Group Calendar

Why we use google calendar as a group calendar

Microsoft calendar is only supported by outlook clients you cannot open this in other calendar programs. Because in our group people use other clients like thunderbird and apple calendar we needed to search for another solution.

Google calendar however is supported in other calendar programs which you can access read-only for a public calendar without needing credentials however, you must have a google account credentials for editing.

Because only for editing the calendar a google account is needed and most people have such an account we decided that it won't be a problem to use google calendar as a group calendar.

Conclusion:
Microsoft calendar is a nightmare to cooperate with other calendar programs. Google provides a solution, but for editing you need a google account. Most people already have a google account, so I don't see a problem there.

Features google calendar

1. readonly viewing without needing credentials
   You can make a google calendar public, making it viewable in a browser(html page) or in a calendar client(ical url) without needing any authentication. I can put these urls in our intrawiki and initially send them around in an email.
2. editable by sharing (google account required)
   You can share the calendar editable, by inviting a  new editor using its google account. The new editor gets a invitation link sent to its google account. He first has to click on this link to add the calendar to its google account. Then in a second step the new editor can open the calendar in its calendar program by adding his personal google account to this calendar program.
   Note: if your google account is added in your calendar program then in thunderbird you still have to add the calender explicitly, but for apple calendar it will automatically be added.

Setup a google calendar as group calendar

Create a google calendar in your own google account, share it public (with an ical url you can add to your calendar), people who want to edit need to ask permission and need to authenticate with their own google account to which the calendar will be added also. (calendar is shared between accounts)

If the owner of the calendar leaves the department we can transfer the calendar to another owner. (must be a google account to transfer to!) So when editable sharing, share to a google account, and then preferably give the rights "Make changes and manage sharing". Then the new editor becomes also owner and again can share the calendar to other group members. The calendar can have multiple owners! So we distribute the 'edit/owner' management.