WANTED: Integration between Remember the Milk and Basecamp
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October 2nd, 2007 by Alex
I've been looking into options for improving task management with Basecamp, given my frustration with Basecamp's lack of due dates or task details.
Basecamp is what I need to manage the big picture of projects, keep in touch with clients, and assign tasks to my team, subcontractors, and client staff. I wrote up a pretty detailed picture of how we're doing this in my post about our Basecamp workflow.
But Basecamp is not a good tool for personal task management. That's why I use -- and quite like -- Remember the Milk, a very sophisticated yet intuitive task manager. RTM lets you categorize tasks into categories (lists) of your choice, tag any task, associate tasks with locations, assign priorities and due dates to tasks, share tasks with colleagues -- basically anything you might need to do to manage your tasks effectively. And it has lots of nice add-ons, like an iGoogle widget that you can even use to view RTM tasks in your Firefox sidebar.
As it stands, the combo of Basecamp and RTM is pretty unsatisfying. I have to manually copy my Basecamp to-dos into my RTM lists. And then when I complete a task, i have to mark it complete in both places.
Since many of my tasks are independent of particular client projects, it doesn't make sense to manage all my tasks from within Basecamp (especially considering the limitations of the Basecamp task system). What I really want is to create and manage most of my tasks from within RTM, but still be able to include my Basecamp tasks in the RTM system.
I'm hoping the RTM team will make this possible by building a bridge to the Basecamp API. Ideally RTM would first introduce nested lists, so that each Basecamp project could be an RTM list (tab). A basecamp to-do list could become a nested list on that tab, with tasks listed inside the nested sublist.
It's a little trickier without nested lists, but I'd still settle for a dump of all my tasks in a given project, directly into an RTM tab/list of the same name. I'd lose the in-between layer of to-do list names within Basecamp, but I can live with that -- especially if completing a task in RTM marks it complete in Basecamp.
The RTM team is the obvious gang to take this on, especially since they are looking for value-added options that would induce people to pay for RTM Pro (I'd happily pay more than $25/yr for Basecamp integration, myself -- I could imagine $10/month as a fair pricepoint).
But the RTM folks are busy, busy, busy. So I'm hoping there are other developers out there -- people who could use the RTM and Basecamp APIs to build this sync function without the official blessing of either service. If this sounds like you, let us know how we could help make this happen. And if this mashup sounds like something you'd want, leave a comment so we can figure out whether there's enough interest to warrant a development bounty.
Change status: Facebooking and Twittering for a new world
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October 1st, 2007 by Alex
Would you be a more effective agent for social, economic or political change if you could see the progress we're all making as a movement?
That's a theme that has popped up for me repeatedly in recent months, including at Web of Change. Whether you're wondering if it's worthwhile to leave your car at home when so many others are driving theirs, or struggling to keep up morale in your issue-driven nonprofit, sometimes the whole job of social change feels like one big collective action problem. How much energy should I invest in change if others aren't also investing their time and energy in change? How much is our effort worth, anyhow? Are we really making a difference?
The truth is, none of us are alone -- not even a little. For proof, you need look no further than a site like Wiser Earth, which offers a window on tens of thousands of social movements around the world.
But it can be hard to stay connected to that larger movement, to notice that your work is supported and amplified by millions of other people working towards the same transformation, and to appreciate the changes we're effecting every day. It can take a big event or milestone to remind us that we're making progress -- for me, the recent wedding of two of our dearest friends, a gay couple, was a reminder that yes! change is possible.
What can we do in between those milestones to track our progress, boost our morale, build community, and celebrate our successes? In this as in all things, Facebook may have an answer. The fabulous Jon Stahl shared a practice in place at ONE/Northwest, where team members often end their day by e-mailing each other a list of the tasks or accomplishments they completed that day. Quite apart from its team building value, this practice struck me as a great way of noting and appreciating the small steps we're making towards change.
But you don't need a team practice -- or a battleship appearance -- to declare "mission accomplished". Many of us are posting daily, hourly or minute-by-minute snapshots of our activities via Facebook status updates or Twitter. These status updates could be a great way for us to share the small steps we're all taking to strengthen our communities, reduce our personal environmental footprints, increase issue awareness, support people in need, empower and mobilize marginalized communities, support social justice -- all the many many things people in non-profits, activist groups, government agencies, social enterprises and multinational corporations are doing to move us towards a world that is socially, environmentally and personally sustainable.
I would love to know what my Facebook and Twitter friends and buddies are doing every day or every hour to move things forward. Maybe you've just covered your neighbourhood with posters for an upcoming rally, maybe you just designed the logo for a new non-profit, maybe you had a meeting with one great insight into how the climate change movement can mobilize more support among retirees. Whatever it is, big or small, put it in your update! And don't be shy about blowing your own horn -- that's the point. Your success may be just the encouragement that someone else needs to keep going.
I posted my first "change status" just a few minutes ago. Here's what it said:
Alexandra is happy with the excruciatingly detailed tech requirements she's drafted for a wonderful new social networking community for vulnerable people.
OK, so tech requirements aren't as sexy as rioting in the streets, but that's what I did with my weekend and hey, I really do think it's a small building block towards the right big picture.
What did you do today that moved your work, your organization, your issue or your personal practice forward? Post it to your Facebook or Twitter status. And don't forget to friend me on Facebook or buddy me on Twitter so that I can hear about it.