Webreakstuff's blog on design, development and strategy. Click here to subscribe.

Goplan updates

Fred Oliveira on July 26, 2006 Comments (6)

Goplan Since we announced the Goplan beta, we’ve been getting a lot of email from people asking questions and submitting their names for the list. We honestly would love to get back to everyone individually, but given the (really high) number of requests, it looks like we’ll be unable to. This being said, this post is for those of you who want a little more information on what Goplan is, why we built it, how you can get in on the beta and other miscellaneous details.

What is Goplan?

We want to make sure everyone is on the same page as to what Goplan is. In fact, we want everyone to be on the same page on projects in general – and Goplan is exactly that: project management software focused on communication and collaboration. But, instead of feeding you marketing blabber, here’s a few examples of how you might use the application:

  • If you’re working with your colleagues on a new web-application (you’re our kind of guy), you can use Goplan to keep track of project tasks, support tickets, calendar, files and chat amongst yourselves if you work remotely.
  • If you’re a blogger, you can use Goplan to keep track of your ideas, posts, and digital assets (like photos or documents).
  • If you’re publishing a magazine and need to keep in touch with the rest of your staff, you can use Goplan to manage the team’s input on the publication, as well as manage deadlines, production details, tasks and (if it doesn’t strike you as a distraction) to chat live with everyone else.

So in short, by easily turning features on and off, you can have Goplan as simple as possible or as sophisticated as you need it. We built Goplan because we were unhappy about the current solutions for project management out there – either they were limited (not that that’s always a bad thing) or too bulky for our needs -, and because we know people who identify themselves with that problem.

Beta details

We didn’t forget you. If you didn’t get an email to get in, its not because you’ve been left behind – we just haven’t invited anyone in yet. There are several reasons for that – we’re currently focusing on scaling the application and preparing the servers to run it on (we have some “funny” hosting stories to tell you, but that’s a whole new post). Plus, we want to focus on the user experience for a few more days to make sure you don’t get disappointed.

Screenshots, what else

If you really need to see the application now, head on to Flickr and see the Goplan beta set. We’ll be adding more screengrabs in there soon – plus, we might throw in photos from some of the bug-crunching nights we’re having (you know, instead of having vacations and other regular-people fun).

Got questions? We’ll be happy to answer them in the comments, so feel free to ask!

View/add comments on this entry

Comments on this post

Ben Bishop

Sorry, if I have missed this but can you put me on the beta list? I would be very keen to help / pass on my thoughts.

Nick Toye

Isn’t this just Basecamp?

Do you think you will outsell Basecamp? If not, then whats the point putting energies into a product that won’t compete. If so, how is it better than Basecamp.

Tristan Dunn

Looks great. Can’t wait to see it in action.

My big question is, is it still going to be open-source or has the rewrite been to package it as a product?

And I knew the Basecamp comparison would be coming. I’d use Goplan over Basecamp based solely on the look if they were exactly the same. Although, as mentioned, Goplan allows you to turn features on and off, which is nice for when you don’t need the whole package. Overall it appears to be cleaner, which I like a lot. If it is indeed still open-source, that would be a major difference.

And I assume that the blank “sidebar” will have context-sensitive help (not that it’s needed) or other useful information.

Fred

Nick: the million dollar question. No, we’re not really trying to tap into the basecamp market (or trying to outsell basecamp). Basecamp is a great product for people who identify themselves with the set of features the guys over at 37signals have implemented, and for those, Basecamp will continue being a great (and probably the best suited) product.

We were motivated to build Goplan because as software developers and consultants there were many details we were unhappy about in the current solutions for online collaborative work, like (wait for it) Basecamp. This being said, there is going to be people for whom Basecamp provides the best set of features, and people for whom Goplan does. It’s really a matter of using a package that makes you (and your team) productive.

There are always going to be obvious comparisons to basecamp, because both the teams at 37 Signals and ourselves saw the need for better online collaboration – but we took different approaches.

(And I’m saying this knowing Jason and David at 37 Signals personally)

Personally, I believe we will never have lost time building Goplan because we’ve become more productive in our work because of it, as it suits our purposes like a glove. If it manages to help other people in the same way, it will have reached our view of success.

Fred

Tristan: We’re still working on the way the application is going to enter the market. Initially Goplan was going to be open-source, but the point of the code rewrite was to build a packaged solution. We may still open certain parts of it, though.

And you caught us, the blank sidebar shows contextual information (like notifications for chat activity) that isn’t showing on the screenshots because we were messing with the layouts at the time of capturing them. Updated screengrabs will be up soon.

Mind Booster Noori

Thumbs down on not open sourceing it… :-(

Something to say?