Backpack is the latest Web-app info-management tool from the gang at 37 Signals (Basecamp, Ta-da Lists, etc.), and it is a winner, I think: I’ve already taken it past the “I’m playing with this to see if it’s any good” stage into the “I’m using this quite a bit and considering whether to move some part of my life into it” stage.
The 37 Signals approach involves not trying to do a million things but doing a few things really well. Backpack offers a smart, usable Ajax-style interface for storing random data in Web pages that can be loosely structured as lists and notes. You can (if you upgrade to a paid version) also store files and photos. You can flip a switch on a page to make it “shared” (essentially, public) and others can then not only read it but modify it (wiki style). The final, most unusual innovation here is email integration: No, it’s not an email client at all, but each page is addressable by email — you can send stuff to a page at its unique email address — and each page can be set to send out reminders via email. It’s a relatively small, contained application, but I haven’t even begun to explore all the possibilities.
Oh, it’s also been developed on the same much-buzzed-about software platform 37 Signals has used for its other products — Ruby on Rails. It serves as a pretty fine advertisement (in the best sense) both for that technology and for its company’s philosophy. Congrats, and thanks, to all involved.
Post Revisions:
There are no revisions for this post.