meetvensters

Meetvensters is a concept in calendar and scheduling software describing a defined time window during which a meeting can be scheduled. A meetvenster represents the intersection of participants’ availability, working hours, and organizational policies, often with support for multiple time zones and recurrence.

The term is of Dutch origin, combining meet (meeting) and venster (window).

In practice, meetvensters are used to propose optimal meeting times; a window can be global (across a project team) or personal (an individual’s available span). They are represented in software as a start time, end time, and optional recurrence pattern; overlap and conflicts are detected by comparing with participants’ calendars and resource constraints.

Common in corporate scheduling, conference planning, and remote collaboration, meetvensters can be used to coordinate across time zones, align with core hours, and reserve resources.

Benefits include reduced back-and-forth and improved scheduling efficiency. Limitations include that accuracy depends on calendars being up to date and time-zone differences can complicate interpretation, as well as potential privacy concerns.

From a technical viewpoint, meetvensters can be stored as calendar intervals with recurrence rules (iCal-like), user interfaces may display shaded windows, and algorithms can compute intersections to identify suitable times for all participants.

See also: scheduling software, calendar, time zone, availability.