Scheduling your time

Mark Gibbs' Web site tips, plus network applications news headlines

Back in December, I wrote about Timetrade, a company that specializes in online appointment scheduling for enterprises and small businesses. At the recent DEMO 08 conference the company announced its latest take on scheduling, but this time they've focused on a different market: Personal scheduling.

The new service, TimeDriver, allows individuals to offer defined windows in their calendars for others to book time. For example, if you need to check in with your, oh, I don’t know … how about your probation officer? If she uses TimeDriver you would go to her TimeDriver site and simply select an available appointment slot (make sure you show up).

Where TimeDriver gets really clever is in its integration with Outlook and Google Calendar, which allows synchronization so that all calendars are kept up to date (Salesforce and Notes support are planned).

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Back in December, I wrote about Timetrade, a company that specializes in online appointment scheduling for enterprises and small businesses. At the recent DEMO 08 conference the company announced its latest take on scheduling, but this time they've focused on a different market: Personal scheduling.

The new service, TimeDriver, allows individuals to offer defined windows in their calendars for others to book time. For example, if you need to check in with your, oh, I don’t know … how about your probation officer? If she uses TimeDriver you would go to her TimeDriver site and simply select an available appointment slot (make sure you show up).

Where TimeDriver gets really clever is in its integration with Outlook and Google Calendar, which allows synchronization so that all calendars are kept up to date (Salesforce and Notes support are planned).

TimeDriver users can also send e-mail invitations with a link to their TimeDriver scheduling page. See the company’s Webcast for an overview of the service.

There will be a free version of the service monetized by sponsored links as well as a non-sponsored version priced at $5 per calendar month. Versions with currently unannounced additional features are planned for future release.

TimeDriver is now in invitation-only beta (you can sign up for the next round of beta testing on their site) and full release is planned for Q2 2008.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.