What is an "Event", really? We need community stories and participation in understanding what constitutes events, schedules, etc. in HSDS

Data Management
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3

One of the exercises @mrshll and I went through that was helpful in ambiguating the distinction between hours of operation and events was to consider a spectrum of use cases for hours of operation.

For example:

  1. MON - FRI, 8:00AM - 5:00PM
  2. MON - THU, 8:00AM - 5:00PM; FRI 1:00PM - 4:00PM
  3. MON - THU, 8:00AM - 5:00PM; FRI 1:00PM - 4:00PM; JAN - AUG
  4. FRI 1:00PM - 4:00PM; third Friday of each month
  5. FRI 1:00PM - 4:00PM; third Friday of each month; JAN - AUG
  6. FRI, JAN 17, 1:00PM - 4:00PM

Any of these could be used to describe the time component of a “service”. Somewhere around scenarios 4 and 5 this could also describe what most people would imagine as the time component for an “event” too.

It made us think that we can’t describe the concept of “hours” vs “event” purely by the data structure, at least not in the abstract. We might say that for the purposes of HSDS “hours” can and should be described using a common seven-line format for daily business hours with extra notes, and that if it’s more complicated or specific than that (again, right around scenario 4 or 5) then it’s technical and “event”, for scheduling purposes. Before we start trying to enforce that kind of distinction, I think it’s critical to get some higher level community feedback on:

  1. What are hours of operation?
  2. What’s an event?
  3. What’s the difference between them anyway?
  4. How do they relate to services?