CNet news.com reports that RSS is moving into the business realm, with the release of a new application for sharing calendar data over the Internet.

RSS applications let online publishers automatically send Web content to subscribers, giving readers a powerful tool to compile news headlines on the fly from several sources at once. The RSSCalendar program allows a user to convert and publish calendar data as an RSS feed. Friends, co-workers and customers can subscribe to the calendar feed and automatically receive notices of new appointments, which can be viewed through an RSS reader or imported to a Web-based calendar or Microsoft Outlook.

Developer John Pacchetti, who released a trial version of RSSCalendar late last month, says:

It's a project I created just from considering some of the uses where RSS could be a good vehicle. Calendars seemed like the most relevant use I could think of. I've built some pretty complex calendar systems that are Web-based, and this was a way to take a new approach.

An interesting use of RSS, I admit. We faced the same problem of a shared calendar that allows us to book appointments and plan things with and on behalf of others. Microsoft exchange server was considered and then rejected as an overkill for what we needed. We chose one of the web-based calendar tools that seems to work just fine. But it is good to see the familiar (and efficient) RSS technology being used for yet another practical purpose. Let's see how it goes.

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