Use BAR codes to encode schedules.
In Japan, virtually any phone has BAR code reader, which is widely used to read the URLs.
Writing down new events to the mobile phone through it's tiny keyboard is damn inconvient and time consuming, my idea is to use the existing bar-code reading system to automatically enter events published on posters and other places.
For that, needs to do the following:
1. Start a domain dedicated for storing the information about schedules. Something like schedules' database:
scheduler.jp/?[schedule_id]
Everyone could create new schedules, every schedule would have a unique ID.
* Make phones recognize the domain schedule.jp, and open it with the built-in scheduler rather than the built-in browser. The scheduler would allow to add the events from the scanned schedule to your own schedule in various ways.
Phone would retrieve the information about schedules and their updates via internet.
Schedules could be transferred using XML, much like are RSS feeds.
There of course should be an easy way to subscirbe and unsubscribe to the schedules, similar like subscribing and unsubscribing the RSS feeds.
E.g., I enter a school, and receive a schedule I'll have to attend. The school would issue these kind of schedules. I would simply read or enter the link, and my schedule would automatically be on my phone, always up to date, if I want to, I could choose to be reminded before the events I want. There would dynamically appear new planned information for lectures (description of the future lectures).
E.g., I see a poster of a party I am interested in, I scan the schedule (which perhaps has only one event) and can quickly see how it fits into my current events, see how much time I have to get to the place, see the fuller description of it. There could even be shown the information of people subscribed to that event or anything.
E.g., I work at a company. I get a schedule from the company. If there is planned a meeting somewhere, the schedule manager could enter the information about the meeting into my job schedule, so I really wouldn't miss it. (it might be that I would see it too late and I might not be able to prepare for it, but yea, the events of dynamic schedules could have some kind of reminders about them indefinitely long before the events actually take place)
So.. what would such schedules do is make people MORE INVOLVED in social activities, SAVE TIME, make people LESS LATE.-- Inyuki, Nov 16 2005 semacode http://semacode.org/square 'barcodes' for enocoding URLs [neilp, Nov 16 2005] iCalendar standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar [Inyuki, Nov 22 2005] http://slashdot.org http://it.slashdot....d=1&tid=109&tid=218Microsoft Proposes RSS Extension [Inyuki, Nov 23 2005] Would I be able to print party-invitation stickers with barcodes on them? If so, then bun. Personally, I fear nothing short of a mobile jet-powered bed controlled by a floating airship full of personal assistants will prevent me from being late.-- moomintroll, Nov 16 2005 Yea, printing these kind of BAR codes on fliers is one of the uses I was bearing in mind !-- Inyuki, Nov 16 2005 + there could be a feature to quickly determine the mutually free time, which would ease/quicken arranging new meetings.-- Inyuki, Nov 16 2005 brilliant idea - a bit "let's all", but lovely. They don't necessarily even need to be barcodes, any unique image would do the trick.-- neilp, Nov 16 2005 ah, I see, I think you're talking about SEMACODES.. if so, why not just link to a URL which contains a .ics file ? problem solved.. no need for a new server, or a let's all. (see link)-- neilp, Nov 16 2005 Well, semacodes are what I was talking about. :)-- Inyuki, Nov 17 2005 .ics is okay, it only needs to make phones support it, make them check for updates, similarly as RSS readers do check for RSS updates.
Is there any calendar information sharing XML standard?-- Inyuki, Nov 17 2005 I'm sure there are a few, but ics is fairly well supported. You could use RDF if you wanted to go over the top, but I'd just stick with the non-standard standard that works - if Apple, Windows and Mozilla support it, you've got a lot of bases covered.-- neilp, Nov 17 2005 Interesting factoid: I used to have a video recorder that was programmed by scanning bar codes on a sheet.-- Ling, Nov 17 2005 Semacode is cool, but why can't a particularly clear font be used for character recognition with the camera?
Saves space having to display the semacode AND text for an event or URL.-- subflower, Nov 17 2005 This is such a good idea. They have a similar type thing with tickets or swipe cards for trade-shows etc but not as ubiquitous as the cell phone idea.-- Zuzu, Nov 17 2005 UPDATE: According to the comments, I think it's enough to make phones read the kind of files, so ppl could easily encode them to links and put to the internet like RSS files.
However, I think there would be highly preferable another functionality -- Ability to quickly compare several schedules of two or more people to find free times for everyone, in order to make the planning of meetings and so on easier.
As every personal schedule consists of some schedule feeds, which are read by the cell phone from the internet, in order to exchange the information, one need to transfer all the feeds to another person's phone.
For this, I think the solution could be a server, which would keep the accounts of mobile phone users and communicate with the schedulers of the mobile phones, and produce the aggregation file of all the schedules of each person, producing an aggregated XML file for exchange, so in order to give your schedule to your friend, you would only need to give one single link, where your schedule is synchronically aggregated with the schedule that you aggregate with you phone.
This aggregated file shouldn't be a simple mergining of events. There should be complete information about origin of the schedules, and separate events that another person is personally planned, too. BUT. It would be good that you could make information about the description of some events not seeable to other people, when they download your XML, and be able to control, who could see some of the events.
For that, There could be possibility to ASK about an event. You could press on the event on your phone, and choose to request the information about it. Another person would see the request, and according to the who is requesting and what is written in the request, choose to give the description, or both add and give the description, or just reply the description for that person.
The communication between the mobile phones would be established through a server, so in order to discuss (get/send) the schedule information, you would need to connect to the internet via the phone connection.
It could be then used for planning a meeting, discussing the future classes and future events. E.g., we all don't know, what's gonna be in the test tomorrow, so we add a question to the schedule. The one who manages the schedule, would answer.
That is, if you ask a question browsing another person's schedule and add a question, it's a question for that person, if you browsing an organization's schedule file, and request info about some event, it's a question for the manager of the file.
However, there should be possiblity to add the question not just for the manager, but also for people in your address book, that are subscribed to that schedule.-- Inyuki, Nov 22 2005 Microsoft is proposing an extension of RSS for scheduling, so maybe .ics, maybe xml...-- Inyuki, Nov 23 2005 random, halfbakery