Month: December 2006

bookmark_borderWhat do you use Basecamp for?

Posted on by Manik Juneja

I started thinking about blogging about this while writing the previous post comparing activeCollab and basecamp. I had started using basecamp for managing and collaborating on software development projects. But gradually the list has increased to include a lot more kinda projects.
My definition of “projects” here is same as David Allen’s in Getting Things Done.
So basically Basecamp has become my repository of { information, next-actions, waiting-for and someday } for such projects.
Here are some of the things, apart from software projects, that I am using basecamp for

  1. Managing Hiring at Vinsol
  2. Managing accounts related tasks
  3. Managing construction of our new office
  4. Managing internal training and knowledge sharing sessions at Vinsol

Let me ask you this, What do you use basecamp for?

bookmark_borderbasecamp vs. activeCollab

Posted on by Manik Juneja

After reading a few comparisons of Basecamp and activecollab, particularly the one at slackermanager, I decided to run a few projects on activeCollab.

Though features-wise activecollab has been seen giving basecamp a run for it’s money, the area where it clearly lacks is usability.
This point becomes clear if you just compare the dashboards of the two apps.
Basecamp is so intutive that rarely do I have to look around to find some information. And even the effort required to digest the displayed information is minimal in basecamp. The fonts and visual clues used on basecamp are much better than those in activeCollab.

Another feature which I do not like about AC is that it just sends links in emails and not the actual messages. Basecamp sends the actual messages in the email notification, hence avoiding the unnecessary trip to the project website.

I agree that AC is under heavy development but definitely it needs a lot of love.

I find myself much more productive on projects which I run on basecamp that I plan to stick with basecamp and am happy paying them my money.

bookmark_borderBarcamp Delhi Again!

Posted on by Manik Juneja

When the idea of a Barcamp was first mooted by Jon in February this year, we [Gaurav, Amit and moi] quicky lapped it up. But as the initial excitment of doing an “unconference” mellowed down, doubts started creeping in. We were not sure of what was in store for us.
Would there be enough people to join the “unconference”? Would we get enough sessions lined up? What would be the level of those sessions? etc. etc.

Eventually Barcamp Delhi proved to be a bigger success than any of us had imagined. Not only that, it proved to be the harbinger of a barcamp revolution of sorts in India.

And now the stage is set for the second round.

BarcampDelhi-2 will be held on this Saturday, 9th of December at Impetus Infotech, Noida.

For details visit the wiki page here

Thanks to Impetus for allowing us to use their offices, we were having a very tough time finding a suitable venue this time.

I have not yet finalized what I would speak on, but I am leaning towards something related to testing in Ruby on Rails.

Spread the word around and see you there!

p.s: An interesting bit, I came to know about barcamp from Rashmi at the Uzanto Open House. I always thought the name bar-camp came from the legendary foo and bar variables. Rashmi told us that the bar in barcamp is actually “Bay Area Rejects”, essentially those who were not invited to the foocamp.