Gadgetopia

Basecamp: Web-based Project Management…: I got a private invite to this, and I signed up for the free, single-project package. It seems solid. The interface is very clean and intuitive.

Basecamp is a simple, hosted web-based service that lets you manage projects and quickly create client/project extranets. It lets you and your clients (or just you and your own internal team) keep your conversations, ideas, schedules, to-do lists, and more in one password-protected central location.

I would rap it for being being too simple, but what I’ve learned about collaboration apps is that their success is 10% based on functionality and 90% based on the enthusiasm and flexibility of the participants.

Even a simple wiki or weblog can be a phenomenal project management tool if the team members are enthused about the project. However, even the single greatest project management in the world won’t work if no one cares.

Face it: Microsoft Exchange has enough project management tools in the default install for 99% of your projects. It’s just very easy to blame project failures on the lack of tools.