At 37signals, Backpack’s Journal feature answers the “Hey, what are you working on right now and what have you done lately?” question.

We wanted to make it easier to get journal entries into Backpack so we added a tiny wrapper around the existing journal API to make it work with a couple of StatusNet desktop clients (Adium is probably the most famous one). Now you can follow everyone else’s journal updates and make your own updates directly from a desktop client.

Here’s how you can use Backpack journal entries with the latest Adium.

1. Add a new account for StatusNet

2. Enter your Backpack username and password

3. Specify your Backpack account url and path

Be sure to select “Encrypt connection using SSL” option.

Now you should see “Timeline (username)” in your Adium contacts list.

If Adium isn’t your cup of tea, we tested another client which has more twitter-ish feel to it : Spaz

Here are Spaz settings :

Base API URL : https://url.backpackit.com/journal_entries/api/
Base WWW URL : https://url.backpackit.com/journal_entries/api/redirect/

This should work with a variety of other desktop clients as well. But we’ve only tested the two mentioned in this post.

Backpack journal is an integral part of our work day and we’re checking it constantly to see what everyone is working on. Now we can get instant notifications about new journal entries and add new entries without going through a browser.