WeSync works through the Internet. You register free of charge at http://www.wesync.com and download the software to both your desktop and handheld device. When the software is loaded, you log onto the Web site and set up a "community" for each group with which you'd like to exchange information, as shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B


Once the WeSync software is loaded, you log onto the Web site and set up a "community" for each group with which you'd like to exchange information. Roll over picture for a larger image.

As in my earlier example, you could set up Family, Sales, and Corporate communities. Other Palm device users join your community by accepting the email "invitations" you send them from the Web site. Once your community has gathered, so to speak, you upload calendars and address books from your Palm organizer to the Web site, where they are available to anyone in your community to download and view on their Palm organizer. You can make these "resources" (yes, that's the term WeSync uses for them -- sigh) read-only, or permit other community members to modify them.

And here's the magic part. When another community member performs a HotSync, her PC will connect to the Web site and upload any changes she's made to the address books or calendars of the community. Then when you perform a HotSync and your PC connects to the Web site, those changes will show up on your handheld device. Once the community is set up and the "resources" are made available, the process is nearly invisible to the user.

Your community is private. Only the people you invite can join and view the address books and calendars you've made available. But WeSync has a much bigger picture in mind. While your resources are private, the company is encouraging the listing of "public" resources that anyone can download. While there are only a few available now, my guess is that so many companies and organizations will jump at this opportunity that WeSync will soon need to deploy a special search tool to help users sort through all the available information.

Calendars and WeSync
Although my goal for multi-Palm user groups was simply to allow them to insert shared events on each other's calendars, WeSync goes one very big step further. They offer a calendar that is uploaded to the WeSync Web site that is actually downloaded to, and can be viewed and modified on, another user's Palm.

For families, that's a big help. If my wife asks me to schedule an appointment for her, I can write it into her calendar right from my Palm. More importantly, if I want to set up a joint appointment like a meeting with a teacher, I can find a time that we can both attend, and schedule it on both of our calendars at once.

You might hesitate, however, to make your entire personal calendar available to your coworkers. No problem. Wscalendars is WeSync's replacement for the handheld calendar application -- it looks almost exactly like the Palm OS calendar application, but when you use it, you can access multiple calendars. On the wscalendars application on your handheld device, you simply create a new calendar (how about one called "office"?) and copy your work-related appointments into it. That can be the calendar you send to your colleagues.