Conveying information about events has been standardised on the internet for a long time (since 1998). The iCalendar format conveys information about when an event will take place, and optionally where, a description and attachments.
Many people now find an electronic diary on a mobile phone is a good way to keep track of what they are expecting to be doing. and often enter information from an email, or web site into their diary so they don’t forget it.
The problem with manual entering an event is tedious, and can be very prone to errors, For example, if you turn up for a hospital follow-up appointment this year, which is actually for next year you will waste your time, and potentially, next year, waste the time of a medical team. Alternatively when the appointment notification arrives you may intend to enter the details later when you are less busy and not get round to it.
Although the NHS are aware that missed appointments cost the NHS millions, they do not appear aware of Internet Calendars, but have investigated rephrasing appointment reminders. (though text messages do not support iCalendar attachments the trend seems to be an email message pointing to a web site, which, after login, gives access to a text reminder).
Email and Web
iCalendar events can be sent as email attachments (or any other mechanism which supports attachments, such as XMPP standard Instant Messaging).
iCalendar events can also be published on a web site, generally as a calendar which can be added to your personal calendar, where they will show up automatically.
Electronic diaries which support Internet Calendars
The standard was originally developed for large corporations, working across different mail and calendar systems – which is why it can handle things like scheduling meetings in different time zones, etc, so Enterprise software generally supports it well. Systems for home users may not support all the features, but should be better than the manual alternative.
Note that I don’t personally have all of these systems, feedback from people who do would be welcome to feedback@appleseed.org.uk.
An advantage of a good electronic diary system is that, if you also have mapping software, and need to travel to the appointment, you can plan that travel, and put the results of that planning into your calendar too.
Android
The default Calendar application supports importing iCalendar attachments, but does not support web calendars directly. They are however supported by the web based Google Calendar, which will show on your device.
A superior calendar for Android is kashcal – particularly if you do not want to share your information with Google as it supports iCalendar (and other Internet Calendar sharing systems) internally, giving a smoother and more flexible experience. It also allows you to share an event via a share icon, sending it as an iCalendar attachment to email, instant messenger etc.
iPhone and iPad
The Calendar application on the iPhone or iPad supports Internet Calendar URLs. To use a an iCalendar URL go to Settings/Calendar/Calendar Accouts/Add Account and at Choose Provider select ‘Add other account’ and then Subscribed Calendar. You can the the enter the URL of the Calender.
Thunderbird
For desktop users, on Linux, Windows or MacOS, Thunderbird supports iCalendar.
Mail attachments are handled by clicking on the attachment and following the prompts to import it.
Web calendars are handled by going to File/New/Calendar… and selecting ‘On the Network’, click Next and enter the URL of the iCalendar you wish to subscribe to in the Location field. For most public calendars you can select ‘This location doesn’t require credentials’
Providing Calendars for others
If you run a website based on WordPress you can use the Tribe Events Plugin to set up an Events Calendar which can be viewed as a web page, but can also be subscribed to. Within the Event Editor there is a QR code generator, which can be used to create a QR code for the event. If you want to print publicity for the event you could use that to enable people to enter a calendar entry for the event from your poster.
If your website is based on some other platform there may be iCalendar support for it,if not, and it would be useful for your users, you could request it as an enhancement from your supplier.
If you send email notifications about an event you could make it much simpler for the recipient with a well crafted iCalendar attachment.
Enhance
There are several ways in which Calendar applications could be improved on various platforms.
Sharing individual events as iCalendar files
The iCalendar protocol was designed in the days when most meetings happened between a small number of people, who all knew each other’s email addresses, and many clients have the ability to invite someone to an event (by sending them an email). Nowadays it would be useful to have easy access to events in your calendar as file attachments which could be send by other means, such as Instant Messaging, or downloaded from a web page. The Evolution mail and calendar program on Linux systems can export as ics, as can kashcal on Android, but in general event export support is poor.