2010 Unconference Invitation - Bedework Groups

Owned by Jonathan Markow
Last updated: Sept 24, 2010Version comment
2 min read

2010 Jasig Unconference, St. Francis University, Joliet, IL

Oct 18 - Oct 20, 2010 - 2 1/2 days of sessions followed by developer-implementer days, Oct 20 - 21

Register now:  https://wiki.jasig.org/x/KIDNAQ

This will be the first Jasig Unconference where Bedework is a Jasig sponsored project.  Bedework developers have participated in previous Jasig Unconferences and found them both productive and enjoyable, but this year represents an opportunity to provide really great value to the Bedework community. 

In previous postings, I enumerated some potential Unconference topics -  Calendaring as an app/platform;  Integration with other applications ;  Authentication;  Installation and configuration;
Internationalization;  Documentation;  Bedework and calendaring clients;  BW and the cloud

However, some recent developments have brought to the fore some topics which I am very excited about, and perhaps many of you will find them just as exciting:

  •  Portable Contacts, W3C, IETF Vcard WG – Bedework implements the IETF vCard V4 standard, which was almost in last-call when the Portable Contacts group and the W3C suggested that it might be in everyone’s interests to  find common ground for interoperability across the work of these three groups. Mike Douglass has been involved in some of those conversations, and can help position what is going on, and what it might mean in a Bedework context.
  • We anticipate a Bedework 3.7 milestone release will be available prior to the Unconference.  This release is largely a product of the collaboration between RPI and the University of California at Berkeley, and focuses on personal calendaring.   BW 3.7 will have much improved CardDAV and addressbook capabilities, and implements the (evolving) CalConnect/OASIS web service interface. This would be a great time to talk about, and contribute to, Bedework 3.7.
  • We announced on the BW lists that, PostgreSQL is now the recommended OSS DBMS for use with Bedework. The Unconference would be a great opportunity to discuss DBMSes and Bedework.
  •  CalWS-Rest Restful Web Services Protocol for Calendaring has been published as a CalConnect Proposal, and  provides a RESTful web services protocol for calendaring operations.  The proposal has been submitted to OASIS for inclusion in the WS-Calendar specification. Mike Douglass served as editor for the CalConnect document, and as co-editor of the OASIS standard-in-progress. Bedework 3.7 implements the current state of this work. Cal-WS and Bedework would be another good topic.
  • There is now a plug-in for Thunderbird Lightning ((http://gitorious.org/lightning-exchange-provider/pages/Home)) which provides access to   Microsoft Exchange calendars in Thunderbird, via Exchange’s (2007 and 2010 only) web services. We could discuss developing a similar capability in Bedework.
  • And, perhaps most importantly – this is your Unconference. Use the bully pulpit of a  lightning talk to discuss your Bedework implementation or special interests.

Those of you  who are now deploying  Bedework, those who have recently deployed Bedework, or those of you considering a Bedework deployment may find the Unconference a great venue to jumpstart your Bedework projects, and to become better acquainted, and involved with, the Bedework Community.

Bedework developers Mike Douglass, Arlen Johnson, Barry Leibson will be at the Unconference. They look forward to meeting fellow Bedework-ers  at St. Francis University in Joliet.

Gary Schwartz, Chair, Bedework Steering Committee