adding Calendaring

Having a Tickspot-like overview (http://forum.activecollab.com/viewtopic.php?id=239) seems to make sense, but out and out calendaring seems like a step into recreating another genre of app. I think good iCal support and overviews would suffice for most people.

True calendaring quickly turns into a qwagmire of other interface problems such as how to share with those external to the project and how to integrate Outlook. Let's avoid those issues.

The main difference in Outlook vs. iCal is that the iCal format is open and allows a user to subscribe to an event stream. Whatever iCal client you are using then refreshes the feed on a regular basis and populates the new data into your calendar. iCal can also be used with most web-based calendars such as those from Google, Yahoo!, and 30 Boxes.

Outlook events must be subscribed to on a per event basis, creating a much larger, more complicated data legacy, especially when one factors in date changes and such. Outlook can subscribe to individual iCal events, but cannot yet subscribe to an iCal calendar. Hopefully, the next version of Office will support this!

What I need is some calendar, where I can post for example the details of a meeting.

If you are talking about post-meeting minutes, then the revamped documents section should be perfect for you!

If you are talking about scheduling, reminders, and such, then you need to be looking at an actual calendaring program (Exchange/Outlook, iCal, Evolution, Sunbird) or an online calendar app (Google Calendaring, Yahoo!, 30 Boxes, etc.).

It likely that most people already have some kind of calendaring program in their workflow already. aC needs to focus on playing well with other calendaring apps, not becoming them.

Sideline: This was a mistake recently made by 37 Signals with Backpack. As nice as their calendar is, it exists in a closed system, intended for 1. So often, event scheduling is about collaboration, multiple parties, and available time. They will now spend time explaining to users why they do not offer advanced calendar features or bringing their app up to the level of existing apps at the expense of other development.

I am a paying, regular user of Backpack, but I will never put events in that calendar because I need to see my events in relation to other types of events, holidays, and other's free time. Calendars are social applications and function best with the largest possible network of users. Backpack and aC are closed systems by nature and so, are limited in their effectiveness in this arena. Even Microsoft understood this; thus Project ties into Exchange/Outlook and does not have any calendar scheduling app internally.

:)