Campus Calendars

[Connie D. Delano]

We have been researching calendaring solutions for the past few months.  They each have desirable features as can be seen during the company demos.

 

To actually put a solution into use is way different than viewing a demo of one, as you know.  Does anyone have any feedback with examples of their experience deploying and managing either the ADX or the Localist calendar solutions?

 

Thank you!

[Matt Herzberger]

Check out these two

 

http://higheredlive.com/sync-up-your-students-with-interactive-camp...

http://higheredlive.com/interactive-campus-calendars/

 

Talks about many different ones I believe localist is included

[Connie D. Delano]

Thank you Matt.

 

I did see these sites which made me even more curious about the implementation and real life use of the solutions.  He had great comments about Localist but it wasn't clear why he made the comments and what other solutions he was comparing it to.

 

Connie

[sethodell]

Hi Connie,

 

To elaborate a bit further, my review of Localist was based on looking at a variety of schools using their product. I was focusing my endorsement on how the calendar looks and functions on a users end, but I didn't speak directly with any schools on management or implementation. I compared calendars from Localist, Trumba, Calendar Express and R25 and can say with confidence I think out of those, only Localist is a vendor I would ever recommend. It is the only vendor-based solution that delivers an interactive calendar worthy of our audience. The others simply don't have the features a modern interactive calendar needs.

 

That being said, building in-house or using an open source solution are certainly viable options as well.

 

Seth

 

 

[Connie D. Delano]

Hi Seth,

 

Great, thank you for responding and the explanation.  I'll take this info back to the decision makers.

 

Connie

[Kerri Hicks]

Hi Connie,

 

We're currently talking to Localist -- had them here to do some presentations, and we're very likely to go with them.

 

I did some due diligence on the project and spoke with people from Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and Goucher, all of whom are currently using Localist. I was looking for red flags, fires, etc...but really didn't find any. We've poked around their demos and have found it as simple to use as it seems. Looks like the hardest part is actually developing your internal policies (who can post directly to the calendar, one calendar for the whole school, or several smaller ones, what are your categories/keywords, etc.)

 

The cost is really reasonable, as well, for what you get. If you'd like, I could give you the names of the folks I talked with about their hands-on experiences, but they were all happy with the product.

 

--Kerri

------------------

Kerri A. Hicks

Manager, Web Communications

University of Rhode Island

[Connie D. Delano]

Thank you Kerri.  This is great to hear, and a good heads up as to what the internal policy decisions will be.  I'll let you know if we will need contact persons at those schools.  A coworker is doing the user experience research part for me.

Connie

[Janet Jaffke]

Just wondering if anyone is considering google calendars. I haven't investigated fully but it was suggested by one of my piers.

[Connie D. Delano]

Janet,

Our particular school doesn't support Google calendar usage so we aren't looking into that resource.  Info privacy is the main issue.

Connie

[Janet Jaffke]

Thanks for the input.

[Michael Santoroski]

I wrote ours a few years back, since there wasn't anything "off-the-shelf" that was working. We just signed a contract with OrgSync and it looks like their Calendar is going to be able to replace mine....

 

Links:

OrgSync

Roanoke College Campus Calendar

 

[Cara Peckens]

Connie - I implemented and maintain Localist at Goucher College http://events.goucher.edu

 

I can't give enough positive feedback about the service.  Traffic to our calendar has increased nearly 400% versus the sharepoint calendar we were using previously. 

 

Localist provided excellent customer service, and were extremely cooperative in developing custom functions and features to fit our specific needs.

 

I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

 

-Cara

[Connie D. Delano]

Thank you Cara.  This is also good to know and I'll pass it along to our committee members.  A coworker is contacting users such as yourself for more feedback.  His name is Geert.  I'm not sure who is on his list to call at this point.  But I'm suggesting he contact some of you folks.

Thanks!  Connie