Outlook 2000 in a Nutshell

Internet Free/Busy

If you’ve ever tried to arrange a meeting with a group of people, you know all about the inherent frustrations involved. You invite ten people, six of them vital to the agenda topics. One day before the meeting, two of the six cancel due to prior commitments. The meeting needs to be rescheduled, and the process of trying to arrange a suitable time starts all over again.

The concept behind Internet Free/Busy (IFB) is this: post people’s schedules in a central location that can be accessed by others, and make this information readily available to client software so it can be used by the program’s calendaring component. It’s a great idea, but to use IFB successfully you must overcome two obstacles:

• Locating a central server that is accessible to all participants

• Determining the format used to store scheduling details

The central location issue is one of logistics. IFB had its origins as a feature found on corporate mail servers. It worked well as long as you were connected to the server, and used it within the confines of this platform. Then along came the concept of the mobile workforce. Users were no longer tied to a desk; they needed access to their server from diverse locations, using diverse connectivity options.

Enter widespread use of the Internet by business. The mobile workforce could now access corporate file servers from anywhere in world with nothing more than a phone line. Adding to this complexity was the fact that users began to adopt electronic organizers, ...