General Information and Participation in CalConnect Interoperability Test Events

What is a CalConnect Interoperability Test Event?

A CalConnect Interoperability Test Event and Developers Forum (informally sometimes called an "interop" or "IOP") is an interoperability testing event for developers of calendaring and acheduling implementations, in particular those are based upon calendaring and acheduling standards and specifications, e.g. iCalendar, iMIP, iTIP, CalDAV, and so forth. At the event, implementers test their implementations for accuracy in implementing the standards and specifications, and test interoperability with other implementations. Goals of the event include assessing the standards, assessing the implementations, and determining interoperability. A CalConnect Interoperability Test Event normally lasts 2.5 days and is scheduled Monday morning through Wednesday noon of a CalConnect event week.

As part of the Test Event (that is, periodically during the day) the Developers Forum consists of in-depth technical discussions of current issues and topics which are not suitable for the more strategic discussions at the Conference.  A list of topics to be discussed and a reading list will be offered on the event web page prior to the event. 

In-Person and Remote Participation

A Calconnect Interoperability Test Event is intended to be participants from each participating member (or non-member) gathered in the same location to conduct interoperability testing of their products and implementations. CalConnect provides the location, internet connectivity, and the on-site test manager who will manage the actual interoperability testing and ensure that all participants are able to participate in and complete the testing. CalConnect also produces a public report of each event.

CalConnect Interoperability Test Events are held in conjunction with a CalConnect Conference, with the test event Monday morning through Wednesday noon, and the Conference Wednesday noon through Friday afernoon.

Remote Participation is available for CalConnect members only, when a participant cannot attend in person and therefore participates from a remote location, generally communicating via Slack Conference and Etherpads. This option is open to a member participating in the test event at the discretion of the Interoperability Test Manager. Remote participation is not allowed for non-members.  Please note that remote participation is not possible at all test events depending upon the site, participants, and other issues.

Although we strongly encourage in-person participation as it is far more valuable for everyone involved, we will attempt to allow remote participation for overseas participants, for non-commercial vendors with extremely limited budgets, and on a case-by-case basis given special circumstances.

CalConnect does not currently charge for remote participation in Interoperability Test Events by CalConnect members who regularly participate in person. However as we are incurring all of the expenses for the in-person event even if a participant is not there in person, we reserve the right to charge for remote participation in the future.

We cannot guarantee that remote participation will be possible at any particular event, so participants who need this capability should bring it to our attention as early as possible.

CalConnect Interoperability Test Event Confidentiality Agreement

All participants and observers at a CalConnect Interoperability Test Event must explicitly agree to and be bound by the CalConnect Intereoperability Test Event Confidentiality Agreement.

Planning for a CalConnect Interoperability Test Event

We recommend registering for the event as soon as you have decided to participate. Also, since space is limited, we request that organizations which are considering participating but have not fully decided give us a "heads-up" in advance. This will help us with logistics arrangements for the event and allow us to warn undecided organizations if the event is becoming fully subscribed. Please note that registration for an event is not confirmed until you have paid your registration fee. The base registration covers two participants from your organization; you may have additional participants by paying a small additional fee per participant.

Participants must supply their own hardware.  Wired connectivity will be offered unless it cannot be arranged; we will indicate whether the site will be wired or wireless in advance if possible, but we strongly recommend you come prepared for either contingency, and bring your ethernet cable and any other hardware you might need. If you have special requirements be sure and let us know in advance.

If you or your organization have not attended a CalConnect Interoperability Test Event before, we strongly urge you to read Getting Started at the CalConnect Interoperability Test Event, an introduction and briefing for first-time participants.

CalConnect's TC IOPTEST is the ongoing committee responsible for interoperability testing and holds conference calls between events to prepare for coming events. If you are not on the mailing list for this committee we suggest you join it so you receive the minutes from the calls and if possible participate in them yourself.

During the Event

Attendance at a CalConnect Interoperability Test Event is limited to personnel from participating organizations and Consortium support personnel (i.e. the test manager), and to Observers at a single test event. In general, attendance is limited to technical staff; journalists, marketing staff, etc. are not allowed at the events.

The activities of the CalConnect Interoperability Test Event will be managed by the Interoperability Test Manager who will provide scripts, monitor and note the achievements and problems encountered by the implementers, and ultimately report on the results (see below). All participants in and any observers of the event agree to act in accordance with the confidentiality agreement presented above.

CalConnect Interoperability Test Event Reports

The Interoperability Test Event Manager will produce a public report on the test event published on the CalConnect website at CalConnect Interoperability Test Events. The public report will be written in such a way as to identify the participants and report on the results experienced by each implementation, but will not identify any participating organization with any particular set of results.

Additionally, information reported during the test event by individual participants will be collected on a test event internal etherpad available to CalConnect members. The contents of the test event etherpads is logged to the document repository after each event and available to CalConnect members.