Is an RFC Available

The true geeks amungsts us will know what an RFC is - they are, for the lack of a better explination, the building blocks of the internet. Technology memos that define its technology. I grew up with them on-line, and now I have a chance to write one.

It may sound odd - but it´s a pretty interesting experience. The gist of it is a formal standard for the transfer of availability and booking data between the on-line booking systems used by accommodations providers. If my proposal (or Internet Draft) is accepted it may become a RFC (Request For Comments) which basically becomes a new Internet Standard.

The whole motivation behind this is that quite a few of my web design customers are accommodations providers and many of them are Starting to battle between having multiple different calendars on many different web sites - all of which require manual update. There is no communication and it´s simple too much work for them to update them all.

Enter my proposal the "Availability Data Exchange Protocol" ADEP. An attempt to standardize on the transfer of booking data in a Secure, standard form.

It´s quite an undertaking and I´m only About 1/2 way through the first Draft - but it´s a fascinating experience. I;ll get more into the details of it tomorrow with a bit of background on the RFC process and how it all fits together.

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