Topics: 

SA-07-004 Email Calendaring

Issue Date:  11/1/2006

Revision Effective Date:  9/01/2007 

PURPOSE

The purpose of this standard is to establish the State standard for the calendaring format for users of email systems.

STANDARD

Email systems must be able to send appointments in the iCalendar format.  Calendars should be used primarily for business purposes, but occasional use for personal appointments is allowed.

ENFORCEMENT

Individual state agencies will be responsible for developing detailed procedures to comply with these standards. The standards will guide periodic reviews, as well as audits by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts. In addition, GTA will review applicable hardware, application and service purchases via the APR process to ensure that vendors and contractors are aware of the standards and have agreed to comply with them. Violators of these standards may be subject to employee disciplinary procedures. Agencies may impose sanctions upon their employees for violations of standards.

EXCEPTIONS

Exceptions to the Standard will be submitted in accordance with the Georgia Technology Authority Exception policy.

TERMS and DEFINITIONS

Electronic mail, abbreviated e-mail or email, is a method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems or Email Systems. The term e-mail applies both to the Internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and to intranet systems allowing users within one company or organization to send messages to each other.

Email Systems are software and hardware systems that transport messages from one computer user to another. E-mail systems range in scope and size from a local email system that carries messages to users within an agency or office over a local area network (LAN) or an enterprise-wide e-mail system that carries messages to various users in various physical locations over a wide area network (WAN) e-mail system to an e-mail system that sends and receives messages around the world over the internet. Often the same e-mail system serves all three functions.

E-mail messages are electronic documents created and sent or received by a computer via an e-mail system. This definition applies equally to the contents of the communication, the transactional information, and any attachments associated with such communication. E-mail messages are similar to other forms of communicated messages, such as correspondence, memoranda and circular letters.

User Levels

User is the individual who is utilizing the email services.

Calendaring and scheduling tools are included in packages like Now Up-to-Date & Contact Novell GroupWise, Netscape Communicator, ContactOffice and Microsoft Exchange. They automatically check the electronic calendar of team members for open time slots, propose alternative meeting times, schedule team meetings or appointments and notify/remind participants by email.

iCalendar is a standard (RFC 2445 or RFC2445 Syntax Reference) for calendar data exchange. iCalendar allows users to send meeting requests and tasks to other users through emails. Recipients of the iCalendar email (with supported software) can respond to the sender easily or counter propose another meeting date/time.