Well, I've been expecting a post like this since Outlook 2007 came out with support for publishing calendars via iCal. I'm kicking myself for not learning how to do this with Live first and blogging about it :-)

In the post referenced below Jon Udell outlines the procedure for publishing an Outlook calendar to Microsoft's Live Services. This means others can then subscribe to the published calendar. For example, say you are managing your family's calendar with Google Calendar (to some, this may sound a little strange, but for my wife and I using a web-based calendar to manage the family calendar has been a godsend). Now, by following Udell's instructions, you can publish your work calendar from Outlook to Live and then subscribe to the Live calendar from Google Calendar and let your spouse see your work schedule alongside your family calendar. Sounds nice doesn't it?

Publishing from Outlook 2007 is not limited to Live but could also be done with any service that supports the WebDAV protocol (in theory, I have not tried this myself with Outlook 2007, but that is how iCal publishing works). There are probably other Internet services besides Live that support WebDAV (Apple's .Mac Internet service comes to mine) and, if not, the more technically competent computer tickerer could do this with an Internet host account and the Apache web server.

Calendar publishing is really cool and can be quite the social activity. I described it in detail in this Collaboration Loop post from two years ago. I use iCal subscriptions to update sports schedules (I keep track of the Detroit Tigers, Lions, and Pistons) and weather forecasts on my personal Airset calendar (which I can access from a computer or cell phone).

Having this type of information on a calendar is a good example of "contextual collaboration" in the sense that when I am planning my week there are certain events I want to know about - like if it will rain tomorrow or when is the next game in the NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs.

However, the controversial side of this capability will force enterprise IT organizations to confront a potential security hole enabled, once again, by collaborative technologies. Don't be surprised to find corporate workers publishing their calendars on Live to share their calendar with their spouses, families, and friends. Its also not too much of a stretch to imagine a hard-charging cross-company team sharing their project calendar with team members. This means potentially sensitive information could be exposed outside the enterprise Intranet.

This is arguably no worse than the potential of sending files attached to email messages going over the Internet or uploading documents to file sharing services like box.net, for example. However, this is new and, at the very least, some education needs to take place and the risks need to be acknowledged.

With Outlook 2007, you can publish for free to calendars.office.microsoft.com. You’ll need a Live ID account. If you don’t already have one, a Live ID is useful for many other services too. To get one, start at login.live.com and click the “Sign up for an account” link.

Free online calendar publishing, part 1: Outlook « Jon Udell