Workgroup project sites - Part 2 - Basecamp

Basecamp is easily the “gold standard” of workgroup sites – the yardstick by which competitors are measured. In fact, one site lists 45 Basecamp alternatives, from 24SevenOffice to Zoho Projects.

Launched in 2004, the proprietary, hosted web application is now available in 15 languages, and serves millions of teams worldwide. A free version is available that supports one project, though without the Time or Files features. Pricing for multi-project accounts range from $24 to $149 a month.

Basecamp is one of a suite of products offered by 37signals, including Highrise, Campfire, and Backpack, that can be used together or independently. For example, Basecamp offers a Chat feature that requires a Campfire account.

The full version offers a project-wide Dashboard view that rolls up work on all your projects across three core features: To-Dos, Milestones, and Time. On the individual project level, Basecamp adds Messages, Writeboards, Chat, and Files, for a total of 7 features, plus a project Overview.

To create a Basecamp project, the application prompts for a project name and offers the option to create an internal project or to share the project with another company or client. If you choose to share the project, Basecamp adds options to select an existing company or create a new company. The workflow then lets you choose which people within a company to add to the project.

“If you choose” is a Basecamp hallmark. The application makes full use of the interactive Ajax programming model. As you select options within the application, Basecamp updates the page, making for a slick user experience that “doesn’t make you think.” (Geek note: Basecamp is the progenitor of the popular Ruby on Rails web application framework.)

Once a project is created, participants can add Messages, To-Dos, Milestones, Writeboards, Time records, or Files to a project.

• Messages. Over the course of a project, a great deal of information is exchanged by email, and then trapped in everyone’s individual inbox. When you post a message through Basecamp, the system sends a copy to project participants, while creating an archive of project-related messages. The result looks and feels much a Facebook wall, and provides a running record of decisions made via messages. Participants can reply to Basecamp message posts via email, saving a trip to the site.

• To-Dos. I’m usually not a fan of casual To-Do lists, since tracking and checking off the items can be more trouble than they are worth. In the case of Basecamp, the To-Do list UI is so simple and effective, I actually enjoy using it. Any number of lists can be created, and To-Do’s can be assigned to any participant or just Anyone, and optionally given a due date and notify the responsible participant by email.

* Milestones. On their own Milestones seem to be little more than a high-level project “To-Do”. The system previews upcoming Milestones, and calls out late Milestones if the date passes without marking it complete. You can also reference Messages to Milestones, making them slightly more useful. Oddly, To-Dos, Time records, and Files cannot be related to Milestones (which would make the feature much more useful), just Messages. As it stands, Milestones are a weak tickler with a simple calendar grid index.

• Writeboards. Not quite a wiki, Writeboards provide a handy place to create simple online documents. The document can be edited using a simple wiki-like syntaxes, but it doesn’t offer quick linking between pages. Writeboards do offer commenting, subscriptions, and a great version comparison tool, making them a good choice for (very) light documentation and requirements.

• Time. The full Basecamp version offers a rudimentary time log, provide a quick and easy place to record time spent on a project. There no reporting, though you can export the log to CSV for use in Excel or other applications. Time looks like a throw-away feature that might have been a practice project for an intern, though it may become more useful as a bridge to a Time Tracking add-in.

• Files. Most project generate a number of documents that are routinely updated, and the Basecamp Files area is an ideal place to keep them all together. You have an option of versioning a new upload, or just uploading it again. The files can be viewed by Category, Date, Name, or Uploader. While the 15GB limit will keep you from uploading a library of full length videos, Files is an excellent implementation of a much needed tool.

And if the core feature set is not enough, there are 85 extras and addin to Basecamp that work with mobile devices and other online applications.

Basecamp is an attractive application that people like to use. But some of the features fall short in odd ways. For example, Milestones leave you wanting a real calendar, and while the Files feature is great, there’s no obvious place to add URLs to online resources. Although people need to create an account with 37Signals to join the project, compared to using Google Accounts, we are having far fewer problems getting people logged in (fewer as in “zero”).

Next week, in part 3, we will look at OfficeLive workspaces, Microsoft’s ironically free alternative to Basecamp.