[Evolution] Groupware Standards?

[Lloyd Llewellyn <lloyd001 twilight-systems com>]

There has been some discussion on the OpenOffice list about groupware.
It stemmed from a message lamenting the removal of calendar and
scheduling features from OO6.

Is anyone aware of development on an open groupware standard?  It would
be marvelous to be able to have a reasonably defined standard for
client/server interaction, and server/database interaction, so that you
could replace any one component at will without disturbing any of the
other components.

   CLIENT <-> c/s interface <-> APPSERVER <-> app/db interface <->
DATABASE

You could change the server software and/or OS without disturbing the
database or any ot the users' clients.

You could move the data from one database to another without disturbing
anything else, just by dropping in a different app/db interface.

Users could change desktop clients and/or OS at will without having to
import or even hand-enter data from your previous groupware package
(calendar events, contacts, etc).

There is a lot of diversity in the groupware market, and I'm sure each
approach has its advantages over the other in certain areas.  I think,
though, that a lot of organizations would rather have the flexibility
that a common standard would offer than have the cutting-edge Feature X
provided by a single vendor.  Many organizations will never use Feature
X, but at some time or another almost every organization will feel
constrained by their groupware investment from trying another platform,
or loosening restrictions on which desktop OS their employees can use.

And, feature X would eventually find its way into the standard anyway,
become implemented in all the standards-compliant groupware packages,
and thus be available to all users, and not compromise the users'
vendor-independence.

Having standard groupware interfaces would also allow smaller vendors
and open source groups to produce clients and/or servers in the
operating environment with which they are most skilled, without having
to worry too much about developing cross-platform versions.  There will
be other producers on other platforms who have already provided (or will
provide) these complementary packages.

In particular, and to get this a bit more on-topic, what are Ximian's
plans regarding Evolution and Groupware?  Would such work be
Evolution/Gnome/Linux-specific or would there be an effort to define
standard interfaces that would give users this independence?