Scott Adams Blog: Calendar as Filter 05/08/2009

May 8, 2009 General Nonsense | Notify

Recently I wrote that newspapers (all of them online) would become extremely local to your family. CNN had a similar article recently, but what they call hyperlocal is your community, not your family. So that isn't nearly local enough in my view.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/01/future.online.news.hyperlocal/index.html?iref=t2test_techtues

Moreover, I think the family calendar is the organizing principle into which all external information should flow. I want the kids' school schedules for sports and plays and even lunch choices to automatically flow into the home calendar. And when I want to decide what to do on the weekend, I want to click on the date for next Saturday and have all the relevant choices of plays, movies, and events pop up.

Everything you do has a time dimension. If you are looking for a new home, the open houses are on certain dates, and certain houses that fit your needs are open at certain times. If you are shopping for some particular good, you often need to know the store hours. Your calendar needs to know your shopping list and preferences so it can suggest good times to do certain things.

Time is closely related to distance. On a typical night, for a typical family, there is much driving to and fro to deliver people and goods to where they need to be. Sometimes it is more complicated than a Fedex route. It would be nice if the family calendar helped us plan the shortest routes to accomplish all goals. The calendar just needs to know what I need and when, then plan which family member with a car is nearest.

Perhaps your calendar could suggest some carpooling as well, all automatically. I don't need to know my friends' business, but if their calendars and mine spoke to each other and found some common driving patterns it could shoot us both an offer to carpool, assuming we had approved those friends in advance for such offers. My phone would get the offer and I could confirm with a simple text message response.

When I read the news, I'm generally most interested in how stories have unfolded across time. I want to know the "new news," as in the topics that have never been reported until today, but I also want ongoing charts and graphs about the "old news" such as wars and the economy. My understanding of the war in Iraq, for example, has little to do with what blew up today and a lot to do with the trend lines over the entire war. In other words, I see the news in terms of time.

In most families, everyone keeps their own calendar and does a spotty job of sharing what's on it with everyone else. In time that calendar coordination will happen electronically. And most of the information will come from external sources, such as your schools, clubs, and organizations to which you belong.

Some time ago I blogged that advertising belongs in your electronic calendar, for your benefit more than for the advertiser. That's because my interest and desire in certain products and services is linked to timing. If my calendar has a certain birthday coming up in a week, and I've checked the boxes saying the person is a certain age and gender, or has certain hobbies, my calendar can start giving me gift suggestions and recommending online flowers and e-cards and the like. In other words, advertisements can move from nuisance to valuable service just by adjusting when you see them.

I think the biggest software revolution of the future is that the calendar will be the organizing filter for most of the information flowing into your life. You think you are bombarded with too much information every day, but in reality it is just the timing of the information that is wrong. Once the calendar becomes the organizing paradigm and filter, it won't seem as if there is so much.

Votes: +8

Comments

mensley1

-1

Apr 20, 2011

This is exactly what Bievo (myBievo.com) does. It matches all of my events to my family calendar. My kid's baseball program enters a practice, it automatically shows up on my calendar. I even get my school lunch menu and the weather pushed directly into my family calendar and directly out to my phone.

It has been great for my family. My wife and I are finally on the same page. She sets up a dentist appointment, I see it on my calendar as well.

Jsinger5

Jun 8, 2009

It Starts: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/08/isnt-it-time-your-kids-school-used-a-web-based-calendar/

Campaigns for web based calendars compatable with popular online calendars.

BrianDoc

May 15, 2009

You might try our service - www.airset.com - we let you set up calendars for all of the important groups in your life and then you can see the overlap of the events from these different groups. We actually do more than calendaring, we give each group their own virtual server in the cloud (for free) and the calendar is just one of the apps that run on that server. When you join the service you get your own personal cloud computer, which of course has your own personal calendar. You can sync this to Outlook or your phone. Then as you add group servers for your family, work group, little league teams, etc. they are all automatically networked to your personal cloud computer. There is an "All Cloud Computer" view where each application will import the data from all of the cloud computers on your network to let you see the combination. In the calendar this creates a color coded calendar where the events from the different groups show up with the color that has been set for each group. You can also subscribe to external calendars (using the iCalendar standard). We don't have some of the cool features you outlined but many of the things you are looking for can be done.

brownd4d

-2

May 15, 2009

THERE IS NOT NOW NOR HAS THERE EVER BEEN A REAL FREE MARKET. IN THE US ITS A CODE WORD FOR A BIG CON. THE ONLY PROPLE WHO STILL PUSH IT ARE CROOKS AND THIER CONNED. IT SELLS CARS AND TOOTHPASTE. IT IS NOT A WAY TO RUN A GOV. READ WHAT ADAM SMITH REALLY SAID, NOT WHAT THEY SAY HE SAID. OR LOOK WHAT HE DID WHEN HE WAS IN GOV.

davidtg

May 11, 2009

This is an interesting idea. I've been thinking about the same sort of thing for a long time. My family uses a web-based calendar, and much like the diary idea from an earlier comment we use it to plan what we want to do so that we avoid conflicts. There are time-based appointments, but most are just of the "go flying today" or "camping this week" variety. It's much easier for me to have my meal planning, vacation planning, birthdays and anniversaries, and when the hot water heater man is going to come in one place that I can reference than to try to keep it all in my head.

I'd like the ability to subscribe to other calendars, but that will take both format convergence and, in many cases, public/private concept maturity. This is one of those ideas that sounds corny right now but will be great in about ten years once a lot of visionary people have played with it and refined it. So get to work :-)

dlex700

May 11, 2009

Great idea in theory, but hard to actually implement.

Where I work, we use Outlook calendars which are integrated into everyone's schedule and room availabilities. This would be great, except that when people don't really fill in appointments, meetings, vacations, etc, you don't know their real schedule. Out of about every 100 people, only 5-10 may actually be on top of things and actually use the calendar to schedule everything. At least 30 or so don't really know how to use a computer, and take a whole day just to type a few emails and reports. The rest of the people are too busy to go back and fill in their calendars with what they are doing. In this environment, we are mostly going from one thing to another. I spend more than half my day away from the computer, so I don't have time to go back and fill in what I am planning on working on, especially if it can change in a moment's notice because of an immediate need.

When I get home, I don't want to go log into my computer and schedule out my time. I just want to do what I want to do or what needs to be done. If I want to find out what everyone is doing, I can call them. I am sure that teenagers at least will not want their parents to know what they are doing all the time. At home, it will be just like at work, only a small fraction of people will actually keep everything updated. Since the numbers at home are so much smaller, that means only 1 might actually use their calendar as a scheduling assistant, which defeats the whole purpose of calendar integration.

Also, I get enough junk mail and junk email that I don't want to get junk appointments or ads on my calendar. I mute commercials on TV, I throw out or burn ads I receive in the mail, and I don't pay attention to the ads on web pages. Very rarely am I swayed by product placement to buy something that I had no intention to do before I went somewhere. What I want to buy or do cannot be programmed. It can change from one hour to the next and highly depends on how I and others are feeling. I try to have a few things planned, but many times they get changed because they need to.

Some day, when we all have a V-chip implanted in our brains telling us what we want to do, then this idea might work. But then the supercomputer that controls the V-chips will dictate our schedules, not us.

gargamel9

May 11, 2009

Been a little in between the people that think that all technological progress or change is good in nature and the opposite ones that miss the middle ages, just to be the voice of neutrality between the two self destructive idiotic postures, I wonder if anyone will consider what will be the price of getting that local (taking localism to the family is so extreme it IMHO aint worth commenting, but I mean I can hardly imagine anything that would be worse for people than taking the current localism trend to the extreme and only read information about their own community).

Localism brings provincialism, and that is far from being a good thing. It makes people to not ever fell the need to better themselves, thinking they are already perfect the way the are, - the descendants of gods- . We see a lot of that in my country already, and believe me, not at all a good thing despite what they call that on tv.

That trend its understandable as cultural level in the mayority of the population continues its downward spiral and drop, people understand less and less of the world other than what is inmediatly in front of their eyes and what people dont understand they dont buy but.. is that provincianism desirable? Shouldnt that problem be adressed instead of supported?

rbammi

May 10, 2009

There is a site which attempts to exactly achieve this - http://www.rjenda.com

It is a website for family calendars, social groups, etc. In the words of the website developer -

In our familyâ€™s case, we realized that we were a part of 8-10 very active groups in our daily lives â€“ Home, extended family, friends, school classrooms, sport teams, volunteer committees, book clubs, high school friends, and more. We also realized that we communicated and shared differently with each of these groups, and so wanted a solution that gave us the flexibility and simplicity to do that for each group, yet in one place.

Dingbat

May 10, 2009

I've been advocating hyper-local advertising for years. I also proposed an interconnected, wall-hung, touch screen electronic calendar several years back. I wrote a nice note to Microsoft, suggesting that this would be a much more effective way to weasel into my home than their (then) world-domination-through-x-box scheme.

Problem is, it's going to be a long, long time before the advertisers I want to hear from get with the program. I raise bees, dairy goats, vegetables, chickens and teenagers (not necessarily in that order). Suppliers of teen gear would be all over my wall with helpful suggestions on how best to drain my bank account and sop up the dregs. Bee and goat suppliers, on the other hand, seem to struggle mightily with online ordering. I'd love to be prompted with helpful reminders of seasonal tasks, but alas I know they'll be at least a decade behind the curve.

Dan

May 9, 2009

Scott, some companies are allready trying: cozi.com tries to organize families calendar and their differentiator tries to be outlook (corporate) integration so that your family and work life are in sync (i.e. no need to keep two calendars) My Family and I tried it for a while but the deal breaker for me was that it gave everyone the opportunity to read change things from the cozi portal... but since my outlook calendar was tied to it... it meant that my family could change my at-work meeting information. This was the deal breaker so we stopped and today use Google calendars. No the best for me since I still need to keep the corporate one and the family one but I guess eventualy they will fix Cozi or someone will beat them to it.

But I don't think the calendar will evolve into the newspaper, like you mention, I think it's going to be the financial agreggators like mint.com, that will evolve into calendars and then news aggregators, why? Mint and similar services allready know where you live, how much you make and exactly what you spend on and, more importantly: when... I'll bet you Mint will eventually figure out better than me how often and exactly when I like to shop for groceries and when will my car run out of gas.... those services are mostly startups at this time so they will probably focus on making money first (they make commision on "helping you save money" a.k.a. "helping you switch banks and other service providers") but eventually, if the VC money does not run out or they get purchased by Google, Microsoft or Yahoo, they'll figure out that they can predict when you'll need a hair cut and when your dog needs a bath and start a service that sends meeting requests to my outlook as needed to "help me organize my time, not just my money". Later on they will try to provide relevant local content, sponsored by other local merchants, and, with the exact information of where I "spend" my day, it will be possible to give me super local news.

KarlNieb

May 9, 2009

Not related to this post, but I thought you'd like this article, Scott.

'Babyface' Looks Boost Success of Black CEOs, Study Says:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/05/08/babyface-black-ceo.html

Aardwizz

May 9, 2009

It's a grand idea, with a few wrinkles:

1) Most people live their lives doing what's URGENT instead of what's IMPORTANT. Shuttling little Johnny and Susie to their lessons, soccer games, parties, etc., etc., is URGENT, but taking time out of EVERY day to spend time with them is IMPORTANT. Somehow, we are in eachother's company for long stretches, but not spending time with them. The software should help people focus on the important-but-not-urgent more than the urgent-but-not-important. And bag the neither urgent nor important (like commenting on a Dilber Blog?)

2) I've seen companies put in ERP system to help them centrally manage all aspects of the corporate life. It always looks good on paper, but problems arise when (a) people are all equally organized, disciplined, and work the way the software intends them to. (b) those companies always need EXTRA people to "feed the beast". Rather than making life easier, it's amost always harder. Arguably better (at least they KNOW how much accounts payable are owed at any given nanosecond. But the money's still not there).

3) Figuring out how to (a) gather all the data needed, (b) organize it and (c)present it naturally is a non-trivial task for a product whose market you have to invent ("My Boynton "Mom's Calendar" is fine for this"). It's no wonder that ERP system cost 100s of thousands, just to install.

rambis

May 9, 2009

"You think you are bombarded with too much information every day, but in reality it is just the timing of the information that is wrong."

When would be a good time for me to see advertisements for penis enlargement pills? Because if I'm in front of a machine, it ain't size that's the problem.

kaladorn

May 9, 2009

There are only two aspects of your analysis I find problematic. Both are founded on assumptions.

The minor one is that I ever want to see advertising from anyone on any subject on any timing but *when I explicitly ask for it*. It's one thing to remind me a birthday is coming up - but the any app that then pops up 'helpful suggestions' of how I may spend money for vendours who are playing to catch my eye will be getting the old heave-ho. It isn't in my interest to have my own calendar acting as huckster for someone products and I doubt it ever will be. It's one thing to have a suggest button, it's another thing to do so automatically whether you want it or not.

The more major assumption appears to be that the degree of structure inherent in making your life rotate around appointments, calendars, and the hectic pace of modern life is something to be encouraged or taken for granted as a good thing. I would suggest that the modern pacing of life and the focus on scheduling aids, rigid timings, and so on has reduced the average happiness of John Q. Public. Of course, I can't prove it, but it is a gut feeling. I'm not suggesting we go to a totally unstructured life, but I think this is a continuum and we're pretty far off the one end. And providing tools to help keep us on that end of the continuum begs the question ' Why do we even want to be there?'

I know I am sizably more happy when I have unallocated time (it manages to fill itself adequately without planning tools) and when I'm not constantly racing from commitment to appointment to obligation to self-inflicted overscheduled event. I think, if there's anything we need from a Calendar app, its to help point out when we're doing too much, when we should think about creating more unstructured time, and when we should stop putting so much time pressure on ourselves. Find a way to make that work to help moderate the effects of our hectic lives and THEN you've got a Calendar that can do something useful - a hell of a lot more useful than telling me that Mother's Day is coming up and wouldn't I really like to buy XYZ for Mom? (as opposed to suggesting Mother's Day is coming up and wouldn't I like to spend some free time with Mom, devoid of other commitments and scheduled activities....)

Bloodboiler

May 9, 2009

ERP for family life? Seriously?

Here are the reasons why it will not work: Data input, social acceptability and rigidity.

- How are you going to get your family and friends to input and keep up to date all their transportation requirements and availability in advance so that the calendars can calculate routes and schedules?
- How are you going to make it socially unacceptable for anyone to change their schedules?
- etc. etc.

Family life is starting to show your PHD (pointy haired dad) side.

Chenlambec

May 9, 2009

I think that's a great idea (if I understood it right), to use an electronic calendar to maximize efficiency, I would definitely go for one of those. It perfectly fits into the niche created by neccesity and laziness. Excellent idea, I can't believe how little comments there are, and the lack of thumbs up. Obviously I have yet to read other people's comments where they rip your idea to shreds, but I think I'd still like it. Good job.

reachmanav

May 9, 2009

Are you not trying to convert your local neighbourhood into an IT Company???
Just like any corporate company, you wish to have -

- Upcoming Events List (may be, on a portal).
- Buy and Sell Portal (to sell/buy house, vehicle, etc).
- Food Schedule (for the whole month)
- Preferably, a floor secretary too! [:)]
- Weekly Newsletter

whataboutthehats

May 8, 2009

just a note to say thanks for making me laugh, scott. to reciprocate i would like to suggest gerald nachmans columns from san jose state titled "the portable nachman". i haven't read it since 1978 but one column about ants still makes me laugh when i think about it. peace.

gandalf123

May 8, 2009

thats a really cool idea...
ive seen that the key to success of every web app like this is 2 things:
1) Ubiquitous access: I want to see that calendar on my iPhone, my iPod, my Tivo, my browser, anywhere i can access the internet.
2) API: So that other web developers can build application on top of the basic calendar app.
I think Google calendar is pretty good in fulfilling the 2 criteria, but if we can build an app on top of google calendar that integrates all these SMART features into the calendar, then it would be brilliant.
We already have various content aggregation standards like RSS for example. What remains is to integrate them all together. I think I'll look into this further, interesting stuff that imbibes Data mining and other concepts.

jeffw_00

May 8, 2009

you're suggesting a paradigm that service providers love, but plain old folks hate - a 'central' server in the house. In this case, one that coordinates all the schedules. Consumer Electronics manufacturers have long promoted something similar as the core of the 'connected home'. people just don't want it. sorry.

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