The bane of my existence.
The thing is, a well-put-together community calendar can be an incredible resource. Until you know what other people in your community share your interests, it’s very difficult to create, say, a network of artists, poets, Buddhists or model airplane enthusiasts. And yet, if there was a true community calendar, the surprising depth and range of civic, social, cultural and shared-interest opportunities available in this often-underrated town would become instantly apparent.
In this respect, the Spark simply hasn’t delivered, although not for lack of trying. Part of the reason is technological, as all of the available WordPress calendars have various glitchy problems and none are quite up to the task of creating a full-scale, shareable calendar for the community. An equally large part of the problem, however, is simply time. Because not all local calendars are set up to share content (even by means of something simple, like an RSS feed), there’s no easy way to automate the process of creating one central calendar system. All events have to be entered manually, which means a lot of slow, non-fun data entry. And since the Spark is a volunteer project, we generally devote what time we do have to creating content rather than calendar listings.
But here’s the thing: A central Spartanburg calendar is much, much bigger than the Spark. Ideally, it would be a place where all sorts of interests are represented, and a true community resource for every possible event. And while I understand the temptation to want to control that content and limit access to it, I’m starting to think that what Spartanburg needs is some sort of open events calendar.
Which brings me to today’s Big Idea: How to create and implement a Unified Spartanburg Calendar.
As I see it, here’s how the thing would need to work.
1. At an absolute minimum, it needs to be sharable via RSS/Atom feeds so that others can have access to all of the data. Ideally, it would be more than that, capable of allowing visitors to submit their own events, export events for their own calendars, and perhaps even be embeddable in other sites.
2. It needs to have robust scheduling options, allowing events that occur once every other week, for instance, to be accurately scheduled. Likewise, it needs to be simple enough to understand that any reasonably intelligent person can figure out how to add data into the calendar.
3. It needs to be open to a variety of users. As I noted above, one of the biggest problems we have with our calendar is time for data entry, a problem which could be greatly minimized by opening up the process to more people or groups inputing their own events. None of the various calendars the Spark has tried has been good at this.
4. It should be able to sort events by category as well as date, allowing people who want to see all the arts events, for instance, to just view those. Again, we’ve had no luck with this.
I’m guessing that I number of you are saying, “Great, so why haven’t you built it yet?” It’s pretty simple, actually: I don’t know how to. At best, I know a little about a variety of options that won’t work, but what will work is still uncharted territory for me. And, what’s more, I need some feedback on by basic outline above.
Let’s assume that we all agree that the Spartanburg community needs a central, unified events calendar. Let’s further assume that at least some of the four points above are more-or-less correct. That still doesn’t really tell us what kind of project it should be.
For instance, should it continue to be a part of the Spark project, or should it be spun off like SparkleCityBlogs.com? Should it have ad support? What should the criteria be for the kinds of events allowed? Should everyone have the ability to post to the calendar, or should their be some vetting process? What program should be used to make the calendar in the first place, and who can help build it?
There are lots of questions, and because I’m nearly at the end of my tether when it comes to dealing with this kind of program in general, I definitely need help figuring out exactly how it should work. So let’s brainstorm a little, shall we?
Steve Shanafelt
This is SOOO desperately needed. I posted just last week how frustrated I was at trying to find what bands where playing at what venues!! Goupstate.com has a calender, but why isn’t everything that is in the Escape, listed in the Calendar? I make plans before the Escape comes out on Thursday!! Why are only some places listed? I’m guessing the rest. owners choose not to tell SHJ, at there own demise- or there may be a charge for SHJ publishing it?? I’ve tried gspnightlife.com, eventful.com, and others. And not just bands..but you are right- all sorts of events!! At any rate, I don’t have answers to your questions, nor the expertise to build it, but I hope you find the answers- because I would use it!
Exactly. There’s no reason it has to be this way, although I suspect that there’s little motivation for the “big” sites out there to share information, since they’re all trying to force people to come to their site, look at their ads and bump up their advertising rates. That’s fine from a business perspective, I guess, but from a community one it’s fairly toxic, because it creates false barriers to basic information access.
What I’d really like to see — and if possible, create — is a calendar that anyone can use, share, embed and “steal” from so that everyone in town has access to good information, regardless of where that information originates.
I’m currently looking at WebCalendar (http://www.k5n.us/webcalendar.php) as one possible means of creating the kind of calendar we really need. Anyone out there have experience with it?
OK, I’m testing a new calendar that MAY (no guarantees) be able to address some of these issues. It should be open to the public, and (hopefully) I’ve got it working enough to be tested if anyone is brave enough to give it a shot. It’s here: http://www.spartanburgspark.com/calendar
It looks a bit rough at the moment, and this should really be viewed as a proof-of-concept at this point.
Some things to consider… the Chamber has an online calendar that most anyone can post items to… the Convention and Tourism Office is working on a new website that will probably include a very comprehensive calendar… yes, the Herald-Journal has an online calendar… most colleges and high-profile cultural venues (such as the Chapman Cultural Center) have on-line calendars for their own events. This all needs to come together.
my first thought is that you should talk to some city people about getting funding and resources. they have been trying to rebrand the city for some time and this seems like a project that falls under that heading. when i started the college town program, we had student and hub-bub volunteers compiling listings that went out to student mailboxes on college campuses. that didn’t really work so well. but we did get some funding from the schools and from the mayor, i believe for the experiment. this doesn’t solve your how to problem, but it may solve your resource problem. talk to hub-bub about possibly getting some manpower from their volunteers, as they have an interest in a community calendar as well. talk to the urban planners– maybe cate ryba. and talk to the schools and the mayor about funding, as this is what spartanburg needs if it is going to exist under the banner “creative energy.”
I know that The Chapman Cultural Center has begun sending us info to help showcase their wide variety of events that they are connected to. I was quite surprised by the content and began a thread in our forums just for that. However I also know that it is inadequate for their needs or for ours or for any other venue that wants people to know about them.
I have long felt that there is much more happening in Spartanburg then people are finding out about in a general sense. Just what the marketing director at CCC has sent me in the past 48 hours is, I suspect, a fraction of what all there is out there to see and do in Sparkle City.
For now, as we build what we need we can use our underused forums, to at least build the basics for what we can find is out there. Steve has already sub-divided things to include different locations, including our colleges.
I do agree with arielle that some outside help will be a great thing. There are people and resources out there that can be utilized. This is a place for our community. Having the community build a viable events calender that covers a broader spectrum would be a win/win situation for everyone.
My understanding is that the Chapman Center has received a major NEA grant within the past month to develop a community cultural calendar.
That’s great news! Between the Chapman Center’s calendar, the CVB’s calendar and the one we’re starting to build, there should be lots of great options for local folks who want good information about what’s available in town. What’s more, there should be relatively simple ways of allowing each of these calendars to share content, so what might be able to happen (assuming everyone involved is interested) is a decentralized community calendar network.
Sounds like a great idea and an innovative one. And I bet it is something we could spur right along into reality
This is a great idea–I’m always checking a variety of sites to find calendars of what is going on in the area. One centralized aggregator of calendar events would be a great resource. That kind of thing would be especially useful at this time of year, what with all the various Christmas events going on just in Spartanburg County alone. The CVB has done a pretty good job of listing a lot of the Christmas stuff going on.