Project Management for Dummies (me)

Very early on in the production of the podcast we realized two things: video podcasts and managing a virtual office are both tough.

I think it was the second day of deciding to do this, someone, I think it was Cam, suggested we find some way to link everyone up on some sort of web-based contact manager. Maybe not even that descriptive. It didn't take long before we found Basecamp from 37 Signals in Chicago. These guys make a number web-based aps including Writeboard (collaborative writing tool), Backpack (personal organizer) and Basecamp, their professional-strength project management tool that has the same charm and efficiency of Google. It's that good!

I'm not a Project Manager at all, in fact this was my first gig post-TDIF where I pretty much ran the show. I swore when I wrapped the Festival in 2001 I'd never take on another project alone again, and this was my first big chance. Gladly, Basecamp appears to have worked extremely well.

You can set Milestones, and make comments on a blog-styled editor that is tracked to the Milestone. We booked camera guys, talent and producers here. You can create a contact list, and companies within a contact list, that allow certain members particular or full access to the Project. I especially liked the Writeboard where we would work on scripts and our press release in a collaborative fashion. I like how it tracked all the changes and you could roll back to any point in the creation of the document. You could assign projects or to-do lists to particular people and those people get individual emails advising them of their responsibilities. As you can see here:


...near the end of the project my responsibilites dropped off a bit. (c:

Best of all for one project it's free. You are limited to only 2 writeboard docs and all your notices are branded by Basecamp, but it's a wonderful tool that I highly recommend. Once our Podcast goes Pro we're definitely signing up for the paid account which is less than $20USD/m for an unlimited number of contractors/people.