A couple of weeks ago, Google put an online (Ajax-based)
calendar into public beta. Like all things Google, I fell in love with it.
What does this mean for you? Well, because of GCal's functions, I was able to make a Philadelphia Election Calendar which anyone can import into their own personal calendar.
Using Google's calendar, one can share calendars with friends, family and everyone. My wife and I immediately created a "Family" calendar to track our doctor's appointments, political functions, classes, family outings and the like. At the same time, I have a personal calendar (which she can hide) that has all of my work appointments. I was also able to download public calendars to my calendar, for example, the Eagles football schedule.
So, now onto the relevant part. I imported the Committee of Seventy's 2006 calendar into GCal, and shared it to everyone. Now, everyone in Philly (PA?) can see deadlines for filing, registering, fundraising reporting, and elections. I hope to update it every year and share it amongst all of us Philly politicos.
To use GCal, you must have a Gmail account. Head to the Google Calendar page, and log in with your Gmail information. On the left side of the page is a "Calendars" box. In the "Search Public Calendars" text box look for "Philadelphia Election." Then click "Add Calendar" when it comes up, and Philadelphia's Election Calendar will be imported into your personal calendar.
If you're local, please spread the word, this is a quick way to find out what's coming up next here in Philly. If you're not local, play around with GCal a bit, and create your very own election calendar to share with everybody. It's very simple, and only seems to take a day before the calendar is shared with the world.