We're getting very, very close with CalDAV. Draft version 09 is submitted and I'm sure it will be posted soon. There's not a lot of open issues remaining (one is how to use ETags, which is the topic of lively discussions in both the CalDAV and the WebDAV mailing lists). Interoperability is pretty good already -- I got a great reception at ApacheCon when I demo'ed Chandler publishing a new event to a calendar shared on Cosmo, and then used Sunbird to refresh the shared calendar and see the new event (note that Chandler 0.6 was just released so you can do this too). We'll have one more interoperability event in January before likely finishing the draft and submitting it. We plan to do pseudo-last-calls in WebDAV and CALSIFY WGs but if you've been waiting to read the draft, it's great to get comments even before last-calls.

Tom Evslin posts with several reasons why Web sites don't provide APIs -- and yet predicts that many more will provide APIs in the future. I can add one more reason, and that's the risk that with an API, somebody would build an application that presented the data through an alternative UI, and the site would lose eyeballs. For example, if Yahoo Group calendars could be sucked down in iCalendar format, people would probably visit the site less often and receive fewer ad impressions.

Still, I agree with Tom that despite all these forces against opening up APIs,
there are even stronger forces for having APIs -- competitive advantage. Some company hoping to compete at lower cost will provide the API and try to make up the revenue in other ways or simply survive with less ad revenue. If the service is more valuable with the API people will move to that service. I hope that in a year or few, people won't stand for a calendar Web site that doesn't let them use a standard API to have direct access to their own calendar data.

Favorite Songs of Stalkers

6. "I Will Follow You", by Ricky Nelson

"I will follow you
Follow you wherever you may go
There isn't an ocean too deep
A mountain so high it can keep me away"

5. "I will Follow", by U2

If you walkaway, walkaway
I walkaway, walkaway...I will follow

4. "The Power of Love", by Air Supply

Even though there may be times
It seems I'm far away
Never wonder where I am
'Cause I am always by your side

3. "I'll Drive All night" by Celine Dion

So just remember -
I'm gonna make you mine
I'm gonna drive all night
till the morning light
I'm gonna roll till dawn
with the windows down
and the radio on
You know I'd drive all night
just to hold you tight

2. "Nothing Can Keep Me From You" by Kiss

Wherever you are, that's where I'm gonna be
No matter how far, you'll never be that far from me
Some how I would find you, move heaven and earth to be by your side
Oh, I'd walk, this world to walk, beside you

1. "I'll Be Watching You" by Sting

Every breath you take
And every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you

0. Christmas Bonus Stalker Song:

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry.
Better not pout, I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

I posted to a couple IETF lists about yubnub.org, a nice productivity hack -- a command-line for the Web. Since I'm always looking up IETF WG charters, internet-drafts and RFCs, I found the existing 'rfc' command and added two more.

To jump to an RFC: rfc xxxx

e.g. 'rfc 2822' (don't forget space)

Internet-Draft Database Search: (shows list with filename substring match): ids keyword

e.g. 'ids dusseault' to find draft-dusseault-caldav-08, but not draft-ietf-webdav-rfc2518bis because 'dusseault' isn't in the title of that one

To jump to a WG charter: wg wgname

e.g. 'wg imapext'

Now Dan Gurney has extended the 'rfc' command so you can use text as well as numbers. You don't have to remember that iTIP is RFC2447, just type 'rfc itip' in the yubnub.org interface, and see results. Thanks Dan!

BTW I personally setup yubnub to work on the address line or search box in Firefox so I don't even go to yubnub before typing my command. One less step on the way to what I need!