Advice on small groupware package

[Gary Fritz]

My wife and I have decided we need a groupware package. We are both
self-employed, and we travel frequently. We have two businesses, a
household, and kids to manage. Sticky notes on the fridge ain't
cuttin' it. :-)

We both run Windows (2000 & XP Pro) on our PC's. My wife has a laptop
she takes with her on business trips. We both run Outlook for its
calendaring function. I'm tied to Outlook, because I have a Timex
Datalink watch and my life depends on it. I download my Outlook
appointments to the watch and it yells at me when I'm about to forget
an appointment. It's saved my neck more times than I can remember.

So, I think these are our requirements:

* Need web interface for remote on-the-road access
* Syncing with Outlook is basically a must
* Need to be able to access & change each others' calendars, even when
her laptop isn't on the LAN, and trade tasks back & forth.

Beyond that we're flexible. I don't think we need IMAP servers,
contact managers, chatrooms, forums, yadda yadda. Just calendars and
tasks.

If I understand how this works, I think we'll have to set up a
webserver on a Linux box on our home LAN. I could have it hosted on
our ISP, but I think a local solution is the only way it can sync with
both our Outlooks. (Right?) I have an old laptop running Debian and I
could stumble my way through setting up web servers, databases, etc.

Free is best, but we'd pay a modest fee if necessary.

So far the most promising option looks to be Open Xchange, but I'm open
to any suggestions. Help?

Thanks,
Gary
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Post by Gary Fritz
My wife and I have decided we need a groupware package. We are both
self-employed, and we travel frequently. We have two businesses, a
household, and kids to manage. Sticky notes on the fridge ain't
cuttin' it. :-)
We both run Windows (2000 & XP Pro) on our PC's. My wife has a laptop
she takes with her on business trips. We both run Outlook for its
calendaring function. I'm tied to Outlook, because I have a Timex
Datalink watch and my life depends on it. I download my Outlook
appointments to the watch and it yells at me when I'm about to forget
an appointment. It's saved my neck more times than I can remember.
* Need web interface for remote on-the-road access
* Syncing with Outlook is basically a must
* Need to be able to access & change each others' calendars, even when
her laptop isn't on the LAN, and trade tasks back & forth.
Beyond that we're flexible. I don't think we need IMAP servers,
contact managers, chatrooms, forums, yadda yadda. Just calendars and
tasks.
If I understand how this works, I think we'll have to set up a
webserver on a Linux box on our home LAN. I could have it hosted on
our ISP, but I think a local solution is the only way it can sync with
both our Outlooks. (Right?) I have an old laptop running Debian and I
could stumble my way through setting up web servers, databases, etc.
Free is best, but we'd pay a modest fee if necessary.
So far the most promising option looks to be Open Xchange, but I'm open
to any suggestions. Help?
Thanks,
Gary
remove xxx to email

[caseyd1]

Post by Gary Fritz
My wife and I have decided we need a groupware package. We are both
self-employed, and we travel frequently. We have two businesses, a
household, and kids to manage. Sticky notes on the fridge ain't
cuttin' it. :-)

We're in a parallell state.

We've tried co-syncing palm pilots back and forth, which was a pain.

We've tried a low-grade wiki, which is actually not a pain but is clunky
enough that we use it for things like vacation lists...packing, etc. not
day-to-day frequency, but say "by the end of the week" or "what did we
forget to take on this trip, let's write it down." So the wiki gets a
few points and is still a contendah.

We've set up the OpenOffice calendar server, from version 5.x of
OpenOffice, on one of the home servers but that proved to be to clunky
and fragile. It may of gotten better, but OTOH I'm not sure it is still
bundled with the free version. this one was abandoned.

We've just created a project at basecamp, but we're not digging in yet.
that would be http://www.basecamphq.com/ I think. I have moderate hopes
for this offering.

Finally we have our eyes on:
Chandler from OSAF http://www.osafoundation.org/
Calendar projects from the Mozilla foundation (sunbird, the calendar,
and lightning) http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/

Post by Gary Fritz
We both run Windows (2000 & XP Pro) on our PC's. My wife has a laptop
she takes with her on business trips. We both run Outlook for its
calendaring function. I'm tied to Outlook, because I have a Timex
Datalink watch and my life depends on it. I download my Outlook
appointments to the watch and it yells at me when I'm about to forget
an appointment. It's saved my neck more times than I can remember.
* Need web interface for remote on-the-road access
* Syncing with Outlook is basically a must
* Need to be able to access & change each others' calendars, even when
her laptop isn't on the LAN, and trade tasks back & forth.

Gary, I'm not sure how this will happen unless you hand a floppy back
and forth. how are you going to do w/out her laptop on the LAN?

Post by Gary Fritz
Beyond that we're flexible. I don't think we need IMAP servers,
contact managers, chatrooms, forums, yadda yadda. Just calendars and
tasks.
If I understand how this works, I think we'll have to set up a
webserver on a Linux box on our home LAN.

I could have it hosted on

Post by Gary Fritz
our ISP, but I think a local solution is the only way it can sync with
both our Outlooks. (Right?) I have an old laptop running Debian and I
could stumble my way through setting up web servers, databases, etc.
Free is best, but we'd pay a modest fee if necessary.
So far the most promising option looks to be Open Xchange, but I'm open
to any suggestions. Help?
Thanks,
Gary
remove xxx to email

[Gary Fritz]

Post by caseyd1
We've just created a project at basecamp, but we're not digging in
yet. that would be http://www.basecamphq.com/ I think. I have
moderate hopes for this offering.

That looks like a reasonably good to-do manager. The "milestone"
feature is pretty weak. Nothing like a real calendar, and no syncing.

Post by caseyd1
Chandler from OSAF http://www.osafoundation.org/

I just tried it. Not ready for prime time by a long shot, it appears.

Post by caseyd1
Calendar projects from the Mozilla foundation (sunbird, the calendar,
and lightning) http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/

I'll look at them.

Post by caseyd1

Post by Gary Fritz
* Need to be able to access & change each others' calendars, even
when her laptop isn't on the LAN, and trade tasks back & forth.

Gary, I'm not sure how this will happen unless you hand a floppy
back and forth. how are you going to do w/out her laptop on the
LAN?

If it had a web interface, and synced with Outlook on our systems, it
would handle it just fine. Yahoo calendar does that, but its other
calendar and task-list features are very weak.

Thanks for the pointers!
Gary

[caseyd1]

Post by Gary Fritz

Post by caseyd1
We've just created a project at basecamp, but we're not digging in
yet. that would be http://www.basecamphq.com/ I think. I have
moderate hopes for this offering.

That looks like a reasonably good to-do manager. The "milestone"
feature is pretty weak. Nothing like a real calendar, and no syncing.

talks to iCal, which you could then subscribe to. but no two-way syncing.


there is now a smaller version from the same people - 'backpack'

[snip]

Post by Gary Fritz

Post by caseyd1

Post by Gary Fritz
* Need to be able to access & change each others' calendars, even
when her laptop isn't on the LAN, and trade tasks back & forth.

Gary, I'm not sure how this will happen unless you hand a floppy
back and forth. how are you going to do w/out her laptop on the
LAN?

If it had a web interface, and synced with Outlook on our systems, it
would handle it just fine. Yahoo calendar does that, but its other
calendar and task-list features are very weak.

then her laptop IS on some kind of network.

Happy hunting

[Gary Fritz]

Post by caseyd1

Post by Gary Fritz
That looks like a reasonably good to-do manager. The "milestone"
feature is pretty weak. Nothing like a real calendar, and no
syncing.

talks to iCal, which you could then subscribe to. but no two-way syncing.

I had no luck trying that link. Firefox says "webcal is not a
registered protocol." IE6 gives either a "Page cannot be displayed"
error, or it tries to connect forever.

Post by caseyd1

Post by Gary Fritz

Post by caseyd1

Post by Gary Fritz
* Need to be able to access & change each others' calendars,
even when her laptop isn't on the LAN, and trade tasks back &
forth.

Gary, I'm not sure how this will happen unless you hand a floppy
back and forth. how are you going to do w/out her laptop on the
LAN?

If it had a web interface, and synced with Outlook on our
systems, it would handle it just fine. Yahoo calendar does that,
but its other calendar and task-list features are very weak.

then her laptop IS on some kind of network.

Ah, misunderstanding. Sometimes her laptop is on our LAN. Sometimes
she takes it with her on business trips. "When her laptop isn't on the
LAN" she can hook into the internet. So a web interface that she can
access from the home LAN or from a wifi hotspot somewhere would do the
trick.

Gary