Earlier today I got the chance to get a personal tour of a new application called Presdo that makes it fast and easy to schedule meetings with one or more people. My tour guide was Presdo founder Eric Ly who also happens to be one of the co-founders of another little application called Linkedin. Eric and his very small team - which he calls one and a half people - has been laboring over Presdo for the better part of the last two years and it shows.

Presdo, unlike one of its principal competitors, Tungle, (previously profiled on GTDtimes here) is a completely web-based application which means there’s no client to download, no limit to the type of operating system it will work on and no need to integrate the software into any other product such as Outlook or Exchange.

The user interface is lightweight, easy to use and very efficient making it excellent for GTD’ers that want to spend less than two minutes scheduling a meeting with someone. Setting up a meeting invitation using Presdo is definitely a sub-two minute task, even if you have to register - which is a one time process - as part of that task.

One of the aspects of Presdo that I found quite compelling was the way it applied “fuzzy logic” to help me get something scheduled. Entering “next week” in the “When” box, for example presented the invitee with a suggested time of 10AM next Monday morning. Of course I could have just as easily entered a specific time or even a range of options like next Monday, Wednesday or Friday afternoon and Presdo would have then presented the person I invited with all three options allowing him to choose which of those times was best.

If the time I have suggested is not acceptable to the person I’ve invited they have the option of suggesting one or more alternate times which the Presdo will automatically compare with the times I have suggested. The resulting invitation will place a green asterisk on the time that offers matches between that which both parties have proposed. This can also be done with more than two people, the process remains that same.

Another feature which distinguishes Presdo is its integration with Google’s local search. When I registered I was given the option to enter my location. As a result, when I schedule a meeting near my location I can click on a second tab in the display and Google will suggest an appropriate venue based upon the context of the invitation. Things like cafes, hotels, restaurants and movie theaters are common landmarks that Google will identify on a map making it easy for both parties to communicate venue and simplifying the task of providing good directions to the meeting location for all concerned.

Presdo also helps solve the problem of notifying a large group of people if there’s been a change of plans. Using the option to reschedule an existing event automatically sends a message to everyone that is part of the original invitee list making it simple to keep everyone up to date and saving you from having to try to remember who all you need to contact if a last minute change of plans is in the works.

In addition, Presdo maintains a list of your scheduled meetings and other activities so that at a glance you can see what is on your plate that is tied to a specific time and place. If you don’t like relying on a web based tool for your critical calendared dates and times, no problem. Presdo is already integrated with Outlook, iCal, Yahoo Calendar and Google Calendar as you can see below.

Overall, I like Presdo - particularly the efficiency of the interface and the fact that it works across all platforms and doesn’t require that I install anything on any of my computers. I also tested Presdo on my iPhone and found that it works pretty well. One thing it didn’t know how to do was accept the iCal file to update the calendar, however it did pass the information to my Google Calendar perfectly. With just a few minor tweaks it would be perfect for use on an iPhone.

I did give Eric a couple of suggestions about how to improve the product even more. Since it does not start by overlaying Calendars and doing a quick regressive analysis to see what common open slots exist on two or more calendars I recommended that during the initial invitation process the originating user be given the option of having a second and possibly a third possible time included in their outbound invitation. This would seem to avoid the obvious problem that could occur if the first time didn’t work for the invitee and the alternate time the invitee suggests doesn’t work for the originator. By simply adding some alternate choices on the outbound invitation I’m sure that this issue could be reduced very substantially.

I also recommended that Eric read Getting Things Done and consider developing some features specifically for us GTD’ers. With some very minor modifications Presdo could become a very handy ubiquitous capture tool and next action list. It will be interesting to see if he takes that advice to heart and develops Presdo accordingly. Presdo is built on Ruby on Rails and I’m sure that at some point there will be an API available so perhaps, even if Eric doesn’t choose to go the GTD route with Presdo someone in the community can pick up the ball and run with it in that direction.

In the meantime, check Presdo out - it may be among the most valuable two minutes you’ll invest this week.

Tags: Features, Getting Things Done, Oliver Starr, Software //