Basecamp: still dig it
July 16, 2006 by admin
Filed under management, productivity, web/tech
I mentioned a while back that I was really liking Basecamp. I still am. In that previous review I mentioned using it to collaborate cross-country on a presentation. Well, we kept on collaborating and finished the presentation which was pretty well received. I can’t say that it wouldn’t have happened without Basecamp, but it sure made the whole process easier. For the presentation at least, the best thing was to be able to keep a revision history, with comments, on all our files. We used PowerPoint and MindManager as our main source files and when we updated them, we were able to make a note about what changed, and comment on the notes. Kind of a dumb guy’s SVN, or something.
I’m also still using it to juggle marketing projects at work. I’ve generally got two or three on the burner, with different players on each project. I can use Basecamp as my dashboard to see what’s new and what’s due. It’s been great for uploading proofs and commenting, brainstorming ideas, etc. I make good use of the Milestones feature, but I haven’t really used the To Do lists much. Not sure why…maybe because my role is more of an ‘executive producer’ for these projects and other people are managing the daily stuff and they aren’t using the To Do feature. I dunno. Probably should think a little more about that.
Anyway, still digging it. Anyone else have success stories to share? (I’ve noticed that there are a couple of potential competitors with ActiveCollab and Streber. Haven’t used either because I’m just too pleased with the hosted goodness of Basecamp)
Dont know if I read this here or not. My memory isnt what it used to be. Google looks to be launching a similiar service too. Im not talking about google base by the way, man I wish i head a better memory. I think it was like google peacock or something like that. Oh well I guess this is kind of a waste. Hopefully someone can chime in and refresh my memory.
BaseCamp is a great tool, but it’s got a lot of limitations that just don’t work for me. I use it now and again for simple things, but I would really like to be able to customize it more. For instance, the To Do List is just too damn simple to be worth my time. I would like to be able to do a lot more with it.
If you’re looking for something more robust, but still easy to use and web-based, take a look at our product, Vertabase Pro. Its used by some pretty sophisticated organizations. There’s a screen-shot tour on the site and/or you can request a test drive.