It's Hip to be Cal!

Thing #19 (I am totally out of order at this point) is to pick one of the Web 2.0 Award-Nominated Web Sites and explore it. The list is intimidating, so I went straight to the short list of the top 3 in each category. From the list, I picked HipCal. HipCal is a calendar program that was developed by 5 college students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). It has since been bought by Plaxo (resulting in instant jobs for the guys, some of whom haven't graduated yet!) but will remain a free service.

HipCal is pretty similar to other calendar programs I've used. You set the time and date for appointments. You can create categories for your appointments and you can color code them. I really like the color coding. HipCal also has a group calendar function, where you can create a group and have a group calendar. You can choose whether you want it to be an open group or by invite only. This could be useful for a library committee needing to schedule meetings, especially if they are like me and can never seem to figure out Outlook's calendar. It could also potentially be used to see when public meeting rooms in our libraries are available. There is also an address book function, and I assume this part will be expanded upon since address book functions are what Plaxo is all about (from what I could tell from reading their "about us" page, anyway).

I think the coolest thing about this site is the fact that the developers are 5 college fraternity brothers. And I would think that even if they weren’t classmates of my cousin Craig!