Hi,

I am confused.
I think the journal is a good feature, that I see as a helpful feature.
But I don’t get the logic between Basecamp , highrise and Backpack anymore.

We use Basecamp for projects with clients.
Since the remake we use Backpack as our knowledge base and kind of intranet as advertised by 37S.
Highrise we use for contacts (my staff doesn’t use the task feature- I do privatly).

I don’t understand why the journal feature is added to Backpack and not Basecamp.
Staff is monitoring and using Basecamp all the time, backpack and Highrise sometimes when needed.
So now they need login all the time to update their activity.
Would it not be more logical to add this feature to the to-do lists in Basecamp ???

Can somebody explain me the logic ?

Agreed.

The unclear boundaries between the three are the biggest strike against there otherwise consistent bare-bones efficiency approach and aesthetic.

What about alacarte pricing – by tab. For instance, I’d gladly trade the Campfire tab in my basecamp setup for a Backpack Page tab in basecamp. Or a Journal tab.

Honestly – switching between the three programs is cumbersome even with openID – i still find myself keeping each open in three separate tabs. I’d love to have the option of utilizing backpack’s TASK functionality in a TODO setting basecamp – especially the possibility of easily linking a TO-DO to important elements – for reference (i.e. link to the associated message thread, or highrise case, or contact profile, or writeboard, or whatever.) Each time I initiate/train someone into this stuff I find myself tripping on my words when it comes to explaining when to use which program. It undermines the credibility of the radical minimim-features approach if a user’s first interaction with the software suite is not totally intuitive and they can’t make good guesses as to WHEN to use WHICH program.

As always, though – thanks for the great work. I’m managing four totally unrelated major projects with various combinations of the three (using basecamp in each case) and I don’t know what I’d do without them.

I’d also love to have the Journal feature on Basecamp. We are logged into Basecamp the all time and I think Journal would be very usefull into it.

I have no problem to use the different apps next to each other.

I am a defender of not adding any kind of feature to Basecamp.
But I maybe have an explanation why journal went to Backpack and not Basecamp.

37s started off as a webdesign company and a good one.
Basecamp was developed as a basic need for communicating with staff AND clients.
So a great product was born out of a personal need.
I don’t think 37s has a lot of “clients” anymore, so it is not using Basecamp with over 150 projects as we do.

On the other hand Highrise was born and it is great.
When Jason announced he used it as a paperless office , I followed and it was great.
When Backpack came, I used it a bit, but didn’t see the greatness.
When Backpack was remade as a new kind of intranet, it was great and I closed down our wiki stuff, we use it a lot now.

My conclusion, great products are made out of a personal need. That is why Highrise and Backpackit got all these great add ons lately (Basecamp is ok for me).

To add a bit to my analyses is that the “TOUR” of Highrise and Backpack contains 37s content, Basecamp TOUR is showing other users.

Basecamp, logically is not so much used anymore by 37s. They need HR and BP.
Other wise the most logic thing would be to add the journal in Basecamp, thats where staff is working in.

So please journal in Basecamp, that is where it belongs in the first place IMHO.

Anybody disagrees ?

If you had Journal in Basecamp would you be happy that all your clients could see your status and all your tasks recorded?

If you want Journal, why not get Backpack?

If Journal was put into both BP & BC, it would get mighty confusing for those using both products.

Sorry, if I was unclear.
My staff uses BC for daily – hourly work. Posting messages adding files etc…
In BP they go for systems and procedures (intranet stuff) maybe once a week.
So isn’t more logical then that they have journal in BC ?

I am justing posting my opinion and for the rest I am very happy with the 37s products.