1.
A calendar hub
for Manchester UK
What it is
How I made it
How you can improve it
Jon Udell
March 27, 2012
http://jonudell.net

2.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ManchesterUK/html
2

3.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ManchesterUK/html?view=technology
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4.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ManchesterUK/xml?view=technology
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5.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ManchesterUK/json?view=technology
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6.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ManchesterUK/ics?view=technology
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7.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ManchesterUK/rss?view=technology
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8.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ManchesterUK/stats
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9.
http://elmcity.blob.core.windows.net/manchesteruk/ManchesterUK.feeds.json
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10.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/services/ManchesterUK/get_editable_metadata?flavor=feeds
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11.
http://elmcity.blob.core.windows.net/manchesteruk/tag_sources.html
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12.
source breakdown
Eventful 164
Eventbrite 1173
Facebook 14
Meetup 137
Upcoming 114
Other iCalendar 112
Other iCalendar breakdown
Manchester United Football thismonkey.com 9
Manchester City Football thismonkey.com 8
Portico Library Google Calendar 95
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13.
native vs synthetic iCal feeds
http://eventful.com/ical/chester_nh/venues/chester-academy-
Eventful venue native /V0-001-000633236-2
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ics_from_eventbrite_organizer?orga
Eventbrite organizer synthetic nizer=The%20Launchpad&elmcity_id=ManchesterUK
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/ics_from_fb_page?fb_id=162147880
Facebook Page synthetic 467082&elmcity_id=ManchesterUK
http://www.meetup.com/WeAreChangeManchester/events/ical/
Meetup group native WeAreChange+Manchester/
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/calendar/v2/venue/671529
Upcoming venue native
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14.
http://elmcity.cloudapp.net/url_helpers
(Other helpers for: extracting ICS from CSV, extracting ICS from
RSS+xCAL, filtering ICS to ICS based on keywords or date/time.)
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15.
source breakdown for four cities
Manchester UK Manchester NH Boston MA Seattle WA
Eventbrite 164 27 481 168
Eventful 1173 232 2272 2013
Facebook 14 34 434 218
Meetup 137 301 926 1129
Upcoming 114 14 181 52
Other iCalendar 112 531 3665 3335
Total 1714 1139 7959 6915
Other iCalendar % 6.5% 46.6% 46.0% 48.2%
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16.
The public calendar scorecard
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17.
Stages of hub development
Step 1 (automatic): The elmcity service scans Eventbrite,
Eventful, Facebook, Meetup, and Upcoming for candidate
feeds.
Step 1 yields two outputs:
a) http://elmcity.blob.core.windows.net/manchesteruk/taggable_sources.html is
a page of links
b) http://elmcity.blob.core.windows.net/manchesteruk/taggable_sources.html is
corresponding json
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18.
Stages of hub development
Step 1 (automatic): The elmcity service scans
Eventbrite, Eventful, Facebook, Meetup, and Upcoming for
candidate feeds.
Step 2 (manual): A human processes the taggable_sources
files: removes junk, adds and tags useful feeds, looks for
related iCalendar feeds.
Step 2 yields a hub like the Manchester UK hub we see today.
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19.
Stages of hub development
Step 1 (automatic): The elmcity service scans Eventbrite,
Eventful, Facebook, Meetup, and Upcoming for candidate
feeds.
Step 2 (manual): A human processes the taggable_sources
files: removes junk, adds and tags useful feeds, looks for
related iCalendar feeds.
Step 3: The hub is adopted by a curator who works toward
lighting up the iCalendar “dark matter.”
Step 3 has never really happened yet.
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20.
iCalendar “dark matter” for Manchester UK
http://oddbar.co.uk/odder/
http://www.iwm.org.uk/events/iwm-north
These are web pages with
http://www.stclement-chorlton.org.uk/diary.php#whats
calendars that trap event info
http://www.parrenthorn.co.uk/calendar/
in HTML silos.
http://www.philandaly.com/
http://www.holdengallery.mmu.ac.uk/exhibitions.php
http://www.stannsmanchester.com/whats-on/
All of these could easily be
http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/events/index.shtml
converted, using Google Calendar or
http://www.therubylounge.com/
Hotmail Calendar or Outlook or
http://www.starandgarter.co.uk/star4/WhatsOn.aspx
Apple iCal or any another standard
http://www.drybar.co.uk/calendar.php
calendar app, to dual use:
http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/
http://thedeafinstitute.co.uk/calendar.php
1 An HTML/JS widget for the site
http://www.o2apollomanchester.co.uk/
2 An iCalendar feed for syndication
http://moholive.com/index.php/event-listings
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/news/events/
http://www.manchestersalon.org.uk/ Who’s going to tell them?
http://www.cities.manchester.ac.uk/events/
http://www.anthonyburgess.org/visiting-us/whats-on Why will they care?
http://www.blankmediacollective.org/events/
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21.
CMS wall of shame
http://www.dea.com/
http://schoolworld.edline.com/
http://www.serviceu.com/
http://www.peoplecube.com/products
-other-web-event.htm
http://search.constantcontact.com/event-
marketing/index.jsp
http://www.schlu.net/
These, and many others, offer calendar modules without iCalendar support.
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22.
http://icalvalid.cloudapp.net/
(Inspired by http://feedvalidator.org) 22

23.
Key messages
- Many public events are published online (as HTML or PDF)
- Few are machine-readable (as iCalendar)
- All could be dual-purposed using standard calendar apps
- The ICS ecosystem could work like the RSS ecosystem
- a pub-sub network
- open, standards-based
- It’s so simple nobody thinks of it
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