Sep
10hCalendar Microformat: Better Than vCal?

There is much hype written about the semantic web, which is supposed to add context to content online, aiding computers and humans in better understanding information presented online.  One area where it's fairly easy to add content and context is by using microformats. This is a way to mark up information online so other applications can recognize events, contact details or reviews.  The mark-up is in the form of a common set of class codes that do nothing to change visual display, but can be read by computer programs recognizing this format.

We recently created a faculty events system for tracking on campus workshops and conferences.   For all events, we create a vCalendar file (used with a .vcs file extension) for import to programs like Microsoft Outlook and Entourage.  The problem is that Firefox and Internet Explorer handle .vcs files differently, forcing some users to first download the calendar file, then import it to another application. Also, .vcs files are not easy to import to services like Google Calendar.

Thankfully, we mark up all events with the hCalendar microformat, which contains all event details, even some not visible on the screen.  The easiest way to take advantage of this markup is to use the Operator Toolbar, which is a Firefox extension. This recognizes the hCalendar format, and lets visitors save items directly to Outlook, Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar and other places.  The picture here shows the Operator toolbar in action.

Jesse Rodgers, a web developer at the University of Waterloo has written about How can Microformats help Higher Education, pointing out that and their university has an events system that has all events marked up with microformats.  It looks like they have decided to forego creating downloadable calendar files (e.g. vCal or iCal) altogether. Read Rodgers' research paper on microformats in higher education for a literature review on the topic, as well as a model for implementing microformats.