Upcoming.org, my new calendar

by on July 16, 2007

For those of you who haven’t yet added me as a friend on Facebook you probably didn’t notice that I’m now using Upcoming.org as my social calendar. There’s a Facebook application which shows all my Facebook friends my calendar and where I’ll be. Oh, and we’re going to Portland this week. Search Upcoming.org for “Portland, Oregon” and you’ll find out there’s a Blogger Dinner on Thursday night. I’ll be there.

Of course, if you were a friend of mine on Facebook (I add everyone who asks) then you could see my entire calendar, just visit my profile page. Upcoming is a wonderful service.

So is Eventful, by the way. But I can’t find a Facebook application that’ll use Eventful, so Upcoming.org (owned by Yahoo) it is.

Now do you understand why every startup and Web service is struggling to get a Facebook strategy? I will support those startups that make my Facebook profile page better and more useful.

  • Robert: Good upcoming.org integration on the iPhone for this too (just noticed them via TechCrunch): http://www.getleaflets.com
  • Most SN sites have event and calendar capabilities already built in. Mine did too, but I shut it down due to lack of use a couple years back.
    MySpace used to have a huge problem with their events section where kids would post house parties publicly and hundreds of people would show up and trash the kid's house. LOL.
  • You to eh ?

    Wouldnt it be useful though to be able to click the event in upcoming.org and have it appear in your calendar, such as Google Calendar ? I want that application !
  • Jim
    Is it just me or is anyone else getting tired of entering a ton of information from scratch?? I feel like I'm re-entering my life in all different aspects all the time these days--events, music, movies, friends, pictures, written content. When the "next big thing" in social networking after Facebook comes along, I'll be re-entering this same data, or similar data, all over again! I get all my crap put up into Google Calendar, but now I want to share that same information over Facebook, or Pownce, or wherever, and import/export tools are *way too few and far between*. Christ I know that makes me seem like an old fogey for complainin', but this is gettin' ridiculous. I'm a person, not a data entry robot! Must I be left behind from the social network revolution??
  • "Wouldnt it be useful though to be able to click the event in upcoming.org and have it appear in your calendar, such as Google Calendar"

    God, if only there was a nexus point for these hundreds of disparate web services to marshall all the data.... If only some really smart, and overly awesome person/company could create that. Oh well.
  • Jim: for another one to come after Facebook and have any success with me it'll have to do EXACTLY that!
  • Jim, Robert, Chris this is exactly what I blogged about today , Data ubiquity will be the point where one company works out how to build the perfect conduit service, hopefully starting with openID and intergrating common data elements across the board so I can arrive at a site, sign in , interact and move on and my data remains updated and active as I join other new sites. The Crowd swarm and cluster effect of communities can then ebb and flow across the network of "networking sites" cannibalizing those contacts and ideas it sees fit to.
  • SoWhatChuThink
    Robert, what do you think of the built in Event application on Facebook?
  • SoWhatChuThink: I use it too and like it so far. I'm going to add the 30 Boxes one to my Profile too.
  • I'm using the 30Boxes FB app for similar reasons. I'm really hoping that Plaxo will develop a "sync point" for 30B because then my I'll only have to enter my events on Outlook on my desktop and my events will percolate through all my SN apps.
  • Maybe it is just ubuntu, but it seems it doesn't work quite right in firefox. (Look just below the calendar).
  • Mark
    Seriously? Upcoming as your social calendar and not Zvents... or even Eventful?? I see your point about the opportunity in Facebook but the content available from the big two results in a much better social calendar.
  • All the events I want to attend are on Upcoming. What events that I'd be interested in are only on ZVents?
  • I prefer 30Boxes for my calendaring. Keep an eye on my blog for a desktop application to interact with it, followed by a mobile app.
  • Nicholas Butler: Like Eventful and Zvents, Upcoming offers subscription options for Google Calendar, iCal, and RSS. In Upcoming, just click the "Subscribe" button on your events page to get all of your events into GCal.

    Scoble: We love you. Thanks.
  • whoopee
    jim - there is an alternative to re-entering data into app after app after app.

    DON'T DO IT

    do you know how i manage my calendar? i *remember* things i want to do and places i want to go and the times i am supposed to be there. when i am done with the information, i forget it. when i think i might forget it before i need to use, i write it on a piece of yellow paper or send myself an email.

    user-data driven apps create an artificial need to engage. resist it. you don't need to enter every pointless detail of your life into someone's database. no one really cares what you are doing next tuesday, other than the people who already know (your family etc).

    people! stop wasting your lives feeding these machines. who is in charge here?

    iSLAVES
  • SoWhatChuSayin
    Clearly Whoopee, you dont live or work in an environment that has you attending many different events, at many different places, at many different times.
  • I have been looking to develop a facebook app that does something similar, so i think you may have just solved my problem. i am going to play with this and see if it can do we had planned for our http://graphicFusionDesign.com Ad page on facebook. we wanted to make a local calendar that all our fans could put an event or feed into so that we could see what was going on in everyones lives or locally.

    Love your shows, thanks again.
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