Multiuser Backpack
Congrats to my friends at 37signals for their launch of multiuser Backpack, a great upgrade to a product I love. Their new features, which let you share calendars, notes, to-do lists, and reminders with other people in a group, look perfect for the "household schedule" I've been wanting.
I continue to be very impressed with how the 37s do product development. They've always advocated for launching with "Less" in the product and leaving out features until the demand for them is overwhelming. It's great to see that they've heard and watched how people use Backpack and have made it a ton more useful -- essentially adding communication to what was a single-user product -- while keeping all the benefits for individual users that they had.
Go ahead and call me a fanboy in the comments. I am.
tags: attaboys
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I was re-inspired to try backpack for size with a 20 person international collab project.
The core of time and notes is as silky as you could wish - swish and tasty. But the pageloads drag and the edits freeze as 37S haven't upped the servers enough. The site crawls painfully
- Writeboard is still as unusable as ever - no concession even to a Markitup type panel. Boxnet and Huddle are wiping the floor with 37S on this
- Support is pretty diabolical too. Forums seem to be there to be ignored and there are stocks of unanswered topics. International support is less than non-existent.
My conclusion is that 37S is marginalising a keen userbase with some huge dirty stains on a great suite
DK
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Prasad [02.19.08 12:19 PM]
The very approach you highlight as positive is what made us migrate out of one of 37Signals products.
We are a young startup who started using basecamp for project management. We soon found features we have to come expect in web 2.0 products are lacking in 37signals products. Their philosophy of less is more may work for people who are just getting started with applications on the web but not for those who are willing to pay at least $49/mo for more than basic features.