Group/Project oriented, web-based productivity environment?

[moerl]

I didn't know what else to call it. It's pretty much exactly like 37Signals' Basecamp, except I need it to be free. In fact, Basecamp is free too, except with a very limited feature-set. It may just be enough though.. I don't know.

I'm in a group of seven, and we are writing a 50-page paper on "free trade, fair trade and poor nations" and right now, all our communication is based on email. This means that one person will send an email to the six other people involved. Then the six other people will use REPLY TO ALL and reply with their two cents to that email.. so we are sending emails back and forth in quantities that remind me of the amount of water molecules the see moves back and forth in a cycle of ebb & flow. We need a kind of service, like Basecamp, that will let us communicate with the group easily, schedule meetings and such.. and be efficient at it all. A small forum would be great too.

Any ideas?

I haven't checked out Basecamp yet so it may actually be exactly what we're looking for.. let me know what you think.

[jgpaiva]

Offtopic, but you need to see the correct way to insert links, you're not using bbcode. it is {url=www.donationcoder.com}Donation Coder's site{/url} replacing the {} by square brackets ( [] )

[moerl]

Offtopic, but you need to see the correct way to insert links, you're not using bbcode. it is {url=www.donationcoder.com}Donation Coder's site{/url} replacing the {} by square brackets ( [] )

-jgpaiva (April 03, 2006, 10:54 AM)

Off-Topic: Thanks for letting me know about my incorrect formatting. While we're at corrections, however, let me correct you as well. BBCode has never used "curly brackets", i.e. {}. It has always used standard brackets, i.e. []. Such is the case on this board as well. There was something else that was wrong with my post.. but you can verifiy the truth of this correction of mine by using the "insert hyperlink" button here when you are editing a post. You will see that it will drop this in your edit box:

[Select]

[url][/url]

That's how I fixed my incorrect formatting now and it works.

I have this same thread running here as well as over at DSLR to get the most responses for the question. Severus at DSLR has posted a helpful link that points to 37Signals' Basecamp forums, listing multiple alternatives to Basecamp. I read the thread and checked out some of the alternatives and after some selective elimination, I ended up with nothing but http://www.officezilla.com/, which looks VERY interesting. I'll have to check that one out some more. It has more features than Basecamp and it's free. Basecamp has a free subscription type as well, but the features in that are quite limited, whereas I expect Officezilla! to be quite free of restrictions.

I'll post back when I find anything new

EDIT:
Edited HEAVILY not for content but for formatting. Something weird happened with this post.

[jgpaiva]

Offtopic again: hey, how did you put that text? it's great for posting offtopic stuff, but i can't find that color!
I know it doesn't use curly brackets, but if i posted with the other brackets, you wouldn't be able to see the syntax, only the link.
I've just found this option, it's fun!

[moerl]

Offtopic again: hey, how did you put that text? it's great for posting offtopic stuff, but i can't find that color!
I know it doesn't use curly brackets, but if i posted with the other brackets, you wouldn't be able to see the syntax, only the link.
I've just found this option, it's fun!

-jgpaiva (April 03, 2006, 01:17 PM)

Aaaaaaaahh.. so you were just using the curly brackets to make an example! I get you. Ok then . And the color I used for the off-topic part is grey.

[jgpaiva]

Still off-topic: Nice! I thought the only colors available were the ones in the drop-down menu.. Thanks! 

[moerl]

Still off-topic: Nice! I thought the only colors available were the ones in the drop-down menu.. Thanks! 

-jgpaiva (April 03, 2006, 02:53 PM)

I thought that WAS in the drop-down menu? It's not? Haha.. guess I just typed in "grey" at the beginning of the color tag without giving it much though.. see what happened was is that I tried one color, then decided I wanted a different one, and when that happens you can't just use the color drop-down again because it will insert a NEW tag. So I edited the tag manually instead, typing in "grey", thinking that should also be an option on the drop-down menu. Oh well. Now we know

[tsaint]

Did you look at
http://www.writeboard.com/ ?
(you may have because its associated with 37 signals/basecamp)
tony

[moerl]

Did you look at
http://www.writeboard.com/ ?
(you may have because its associated with 37 signals/basecamp)
tony

-tsaint (April 03, 2006, 09:20 PM)

When one signs up for Basecamp, one gets two free writeboards inside, so we're aware. It's an excellent feature. We have the two writeboards set up already, one is "Bibliography", the other "Outline" .

Most of the group members just have not even logged in yet because they are retarded. Working with incompetent people blows.