We are a team of 4 in the office and 3 working from home. I love the way Campfire looks and works but I can’t figure out how to make use of it in our company. We use messages in basecamp and IM at the moment.

How do you use it and do you involve clients too?

Man, we couldn’t run 37signals without Campfire. We’re in it all day long, every day, all the time.

We share ideas in real time, get questions answered in real time, share images and mockups in real time, share files in real time, share URLs/links in real time, etc. There’s nothing like having a persistent chat room where you can drop in and ask/answer/share anything with anyone with virtually no barrier. Just type and hit return. Just upload a file. Just share an image. Quick, easy, fast, and permanent.

Thanks Jason. I can see how in a company based around design etc it works really well – your demo shows this to great effect. In our company we work on very short projects which tend to be managed by one person. I think BC messages will continue to be fine for us – it’s just that I would love to be able to use Campfire!!

We’re using Campfire for discussion about the project, and messages for discussions in the project, if that makes sense. So, if we were discussing, say, an approach to a design problem (before it’s ready to take to the client), we’d do that in Campfire. We used to use private messages, but Campfire works much better for us. Once we had a mock-up ready for the client, or an angle to take to them, we’d post a message in the project.

I am considering to use Campfire in the office.
We all use Mac and Gmail. So why should I choose Campfire over Ichat or Gchat ?
I need arguments to convince my staff.

Thanks

Campfire isn’t really a replacement for instant messaging. My favorite part about it is that I can go in, post a few things, and leave, and then later on when the other people join the room all that I posted is still there.

Here’s why Campfire is better than IM for group chat:
http://campfirenow.com/better/

richallum – we have a company of 5, all from home. Our projects are also small, mostly managed by one person. We use campfire as a replacement for (sorry for the cliche) the water cooler. People just ramble about the weather, their weekends, vent about frustrating APIs they have to code to (never 37Signals’ of course—ha ha) etc. Sometimes they ask generic technical questions. Strictly project-based dialog takes place on our project management platform, which isn’t real-time. What it does for us is build the team cohesiveness that you miss when people work remotely.

nate.

That’s how I see it being used but my only issue is around notifications. How do I know if anyone is there or posting a message without checking in, possibly needlessly, throughout the day?

that’s actually a major frustration with our users. There’s a utility called flare (http://www.mattbrindley.com/projects/campfire-windows-app/) which sort of provides those notifications. Are there any other Campfire notification tools? Is this something 37Signals sees as a feature to add?

I would LOVE it if we could setup Campfire email notifications based on the frequency of posts made to a room. ie: notify me of a post if there was no activity for 3 hours. Like setting a threshold of when to email notify.

I would also love to be able to invite basecamp users to join a campfire chat from within the basecamp. Meaning in BC I click on Chat tab, select chat room, room opens and I click on check boxes of BC users I want to tell to hop on to chat.

Is this possible?

thanks
jack

Hi,

I am still struggling with implementation of Campfire we have people in four geographic locations.
(we are still stuck with gchat)

Do you use one room for each project ?
We have over 100 active projects.
What are the procedures in the morning when we start ? You log into the Campfire app or checking in BC ?
I am an advanced user of BC and Highrise (to teach my team) but the Campfire integration, I just can’t get it right.
I need some kind of procedures.

Thanks for the help

Bump ?
Since iphone is now active , I am even more curious how to implement campfire effectively.

I believe BC users are under estimating the power of chat and therefore not use it.
We need guidance, help and exchange ideas…. ?

We’re not always in front of the computer. We work in different locations. We use Campfire to host meetings, reviews, brainstorming, money discussion etc. It’s a good replacement for phone confs since it allows better exchange, black on white with file sharing and the missing parties can access the log so no reporting needed.

With my clients I’d rather meet, call or email than campfire them though.

For a centralized knowledge base (places, cases/projects, people, procedures) we use a wiki (we used a forum before), we tried BC but it didn’t work for us because our projects are difficult to put on milestones. For people/cases/actions now we are switching slowly to HR but it’s still limited.

In any other business situation when considering Campfire you should capitalize on its strength and judge how it’ll increase your productivity.
Strengths are (on top of my head)
-Group communication (whether meetings, development etc.)
-Easily accessible from the web
-Asynchronized (missing parties can still be informed with no needs for reporting/synthesis)
-File Sharing on the go (difficult by phone)
-Solid History/Log

JPB you should see how “the power of chat” can increase your business bottomline. Sometimes it’s tricky.