Employees who publish announcements of events in e-mail broadcasts, paper flyers, or independently maintained web pages especially are encouraged to become authors of the Collaborative Calendar. The Innovation Center sets up the required accounts. In the course of a brief training session, they immediately begin to add events to the public web site.

The system of Shared Authoring in general is based on one or more authors independently adding content to a web site, by filling out web-based forms which automate the design process and provide various shortcuts. A server tool called Allaire ColdFusion, a series of original scripts written in the ColdFusion code, and a Microsoft Access database invisibly support this process. Because the system is web-based, the authors can use Windows or Macintosh, Netscape or Explorer, at home or at the office -- as long as they can connect to the Web.

The series of forms breaks the information about the event into simple parts. The author specifies the category under which to list the event, times, locations, descriptions, and contact information. Many form fields are optional, and some (such as contact information, and multiple dates and times) can be filled in automatically. Authors can also copy and paste descriptions from other files, and/or provide links to related web sites, to save time. The author can also edit or delete his/her own existing calendar entries. The web sites involved in the authoring process are restricted via password.

[Proceed to A Description of the Innovation: How the Collaborative Calendar is Used by the Public and Campus Community.]