Take This Idea: Public Event Calendar

Occasionally, I get ideas that I do not have the time to build and would like to see them built. So, instead of being greedy and holding onto them until someone else does it or I finally get to it and half-assing the project because I am so busy, I am sharing them.  Enjoy!
The basic idea is this:
A website where people can go to post events based on a specific criteria to a calendar.  These criteria can be local events, specific types of local events, or just specific types of events.
The features I see right now need to be:
  1. Anyone should be able to start a calendar
    1. They should probably have to log in for this
    2. A calendar should be able to be displayed in full page
    3. Each calendar should have its own URL, similar to Twitter or Facebook pages
      1. i.e.: PublicEventCalendar.com/denverTwitterEvents or DenverTwitter.PublicEventCalendar.com
  2. Anyone should be able to add events to a calendar through an easy to use interface
  3. Events should be able to be "approved" by the calendar creator before showing up, based on how the user set up the calendar
    1. Approving events should be Ajaxy, clean and easy to do.
    2. Possibly, approving events via an email reply?
  4. People who create calendars should be able to charge for events to be added to the calendar
    1. You can take a percentage of the charges, so you make some money
  5. You should use the Google Calendar API
    1. information on how to use this for a couple different languages: Google Calendar API
  6. People should be able to create accounts, where they can list out their calendars that they have saved (if they want to)
    1. They should be able to opt in for reminders about events with a specific lead time
    2. You could charge to have their events:
      1. Sent to them via SMS
      2. Sent to them via Twitter
      3. Sent to them via FaceBook
  7. You should allow people to import the calendars into 3rd party calendar programs via Import links
  8. You can suggest calendars
  9. You can have a search for specific types of calendars
  10. You should have a badge that will allow people to link to their calendars on 3rd party sites
  11. You should show people how to embed their calendar into 3rd party sites
    1. Especially on sites like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc
If you create this project, please tell me! I would love to consult on it as well as beta test it for you. If you have any other ideas that you would like to see implemented, please tell me and I will add them to the list with an attribute to you!
I have the domain PublicEventCalendar.com, if you build this idea you are welcome to purchase this domain for me as a thanks for the idea.
  • http://fbx.bz/E Michael Fraietta

    Awesome idea! Sounds like something we would see at #bdnt (only better than most).

    The only thing I would suggest to whoever does create it is to have a good method of separating the calenders by geography. For example, if I’m in Boulder and there are Boulder, Denver and Colorado calenders available, what do I follow? All three might be too much….but I don’t want to miss something happening Denver or even Lyons (b/c soooo much is happening in Lyons). You smell what I’m stepping in I’m sure.

    Michael Fraietta
    Filtrbox
    @MichaelFraietta

  • http://mkbernier.com Matt Bernier

    Absolutely! If the calendar is a geographically based calendar they should possibly have a map with calendar icons for each geographically based calendar. This would allow the calendar to be found easier.

    Maybe even, they could allow mashups of calendars for logged in users, which would allow a user to create a “super” calendar of other calendars. These “super calendars” would not necessarily be added to on their own, but could be shared with iCal files or whatever that would allow someone to pull them in.
    In your case, the super calendar could be the Boulder/Denver/Lyons area calendar and pull in every calendar that can be found from all locations/types near Boulder/Denver/Lyons.

    Ninja Suggestion: If the dates are stored in the DB as well as passed to the Google Calendars, then a “super calendar” would be a cinch to create via the API.