Because our collaboration frequently involves meetings between people from many independent institutions, there is no centralized calendar system available. This is why we operate our own, powered by the free and open source and federated Nextcloud platform.
If you change certain values, such as the date/time, or you cancel the meeting, an email to all attendees is automatically triggered. However, updating other fields like the description or the location will not trigger an email.
The instructions below illustrate how to use the MUSES calendar system to coordinate meetings:
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Open the MUSES calendar app and drag to select a time block for your event. Select the appropriate calendar. If you are unsure what to use, select the MUSES Collaboration calendar.
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Press the More button to edit the event details. Add a Zoom link in the location field and a description at minimum.
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Set a reminder so participants can be notified by their various calendar apps.
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Add attendees so that individuals will be notified by email that their presence is requested. If they are a collaborator, start typing their name and wait to see if autocomplete finds their Nextcloud user account. If this does not work, or they are external, directly enter their email address. Adjust the options for each attendee, for example to set them as an Optional Attendee.
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Attendees should receive an email similar to what is show below. There is a standard ICS file attached, which many calendar client apps will use to covneniently add the event to whatever calendar service the invitee uses.
There is a known bug the prevents the Accept/Decline buttons from working, but it at least informs the person that they must contact you directly.
