We’ve been working on something. Backpack is going multiuser.
Multiuser makes Backpack crazy delicious
So here’s the story. At our first full-day full-team get together with Jeff Bezos last year we were tossing around some ideas on how we could make Backpack even better. Some of those ideas made it into a major release last year. The second big idea was to make Backpack multiuser.
Why multiuser?
You’ve always been able to share Backpack pages via email. And while that works, and while you’ll still be able to do that, we felt that we could go further and make it much easier for people to use Backpack together. So instead of having to share pages by email and deal with multiple Backpack accounts and URLs, soon you’ll be able to just add multiple users to your account:
Backpack matures into a great business tool
There’s a clear advantage to a multiuser Backpack account: Backpack becomes a wonderful small business/group tool.
While Basecamp is great for managing client and internal projects, Backpack multiuser becomes a great tool for sharing information across your organization, centralizing knowledge, and a home base for all those little bits that everyone needs but no one can find. Since anyone with access to a page can add content, Backpack pages turn into collaborative blank slates.
For example, you could make a page where your team could brainstorm ideas for the next version of a product or project…
...or you could gather and store research for an upcoming project or white paper you’re going to publish…
...or you could create a page of standardized procedures or answers…
...or you could centralize notes, slides, and to-dos for an upcoming client meeting…
...or you could make a page of frequently needed forms (NDA, fax cover sheet, timesheet, health insurance application, expense report, etc)...
...or a page where everyone can post press mentions for your products or your competitor’s…
...or people could use Backpack pages to store receipts and track expenses…
Privacy too
When you create a page with the new Backpack you can decide who should see it. It could be just for you, just for you and a few others, or everyone in your account.
More soon
Over the next week or so we’ll be unveiling some of the other new features coming soon to Backpack. Stay tuned.
Luciano Hagge
on 11 Feb 08Why not to make Basecamp even better?
- A percentage of finished/unfinished tasks would be very great!
- A better and most beautiful calendar.
- A .ZIP export of a project.
- A visual editor for Writeboards.
- Subfolders in the Files.
- Highrise + Basecamp integration, please!
;-)
Ben Mills
on 11 Feb 08I don’t really understand how this is different from the current system of sharing a page with another user. Is it that I can allow other users access to certain pages when they don’t have their own Backpack account? I must admit that this would be a useful feature as I’ve wanted to share information with people who are unwilling to sign up for a Backpack account and I don’t want to make the page public.
I currently use the Backpack API. Will you be publishing the API changes before the next version is released?
Scott Wintheiser
on 11 Feb 08Great feature! We’ve been hoping for this for sometime. We use backpack as a company “wiki” with each team member having their own account. This will make sharing new content much easier!
Will the OpenBar still work as well?
Ryan
on 11 Feb 08I just spent the last 10 minutes at http://www.backpackit.com trying to find out how much Backpack costs, still can’t find a price. Do I really have to sign up for an account just to see if the price is worthwhile? Or am I missing something?
JF
on 11 Feb 08Ryan: Currently when you sign up for Backpack you can only sign up for a free account. You can upgrade later to a paying plan if you’d like.
Justin V
on 11 Feb 08Will there be any form of versioning to go along with this update as a safeguard against accidental deletions, etc? If so it seems like this could become a much more user-friendly option in many situations where wikis would otherwise have been implemented.
Will
on 11 Feb 08Herbert Kornfeld! Nice one Sam :)
Peter
on 11 Feb 08Looks interesting. This could get me to upgrade my free account in order to share pages with my SO. (Though the thought of a page where she could add to-do items fills me with modest dread….)
Nathaniel
on 11 Feb 08Oh, slick. I love Backpack, much of my life lives in it. Can’t wait to see what else you guys have cooked up.
Bob Monsour
on 11 Feb 08Hip hip hoooray!
Justin
on 11 Feb 08The absence of this is what ultimately led me to downgrade my Backpack account.
For smaller projects that don’t require Basecamp this is fantastic.
DjD
on 11 Feb 08I actually said ‘Yes!’ outloud to myself when I saw this. I’ve got a medium priced plan largely for the SSL and am sometimes reluctant to share certain things with my wife as her account doesn’t. Sounds like this will address that!
Chad
on 11 Feb 08Any post with tha H-Dog Herbert Kornfield’s pic in it gets a thumbs up from me.
Eml
on 11 Feb 08How will a calendar work with multi users? Will the calendar API get an update (still missing a lot of important features if you want to build a sync tool)
Matt
on 11 Feb 08Jason,
Thank you so very much. this is exactly what I am looking for to share information with my wife. I’ve been racking my brain for a month now looking at various options, network drives and wikis, but this is what I wanted all along! I’m still a little scared of putting private info on Backpack, even on the SSL versions, but perhaps I should work around that.
Count me in as an old paying customer coming back! Matt
Marlyse Comte
on 12 Feb 08Nice features!
Tim
on 12 Feb 08Very cool. Will there be any sort of versioning, to see who made which changes? If so, will it happen at the page level? The list/note level?
Rich G
on 12 Feb 08Yeah! We’ve been using Backpack this way for over a year, but we’ve had to kluge it together…this sounds like it will be a much better solution! For a few dollars a month, we’ve created a great structure for sharing operational checklists. This will make it even easier!
Thanks!
Marc
on 12 Feb 08Dear Jason,
Regarding this comment you did on the forum last July :
Will you implement some nice restore from trash feature as well ? Regards
SH
on 12 Feb 08Dear Marc,
Looks like Jason’s quote says, “Backpack is currently a single-user product.”
Warren Henning
on 12 Feb 08I find that large pages get a little hard to manage. There’s no good way to refactor large pages beyond dragging and dropping which is extremely tedious once the page gets much larger than one screen.
I also wish you could do wiki-style linking.
JF
on 12 Feb 08I find that large pages get a little hard to manage. There’s no good way to refactor large pages beyond dragging and dropping which is extremely tedious once the page gets much larger than one screen.
The best way to deal with large pages is not to make large pages. I know it sounds simplistic, but it’s the best option.
Noel Hurtley
on 12 Feb 08This is really fantastic. I’ve needed proper multi-user support since I signed up for a paid account over two years ago.
I can’t wait to give this a spin!
Michael Blix
on 12 Feb 08This sounds great.
When can we expect this to be introduced?
Jason Horman
on 14 Feb 08These features are exactly what I have been waiting for for my team. I prefer the flexible layout of Backpack over Basecamp for managing things that are more document oriented, like requirements documents, etc.
My question, and maybe this is a good question for the “Ask 37 signals” blog, is whether these more business oriented features are being added b/c it was difficult to monetize an application that was specifically consumer targeted? Will normal consumers just not pay the $5-$10 a month, but corporations clearly will?
Edmund Jacobsen
on 14 Feb 08I’m really looking forward to this stuff
Andrew Hecht
on 15 Feb 08Sounds great. What’s the time frame for this upgrade?
George
on 17 Feb 08Is this feature active? Been looking for it on my backpack account and don’t see it.
This discussion is closed.