Basecamp, Highrise and Backpack

This is very old news, but I haven't written about these hugely useful applications, all available in free versions. My heroes at 37signals turn out simple, powerful tools for small businesses, groups and all manner of collaborative projects. There are free versions that scale nicely as your needs grow. Basecamp is a kind of project organisational tool that lets you gather messages, to-do lists, people and projects in a very intuitive way.

JetSetNet uses Basecamp for web development projects and our clients "get it" right away without any instruction or explanation. Highrise is a contact management system to keep track of customers, friends and anyone with just exactly the features you need - nothing more, nothing less. Backpack is an information organizer and calendar. I'm holding off until Backpack and Basecamp work together a little better and the free version of Backpack doesn't include the all-important calendar, so I'm a little grumpy about that. But I don't hold that against them since everything else is so great.

They have other great apps too. Campfire is a sweet real-time chat tool - like instant messaging, but optimized for groups. Ta-Da list is a very simple (i.e. perfect) online to-do list. If you're struggling with a large Office-type suite, if you want access to your important information from any computer with internet access, if you adhere to "Simple Living" or "Small is Beautiful" or you just want to spend more time doing your work and less time figuring out how your computer or applications work, then take some of these tools out for a spin.

And while you're there, if you are somewhat technically minded, read Signal vs Noise, 37signals' popular blog. If you run a business or design things, read their book "Getting Real". You can buy a copy cheaply or you can read the whole thing online. If you do nothing else today, read this book.