After reading lots of favorable commentary, I signed up for a free Backpack account. Backpack is one of the very few web apps that achieves a responsiveness that is similar to what I expect from the desktop. It's the most responsive web app I've ever used. And, as a result, my Backpack main page is now my Safari 2 home page.
The 37Signals folks are using a new and better approach called AJAX which produces an unprecedented level of responsiveness. That's huge, but, equally important, 37Signals is religious about simplicity, minimalism and end-user control. Here's what they say in their manifesto:
You should make the rules. Most information management tools are riddled with mandatory fields, complex multi-step processes, and specialized "buckets" for data. ... Backpack adjusts to organize things your way. It's a blank slate that offers you less structure and more space....
Clear, Simple, and Fast. At the heart of Backpack is simplicity and clarity. Things work the way you'd expect them to work. Everything complex has been tossed so the tool is simple to the core. In fact, nothing takes more than a few seconds. Our "Ajaxed" interface elements eliminate reloading hassles. Backpack gives you the benefit of the web (centralized access, no install, no IT nightmares) without the downsides of the web (reloads, slowdowns, poor interfaces). - 37Signals
Up till now, we haven't been able to do some things that Backpack makes possible:
Create web pages without HTML. Backpack has got to be the quickest, simplest way I've ever seen to put up good-looking, modifiable webpages.
Share daily life/work information without extra fuss. You create a little list and notes for yourself in a couple minutes, but that list is an editable webpage that you can share with specific friends, family, co-workers or clients or the general public.
37Signals is pitching Backpack as a PIM that happens to be online. It lets you create lists, notes and reminders and add images and files as you like. The idea seems to be that we've never had the flexibility to share these kinds of things at will so we won't really know what value that represents until we start just using the tool. Then we'll run into places we want to share stuff.
I don't have immediate and obvious needs to share my lists and what not. After all, I've already got a blog where I can do most of that. So I've been evaluating whether I want an online PIM rather than or in addition to the great desktop tools I already have.
Besides the aforementioned exceptional look, feel and responsiveness, what I'm liking so far:
The List Checkboxes are slick. First, you get them with every list item automatically. Then, when you check off an item, it goes to the bottom in gray and smaller and checked off. And there's a little trashcan there if you want to delete it.
Notes are cool too. Each note has a subject which appears in a nice bold and then the separate body of the note. You can put bulleted and numbered lists in your notes along with images and links to web pages.
No synching!!! Great for people like me who use two computers regularly. The first time I went to my PowerMac, it was sure great that my Backpack stuff was right there and I could edit or add things knowing they would be synched without synching on my Powerbook when I started using it again later.
You are backed up. OK. I backup my really important work-related stuff pretty religiously, but not the rest. You’ve got a built-in, automatic and trouble-free backup all the time.
It's got tags. At the moment, tagging is hot. So, I'm glad it's here in this 1.0 release. Haven't tagged a thing yet, but hey, I'm just getting started.
This might work. Adequate. Now, add the benefits of sharing:
Sharing is the new killer app. A tool/environment that is selectively shareable. You are in an instantly shareable and invite-your-friends-to-edit environment all the time. D. Keith Robinson says it: “You can send or share pages with people, thus allowing them into a bit of your world as needed.”
It’s like a wiki but better. Simple syntax to accomplish bullets, numbered lists, links, blockquotes, bold, italics and such.
In place editing. Unlike a wiki page where you edit the whole page or not at all, this little guy has sub-areas that you edit. The edit link appears in bright orange when you hover over something editable. Cool!
What O'Reilly Radar calls "round-trip format for Backpack content: Backpack → Email → Backpack is a breakthrough. I can email Backpack pages to myself or others and they look like they did online. Then, while offline perhaps, I can edit the email and email it back to update the page when I'm back online. Yeah.
Sending reminders to your cell phone and mobile access isn't half bad either.
Downsides:
If you haven't planned ahead and can't get online at the moment, you don't have access to your stuff. Most of us still have offline moments. Backpack works better when you are online at will. And, god forbid, the service could be down.
There's a small privacy risk when I work on stuff that is just for me and that I don’t want others to see. Yes, if everything goes right, it is protected. But, ever heard of chaos theory? Things don't always go according to plan.
A wysiwyg desktop tool would still be easier to use if you want any formatting. Backpack's markup language is great, but can't beat wysiwyg. Geeks will love Backpack, but will everyone else?
Less is more and all that, but I've still got feature requests. And, the more features added, the harder it is for 37Signals to keep things dead simple. I need:
A way to reorder my notes. Right now, unless I'm missing something, there's no reorder feature and my most recent notes go to the bottom of the list. Couldn't you just add the reorder buttons that work so well in lists to notes?
To be able to drag photos in. You too Flickr! This works on the desktop, so I want it here too. I'm afraid this feature requires excessive back flips but it sure would be nice.
To be able to move my content from one page to another easily. To refactor as a I figure out what I want to share. Once again, drag and drop would be perfect.
Lower prices. OK, I'm spoiled by Flickr pricing, but it sure would be nice if the highest level Backpack account was $5 a month instead of $19 and that the second from the top level was $24.95 a year. I know these are good deals for commercial users, but in order for this place to be the ideal play pen, we need plenty of elbow room to experiment. Raise the rates later if you must but not while we are still getting our feet wet. How about a 2-month trial period at Flickr prices?
As I've said before (Collaborative Environments), as a tech-enabled free agent (ronin), I need to be able to work and collaborate virtually. And I don't want a lot of corporate crap and control layered on top. Backpack feels like the perfect next step in this direction.
Update May 17, 2005: I just upgraded to the $9 a month package with 100 pages. Couldn't wait.