 
started easily, whether that is just to use this kind of functionality or 
whether it is to develop related solutions.

A bit of context here: I've been writing components that integrate with MTAs 
to handle calendaring messages, and aside from the conventional usage of such 
things to handle person-to-person scheduling, there's also the potential for 
developing automated solutions for scheduling. Kolab provides a daemon for 
this kind of thing called Wallace, and I imagine other solutions do similar 
things.

However, very few solutions actually seem to describe their architecture in a 
way that makes it obvious how people might develop these things further, 
especially in a way that is independent of a particular solution or technology 
stack. I'd hoped that people had done things "the Unix way" in the past and 
that I'd find mail-related tools that dealt with calendar messages and other 
things, but it seems like an area where everybody does their own thing.

> There's also the #debian-groupware IRC Channel on freenet.

I may drop in, although I don't usually find IRC particularly productive.

> I for myself am currently using calypso for calendaring (and somewhat
> for contacts). I intend to look into CalDavZAP/Infcloud to get this web
> based too.

Which calendar client do you use, if I may ask? I've looked at Kontact, 
Lightning/Iceowl and Claws (with calendar plugin), and they each have their 
strengths and weaknesses. I also have some experience with Roundcube's 
calendar plugin for Kolab, and I've seen what things like Horde (with 
Kronolith) offer. I've even developed some Web-based functionality of my own, 
which has been informative.

Paul