37signals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 37signals | |
 |
|
| Type | Privately held |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
| Industry | web development |
| Products | web applications |
| Employees | 8 (2007) |
| Website | www.37signals.com |
37signals is a privately held web design and web application company based in Chicago. The firm was founded in 1999 by CEO Jason Fried and partners as a web design company with a particular focus on usability, simplicity, and clarity in design and writing. 37signals also produces a popular blog, Signal vs. Noise.
The company is named for the 37 radiotelescope signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as potential messages from extraterrestrial intelligence.[1]
Contents |
[edit] History
37signals designed Meetup and redesigned sites for customers including Panera Bread and Shopping.com. In 2000, they created the eNormicom website, a satire of the dot-com era. In 2003, 37signals launched a web design service called 37express, where for a set fee they would redesign one page on a website.
Also in 2003, 37signals began work on a web application for project management named Basecamp, originally intended for internal use, that took the company in a new direction. Basecamp has since been followed by five other web applications. See below for more details.
By mid-2005 the company had moved away from consulting work to focus exclusively on its web applications. Each application has a free limited-feature version, and most have monthly subscription levels with more features.
The Ruby on Rails web application framework was extracted from the work on Basecamp and released as open source.
On July 20, 2006 the company announced that Jeff Bezos had acquired a minority stake through his personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.[2]
[edit] “Getting Real” Philosophy
37signals promotes an internally-developed Agile software development methodology and philosophy called "Getting Real". Getting Real eschews formal programming methodology and focuses on creating useful alpha software with small teams, then iterating to a simple useful application based on client feedback. The company initially expanded without venture capital and advocated the "self-funded startup" approach, although it has since taken investment from Jeff Bezos.[2] 37signals has held seminars about their methods in Chicago and other U.S. cities. The company has published a book on the philosophy "Getting Real", taken its title from the company's development philosophy. The company uses Apple computers exclusively and has said it would "never hire someone who doesn't use a Mac".[3]
[edit] Books
- Defensive Design for the Web : How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points, New Riders Press, 2004 ISBN 0-7357-1410-X
- Getting Real, self-published e-book, 2006
[edit] Products
As of March 2007, 37signals has created four commercial web applications and two free web applications. They are as follows, in order of oldest to youngest, with the names of paid-for applications in bold:
- Basecamp - a project management application
- Ta-Da List - a to-do list application
- Backpack - a personal information manager and calendar
- Writeboard - a collaborative editor
- Campfire - a business-oriented online chat interface
- Highrise - (formerly known as Sunrise), a shared contact manager application[4]
All of the 37signals web applications use a page-based design (i.e. the application has a multi-page navigation and acts like a normal web site would), as opposed to the window-based interface of so-called "web desktops" such as YouOS. With the exception of Writeboard, all of the 37signals applications use the Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) functionality of JavaScript, but still work with JavaScript disabled.
[edit] Basecamp
Basecamp is a web-based project management tool. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.
The primary features of Basecamp include to-do lists, milestone management, forum-like messaging, file sharing and time tracking.
37signals have since created an API (application programming interface) for Basecamp, allowing interaction with other web applications as well as desktop applications. One example of the API in use is a Mac OS X Dashboard widget.
[edit] Ta-Da List
Ta-Da List is a free to-do list application. It uses Ajax technology to help create a user-friendly interface, and is an extremely simple application. To use the application, users must create an account which will manage all of their "to-do lists", and keep track of changes via an RSS feed. Ta-Da List allows lists to be shared either publicly (anyone can view the list by visiting a unique URI), or with specific people by sending an automated email containing a private URI. Ta-Da List is based both on the lists in Basecamp and Backpack.
[edit] Backpack
Backpack is a web-based personal information manager. The application has two main functions: user-created pages which can include text, images, and files etc., and an iCalendar format calendar.
The main features of the user-created pages include to-do lists, inline photo galleries, notes & file attachments, and page sharing. The main features of the calendar include support for iCalendar, email/SMS reminders, color-coding of calendars, and iCalendar sharing.
[edit] Writeboard
Writeboard is a free collaborative (but not real time) text editor, which allows creation of an unlimited number of web-based text documents. Each Writeboard has a seperate user name and password, and changes can be monitored via an RSS feed.
Writeboard is a very simple application but supports Diff, allowing users to compare changes made to the document. Writeboard has since been integrated with both Basecamp and Backpack.
[edit] Campfire
Campfire is a web-based, business-oriented online chat service. Currently the company's second newest product, it was released on 16 February 2006 [1]. The application uses Ajax technology for real time communication, and supports optional 128-bit SSL encryption. To use the application, one must either create a new chat room or be invited to one. Unless a chat room is specifically chosen to be "off the record", browsable transcripts of chat and uploaded files are stored for future reference. One of the main features of the application, referred to by 37signals as "live image previews", is that when one uploads an image file which is either in GIF, PNG, or JPEG format a thumbnail will automatically be shown in the chat.
[edit] Highrise
Highrise (originally publicized as Sunrise[5]) is a web-based application focusing mainly on "shared contact management" and basic CRM tasks.[6] The application is the company's most recently released product, released on March 20, 2007.[7]
The main features of Highrise include "Person pages" and "Company pages", which can contain images, notes, company info, contact details, etc., to-do lists much like those seen in Basecamp or Backpack, and "Cases", which are pages/categories within which related notes, images, and people can be kept. The other main features of Highrise are its support for interaction via email (e.g. related email messages can be sent to unique Highrise "dropboxes" via (Blind) carbon copy or email forwarding), and support for importing data using either vCards or data from Basecamp accounts.
[edit] References
- ^ 37signals.com: What's in a Name?. 37signals. Retrieved on April 1, 2007.
- ^ a b Bezos Expeditions invests in 37signals. 37signals (2006-07-20). Retrieved on February 16, 2007.
- ^ Apple - Education - Higher Education - 37signals. Retrieved on February 16, 2007.
- ^ Signal vs. Noise: Sunrise: 37signals' CRM tool for small businesses is coming soon. 37signals (2005-12-21). Retrieved on February 15, 2007.
- ^ Preview 1: An introduction to Highrise (the product previously known as Sunrise). 37signals, Signal vs. Noise (2007-02-12). Retrieved on April 1, 2007.
- ^ An Introduction to Highrise on Signal vs. Noise
- ^ LAUNCH: Highrise. 37signals, Signal vs. Noise (2007-03-20). Retrieved on March 20, 2007.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] 37signals
- 37signals - company website
- Highrise
- Basecamp
- Backpack
- Campfire
- Writeboard
- Ta-da List
- Ruby On Rails
[edit] Other
- 37 Signals, 1 Clear Message - BusinessWeek Online interview with cofounder Jason Fried
- 37signals: Programming at Warp Speed - BusinessWeek company profile
- Company video profile on Apple.com
- Podcast Interview with Jason Fried on the Web 2.0 Show
- Podcast Interview with David Heinemeier Hasson on the Web 2.0 Show
- 2006 Open Source Mentoring Interview with Jason Fried
