TechTime, the MIT-supported personal calendar and scheduling service, is now open to all members of the MIT community who have Kerberos IDs and MIT personal certificates on their computers. TechTime is MIT's installation of Oracle Calendar, which has been in limited use for pilot testing at MIT under its former name, CorporateTime.
TechTime is a centralized, secure service run by Information Systems (IS). With TechTime, you can manage not only your own schedule but also coordinate easily with the schedules of other TechTime users. A web-based interface gives you access to TechTime from any computer connected to MITnet or the Internet.
TechTime lets you view your calendar, task lists and daily notes in various formats, and set priorities and due dates for meetings and tasks. The system lets you control how much of your calendar information others can view, and look at the calendars and schedules of other TechTime users. TechTime lets users create groups for scheduling meetings, suggest meeting times to group members, and check for conflicts; group members then accept or decline suggested times.
To begin using TechTime, you must activate your account. Point your web browser, with your MIT personal certificate, to this page and click on the Activate button. If you currently use CorporateTime, you don't have to do anything to continue using your account under TechTime; all calendar information for current CorporateTime accounts is now part of TechTime.
Once your account is activated, go to the TechTime page using any web browser. Log in using your MIT personal certificate if it's installed in the browser. Or, if you don't have a personal certificate on the computer, log in with your Kerberos username and password. Either way, the connection between the browser and the TechTime server is secure and encrypted.
The TechTime desktop clients for Macintosh and Windows platforms are not currently supported by IS. New versions of the desktop clients will be released in early spring by Oracle, at which time IS will test the clients in the MIT environment.
For more information about MIT TechTime, click here. For TechTime questions or help, contact the IS Computing Help Desk at 253-1101 or send e-mail to computing-help@mit.edu.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 29, 2003.
