Doodle
Doodle
Overview
Doodle (http://www.doodle.com) makes scheduling a date and time for a group to meet that minimizes conflicts virtually effortless. With a few clicks, Doodle allows users to establish a “poll” (a tabular display of possible available time slots) and invite participants and enable them to vote democratically for their preferred meeting times and activities. Scheduling a meeting requires three steps: 1) create a poll of potential dates and times, 2) send a link for people to cast a vote, and 3) close the poll, select a final date, and email participants. It is important to keep the link so you can review the poll later, although an email will be sent to the creator with a link to the poll.
Strengths
The basic service is free and no registration is required. The user interface is fast, easy to navigate, supports different time zones, and can accommodate 1000+ participants. You can add multiple timeslots for each selected date. Doodle can be linked to Facebook, iGoogle, Outlook calendar, or mobile phone to synchronize calendars and reach people in different formats. It is generally faster to set-up a poll on Doodle than on other similar program such as Meet-o-matic.
Weaknesses
While the person setting up the meeting can edit the poll at any time, participants cannot edit their availability after the poll has has been submitted.
Examples
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.fws.gov), Eastern Painted Bunting Working Group (http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/point/pabu/index.cfm?fa=public.about), and Southeast Partners in Flight (http://sepif.org) se Doodle to schedule conference calls. The SEPIF Web Tech Committee used Doodle to set-up conference calls related to the creation of this document.
Tutorial
http://www.doodle.com/main.html
This publication is dynamic in that it will continue to be improved, updated, and expanded over time. Suggestions for improving the content, organization, and scope of this publication are encouraged and can be contributed here (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NP3Y772).