YouTube clips in Campfire

Fun newish feature in Campfire: Post the URL to a YouTube clip into your chat and Campfire will automatically convert it so a still frame from the video shows up:

Click the image and the video opens in a new window. So go ahead and get your "cats on a treadmill" on!

"100 Useful Web Tools for Writers" includes Highrise, Backpack, and Campfire

100 Useful Web Tools for Writers [CollegeDegrees.com] is a list that "will help you with your career, your sanity and your creativity whenever your write." The following 37signals tools made the list:

Highrise: Manage all of your employers, vendors, designers and partners with this CRM tool.

Backpack: This 37signals tool organizes group calendars, announcements, files, task lists and more, perfect for writers who frequently work with or manage others.

Campfire: Another 37signals tool, this collaboration solution lets you set up secure chat groups where you can send and share files.

View the entire list.

Virb can't imagine life without Campfire

'Round the Campfire is a post from Virb's Brad Smith (shown below) about how his team uses Campfire:

The Virb Team is comprised of 5 individuals superheroes...For the past few months, we have been scattered about (geographically speaking) more than usual. Between work and personal related trips, office power outages and a new baby, we've been forced to find a better way to keep productivity and communication unscathed; despite the thousands of miles between us.

Earlier this month I was in Chicago and had the chance to grab some dinner with Sarah at 37signals. We eventually ended up on the topic of project management. Go figure. Enter the conversation on Campfire. Being another product from the geniuses behind Backpack and Basecamp, I really can't say why I never checked it out before.

Now, let's hop in the DeLorean and zip forward a few weeks... **CRACK-CRAAACKLE-BOOM**

I honestly can't see how our team ever did without it. Campfire is open in a browser tab all day long. It's launched when the day begins on the east coast and isn't closed until the last left coast'er signs off in the evening. We fire-up iChat for group audio chats several times a day, but otherwise, no project communication happens outside of 'the campfire'.

Ye olde naysayers might think that the feature list for Campfire isn't the most robust; and I'd have to admit, I was one of them. Yet I've discovered that it gives me ONLY what I need. Nothing more, nothing less. All group conversations are logged and archived as transcripts. All file uploads are appended to the same daily transcript archives. There is a simple search feature for plowing through the archives. That same search has also made me aware that I use the word "like" a little too liberally. The tour of Campfire from 37S says it all. Like really.

If I step away from my desk, upon returning, I can catch up with the team simply by reading. Tis wondrous. The iPhone support is pretty frakking stellar, to boot. I was on a train to NYC a few weeks ago. Zipping down the tracks at 90MPH I was getting live status updates from the rest of the gang, just as if I was behind my computer.

Maybe your remote team uses it too. Maybe it just isn't your thing. My only point is that it works for my team! The end. Hell, some days it seems productivity is more solid when we're scattered about the land, versus sitting 5 feet from each other. Therein lies the application's true value.

Provide Campfire-based "Live Support Chat" with the flip of a switch using new Zendesk widget

Zendesk has put together a simple integration to Campfire so help desk agents can set up support chats with their customers/end-users.

Mikkel Svane, CEO of Zendesk.com, emailed us to let us know:

The integration is pretty basic, but people can expand it any way they want to. Zendesk is also integrated to time tracking service Harvest, and we're currently designing integration paths to both Highrise and Basecamp.

We asked Mikkel for more info and here's what he had to say:

Zendesk is for customer support what Basecamp is for project management. More than 1800 organizations have signed up for the service, and several have asked for a "live chat" feature in our product. Instead, we have used the widget interface that Zendesk provides to build an integration to Campfire.

The sample integration is very basic but Zendesk clients who embed the Javascript widget in their help desk are now able to provide "Live Support Chat" by the flip of a switch. Provided they have a Campfire account. End-users' help desk credentials are automatically transferred to the chat session.

It goes without saying that the widget can easily be extended. If for example you only want to provide live support for registered users, want to publish support conversations in your forums or want to provide 1-on-1 chats.

We ourselves have deployed it in our own help desk to demonstrate the functionality and gather some feedback, and we are considering integrating it directly in our service.

Zendesk widgets are well suited for 3rd party integrations. We have a Harvest integration that is slightly more complex, and integrations are coming to a lot of other services, including Highrise and Basecamp.

Developers: Check out the integration widget code.

Campfire "indispensable" for Gizmodo team

Writer Addy Dugdale (Associate Editor of Gizmodo) is bornrich.org's Cool Geek of this Week. In the profile, she describes a typical day at work at Gizmodo. It includes a healthy dose of Campfire.

Wake up sometime between around 8am and plug straight into my laptop. Eat breakfast, go through the feeds, find stories and write them up–in the case of breaking news, as quickly as I can. We have a web application called Campfire in which we post links to the stories we’re going to write about, so that there’s no confusion as to who is doing what. We also use campfire to crack jokes, hurl insults, flirt, flatter and threaten the other members of the team. It’s the closest we get to an “office” with the editors spread all over Europe and the US. At the moment we have two in Spain, one in Portugal, one in Chicago, four or so in NY, and three on the West Coast, so Campfire is indispensable.

As fans of Gizmodo, it's great to hear Campfire is an indispensable ally to the team. Keep up the good work guys!

Mad Mimi uses Campfire for customer support and also digs the "Basecamp Vibe" (i.e. beauty, economy, and simplicity)

MadMimi.com is a Brooklyn-based startup providing "a uniquely simple, powerful email marketing service." They utilize Basecamp and Campfire for in-house collaboration on development projects and as their main platform for customer support. Gary Levitt, co-founder of Mad Mimi (that's him in the picture to the left, along with his wife, Leah, also a co-founder), tells us more below.

How we use Basecamp and why we like it
Well we must have referenced Basecamp a hundred times during the conception of Mad Mimi. So to say we like Basecamp is a bit of an understatement. Basecamp helps us handle project collaboration effortlessly. But our affinity goes deeper — Basecamp's simplicity was a muse for us, in that it triggered a shift in our mindset which lead to the creation of our product. Others can debate the logic of this, but to our minds, when you cross Basecamp simplicity with email promotion, you get a fresh, functional alternative to the bloated, template-based services that are currently leading the market. You look at all the reasons why industry leaders are predicting that Mad Mimi will topple the current dominating players in the email marketing industry, and many of those reasons can be credited to the influence of 37signals' products.

In terms of how we use Basecamp, it's interesting. Before our success in email marketing, we were just another New York music production company. At the time, Basecamp let us exchange music files in a cool way. As artists, we were taken in by what we all called the "Basecamp Vibe," which meant beauty, economy, simplicity. As a company, we had to promote ourselves with email, and we hated the web based apps we found — they were charging quite a lot for the pleasure of using the same tired, dated templates. So driven by necessity, and inspired by the "Basecamp Vibe", we put together (collaborating with Dave Hoover and his team at Obtiva Studio) a new way to design, send and track our own e-promos. The software was so effective it became our company's main focus, and that's when we brought in big guns like Tobie Langel to bring it to surprising new levels. What's interesting is that we used Basecamp for managing the collaboration of our team in Chicago, Utah, Switzerland, South Africa and New York in developing our software. In short, Basecamp is a muse...that we use.

Which features we like most
Some months it's one feature, some months it's another. It's a constant process of discovery. For a long time we stayed away from the To-Do lists, and favored only messages. But now To-Do's are a daily routine. There's a tremendous gratification in crossing off tasks and having that "wow, look at what I accomplished" feeling.

What we used before switching to Basecamp
Before Basecamp it was an endless swarm of disorganized emails. I just remember a lot re:re:re:re. There were phone calls, conference calls, cell phone headaches, and the time-eating in-person meetings. Our feeling is face-to-face should be over a relaxing lunch, not over papers. Basecamp actually saved us time, and we were able to enjoy more of those lunches. We used Google Docs on occasion before we switched. Basecamp is more fun, easier, nicer to look at, and seemingly bug free. We still use Google Docs for various odd tasks, but coming back to Basecamp is like coming home to a comfy arm-chair or an old pair of jeans.

How Basecamp helped us out
Well, to begin with, Basecamp helped us out with EVERYTHING. We went from technological imbeciles to technology newbies in no time. Basecamp is much more than a simple app. It was our ENTIRE BUSINESS. Our offices, our conference room, our file cabinets, our calendars, our traffic department, our bulletin board, our lounge, everything. Our team was based in five different cities, so we have to credit Basecamp for taking Mad Mimi from infancy to the launch of a groundbreaking product.

Learn how Mad Mimi uses Campfire for customer service after the jump.

How eduFire operates as a virtual company using Basecamp, Campfire, and Highrise

eduFire.com has a simple (but not easy) mission: Revolution education. The site says, "Our goal is to create a platform to allow live learning to take place over the Internet anytime from anywhere." Below, Jon Bischke, CEO/Founder of eduFire, tells us how the company uses Basecamp, Campfire, and Highrise to manage a number of aspects of our business.

A virtual company
eduFire is a fully virtual company at this stage with employers and contractors spread across a number of states. We're an early-stage start-up and so two things are important to us: the ability to move quickly and keeping costs low.

We use Basecamp, Campfire and Highrise to manage a number of aspects of our business. While our Campfire usage is pretty standard, we've used Basecamp and Highrise in ways that I think would qualify as pretty unique.

Using Basecamp for new hires
At eduFire we have a team of part-time, work-from-home contractors who help us with everything from guerrilla marketing to welcoming new users to the site. We don't have a very extensive hiring process. Rather we bring them on, set them up with a Basecamp account and assign them an "Intro Level" project. If they do a good job we now give them access to a "Level One" project (something a little more advanced and more mission-critical). If they prove themselves there then we graduate them to a "Level Two" project . It's incredibly important to us to have a piece of software that we can get new users up to speed very quickly with minimal training. I can't think of any other piece of software that would work for this other than Basecamp.

Web marketing strategist uses 37signals products to replace spreadsheets, email, an address book, folders and sticky notes

Essential Keystrokes recently published "4 Great Tools to Help You Organize Your Business and Projects from 37signals":

How do you keep track of your contacts, project notes, files, status updates, and sign-offs? For many years I relied on a combination of tools such as an Excel spreadsheet, my email, an address book, folders and sticky notes. As my business has grown and become more mobile (meaning some days I work from Panera Bread, some days from the patio, and others in my main office) I have found these tools just aren’t working for me anymore.

I have looked high and low for a solution that would fit my needs (here are some I tested) and after talking with Leah from Working Solo, I have finally found my answer - Highrise and BackPack from 37signals.

The team at 37signals has created a series of web-based products that help you and your organization stay, well, organized! Each of their products serves a slightly different purpose and a slightly different audience, allowing you to get only the functionality you need in a lightweight, web-based application.

I use Basecamp with some clients when managing a large project that requires input, file sharing and deadlines with more than one person. Basecamp is perfect because all the communication is done in one place, thus eliminating the lost emails, constant forwarding and CC-ing that frequently happen with larger projects. You don’t have to worry about missing anything - Basecamp emails you when someone adds anything to the project.

The product I am hooked on that really works for me as a freelance designer is Highrise. Highrise works as a contact management package with a kick. Not only can I keep track of my client contact information, but I can add notes for each one, create my to do list (and get email updates on what is due or past due), and use the dropbox as a back up feature too. When you pull up a client’s name, you get all of their information and notes all at once which is such a nice feature.

Backpack is a great way for your organization to stay on the same page or for you to keep all your notes and files organized. It is a beefed up calendar, file cabinet and white board all in one place. Use it for one person or the whole organization. Get your reminders sent to your phone or email - so you have no excuses.

Campfire is a great way for organizations to stay on the same page even when you are working from multiple locations. Think of it as your own private group IM. The look and feel is no nonsense, elegant and easy to use.

37signals has other products that make collaboration and organization work for you - it is just a matter of checking each of them out and seeing which one fits you best. For me, the answer is Highrise with a bit of Backpack on the side. Each of the 37 Signals products comes with a free trial and depending on the size of your organization and project needs, some of the solutions are free. You just have to give them a try.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

Online Tech Tips publishes overview of 37signals products

Online Tech Tips just published an overview of 37signals products and calls them "an excellent starting point" for small business owners who want to get organized.

37signals.com offers robust programs at affordable prices. Small business owners will be able to compete with larger companies and increase employee work productivity. Using each one of the previous tools will almost guarantee that a small business can organize itself with ease. Working with the simple interface of each application and user friendly features makes this suite of applications great tools.

The post also offers up a quick summary of 37signals products:

Basecamp will help you to manage multiple projects with customers or team members. Setting restrictions for users will take just a few moments. The interface is completely simple and easy to operate. Touching base with the latest changes with business projects won’t be such a hassle anymore...

Highrise is a great way to organize customer contact information. Having instant access to a customer’s contact information and contact history will save you from mismanaging important data. Instead of trying to remember your last conversation with a customer, you will be able to refer to the details within this program...

Backpack will let you conveniently create your own business intranet. Now employees will have access to the latest changes going on in the company. Setting up a business calendar for all to see will also provide an organized way of reminding employees of upcoming events...

Campfire provides its users with real time chatting capability. Waiting for email responses can sometimes be time consuming. Using real time instant messaging not only gets the job done faster, but it will allow you to communicated better with remote employees...

Read the whole piece for more.

Now available: Version 0.3.0 of Pyre, an alternative Ruby library for interacting with Campfire

Now available: Version 0.3.0 of Pyre, an alternative Ruby library for interacting with Campfire. Pyre now supports uploading files to a room.

Also, now there’s a contrib directory which will hold examples of things to do with Pyre. Currently, the only thing in there is a Subversion repository post-commit hook for putting nice messages about commits into a Campfire room. Out of the box they look like this:

cms commited revision 104
*************************
Fixed all spelling mistaeks in the README
*************************
U   pyre/trunk/README

Download Pyre 0.3.0.

Launch: Campfire for iPhone

Today we officially announce that Campfire has been optimized for the iPhone. Just visit your Campfire site with Safari on the iPhone and you'll automatically see the iPhone optimized version.

Note: To scroll back through the transcript you'll need to use the two-finger scroll technique as illustrated below:

We hope you find Campfire for iPhone useful! Special thanks to Sam for taking on this project and making it happen.

Print data from a php script to a Campfire room with Ice Cube

Up until now, the only API available for Campfire was Tinder, an unofficial API built in Ruby On Rails.

But now there's Ice Cube, which makes it possible to print data from a php script to a room in Campfire. Features include: join room, send message (incl. paste), and leave room.

Sample usage:

$icecube = new icecube('http://[account].campfirenow.com', 'email', 'password');
$icecube->login();
$icecube->joinRoom(1);	// Change 1 to the id of your room
$icecube->speak("Hello World", 1); // Say Hello World in room_id 1
$icecube->leaveRoom(1);
$icecube->logout();

Ice Cube is a mimmin production. If you use it in an interesting way, let us know.

Use Fluid to get your 37signals web apps on your Mac OS X Leopard desktop

Fluid lets you run any webapp as a separate Mac desktop application if you've got Leopard.

Are you a Gmail, Facebook, Campfire or (Insert Your Favorite Webapp Here) fanatic? Do you have 20 or more browser tabs open at all times? Are you tired of some random site or Flash ad crashing your browser and causing you to lose your (say) Google Spreadsheets data in another tab?

If so, Site Specific Browsers (SSBs) provide a great solution for your webapp woes. Using Fluid, you can create SSBs to run each of your favorite webapps as a separate desktop application. Fluid gives any webapp a home on your Mac OS X desktop complete with Dock icon, standard menu bar, and logical separation from your other web browsing activity...

How does it work?

Fluid itself is a very small application. When launched, Fluid displays a small window where you specify the URL of a webapp you'd like to run in a Site Specific Browser. Provide an application name, click 'Create' and you'll be prompted to launch the new native Mac app you've just created.

Use Fluid to run YouTube, GTalk, Flickr, Basecamp, Delicious, .Mac webmail, or any other webapp as a separate Mac desktop application.

Here are high res logos for Basecamp, Backpack, Campfire and Highrise to use with Fluid.

(If you're not on OS X, Prism does something similar for Windows and Linux powered by the Mozilla engine).

Feeding our Macworld keynote addiction with Campfire

From Signal vs. Noise:

When an Apple keynote event is underway, we can't help but load up the live blog feeds and discuss the spectacle in our internal Campfire chat room as it unfolds. It's a lot of fun but it usually involves a lot of reloading and copying and pasting too. So when I found out Tuesday morning that Ars Technica would be covering the Macworld keynote live on IRC, I had an idea: why not write a script to do all the hard work for us?

Ten minutes later the Campfire relay bot was born. I hooked up a Ruby IRC library with Marshmallow (an unofficial Campfire library that we use to display Subversion commits) to create a bot that repeats everything from Ars' #mwsf channel to a room in our Campfire account. If you're interested you can read the resulting transcript and download the bot (see the campfire_relay_bot.rb file for configuration instructions).

Knickers, the lingerie weblog, uses 37signals products to manage its team

Danae Shell, Editor of Knickers, the lingerie weblog, wrote to us about how her team uses 37signals products.

I thought you might be interested in how I use Highrise, Backpack and Campfire to manage my lingerie weblog and related businesses.

I'm the editor of Knickers, the lingerie weblog and work with another writer and my business partner. The logistics of organising and keeping in touch between the three of us were a nightmare at first - two of us are in Scotland and our writer is in the States, and both Katie and Alison aren't tech saavy and react with suspicion to any new technology I turn them onto. I needed a way to capture their work and keep it organised, so I slowly started introducing 37S tools to them - we started with Backpack for writing business plans and doing research, then moved into Highrise to keep a "collective inbox" and mailing list, then finally to Campfire to generally stay in touch.

Backpack
Backpack has been a fantastic way to quickly capture and organise information without any overheads - Alison and I will sit on the phone and chat about our ideas, then will look up prices, etc., and paste them into Backpack. We both edit the page as we talk, and at the end of the call we've captured a ton of research and ideas. It's a great way to store and share research in a structured format without e-mailing files back and forth.

Knickers keeps a to-do list in Backpack.

Great Campfire tips (and more) from New Leaders

Kevin Milden left a comment at Signal vs. Noise talking about how much New Leaders, his team of designers and developers, enjoys Campfire.

Campfire is 37Signals’ best product ever...If you are going to build web based applications Campfire is essential.

We got in touch with Kevin to learn more about New Leaders and how they use Campfire. Read on for more details and to learn some great Campfire tips.

37signals: What is New Leaders and why do you need Campfire?
Kevin: New Leaders is a team of designers and developers working all over the country focused on building high quality, Rails-based web applications for our customers. Talent knows no boundaries — we have team members that work from many different places and Campfire allows everyone to communicate on a regular basis. It acts as our virtual office and provides a centralized place for us to talk and make sure everything is on track.

How do you use Campfire?
I think we use Campfire to it's fullest capabilities. We share screenshots, design concepts, code snippets, and anything that is happening day to day. If one of our team members is not on Campfire it gives us the indication that they are either busy or prefer not to be disturbed. We don't require a status message letting us know you are away we just make the assumption based on how people use it.

When we have a virtual meeting with a customer we'll usually invite them to a campfire seesion while on the phone and share screen shots and URLs. We tried other tools for sharing visual information with clients but have never been happy with web-screen sharing services like Webex. Since there are no java applets or bandwidth issues, and the only requirement is a modern web browser, we are positive that Campfire will work 100% of the time.

What's better about Campfire than other options (IM, etc.)?
1. Web-based — no software, no versions, no bandwidth issues.

2. Group centric — People can jump in and out, no need to approve their inclusion or give people 'presenter' status to share

3. Code Parsing — Campfire can tell when we pasted something so it will break our code snippets our into pastes. Very helpful.

4. Screenshots — We can add an image of anything in-line of the current conversation and get feedback from the entire team. No need for emails or phone calls.

5. Transcripts & File Management — This is the killer feature. Most clients store your conversation transcripts locally and the files end up on your desktop. With campfire everything stays within the application allowing us to find what we need even if from 6 months ago. Unlike IRC, you can read the backlog to an ongoing discussion as soon as you join the room, don't need to keep the session open to record transcripts.

Any tips or tricks for other Campfire customers?
1. the "//km" command will quickly tag a message "Kevin Milden" without the need to type it in. Very useful if directing a message to another user while several people are communicating.

BiggerSmall says Campfire leads to fewer meetings

BiggerSmall is a blog published by Michael Cooch, CEO of Everon Technology Services, dedicated to helping small businesses get bigger. By bigger, he means in whatever way matters most to that business: size, profits, or the ideal lifestyle. He recently wrote a post describing Campfire as a great tool to help speed growth.

37signals designs web applications that are very simple and elegant yet powerfully effective. The one that really has me excited about using at my current business and sharing with our clients is Campfire. Campfire is a web based group chat tool that makes collaborating on an idea very efficient.

We just opened a second office of our small business IT support company, and it’s about 2000 miles away from our first office. The first thing you notice when you do this is that you have to really make an effort to keep communication flowing and keep a sense of being “one team”, which is critical to our service model. Campfire makes this a lot easier to do.

The benefits of using it in our situation are huge:

+ Less time in meetings
+ Fewer meetings
+ Better communication on initiatives that require participation from people in both offices
+ Because of all of the above, ideas get shared and discussed faster, and therefore get executed on faster. All of this leads to a faster operating rhythm and faster growth!

Check out the 5 minute demo they have on their site - I’m sure almost all of you can find a use for this application somewhere in your organization.

Visit CampfireNow.com to learn more.

Geezeo uses Campfire for live chat and customer support

Geezeo is the first web-based application that allows you to securely aggregate your checking, savings, loans, and investment accounts. They use Campfire as a live chat tool to interact with existing (and potential) customers. We talked to Geezeo's Peter Glyman about it...

How does Campfire help you provide support?
Most customers have questions that can be handled in real time and since our team is in Campfire all the time anyhow, this extra customer facing room is great for our visitors. Having this real-time interaction also creates a great opportunity to talk to visitors that might be "on the fence" about signing up. Once they get to see the team in there and we can address any questions they might have, they are very likely to have a greater comfort level about becoming a Geezeo user.

Why is it better than other options?
The ability to have  multiple members of the Geezeo team in Campfire is great when one person can't answer a question. For example, if something gets too technical for me, we can usually tap one of the other guys to jump in. It's also great for chat history and ease of use.

What did you use before and why did you switch to (or add) Campfire?
We were using [an IM application] which had two big limitations. We couldn't have multiple members of the Geezeo team. In fact if someone decided to "man" the chat and someone else on the team was in on it, it would kick the other out. Even if they were in a chat with a user. There was also no chat history.

Do you use group chat in other ways besides support?
We use Campfire daily for development and straight up team discussions. Our team (pictured to the left) is in 4 different states (MA, CT, IN, PA) so we're always in Campfire to stay connected.

Any tips or tricks for other Campfire customers?
I think it's important to keep things light. When customers come in, make them feel like part of the team. Have fun. If you have any power users you can ask them to jump in when it's convenient. They might even be able to support or evangelize to your customers. We're also going to start looking at scheduling specific events using Campfire. Great to have guest speakers or topics that users might want to plan on attending.

Geezeo explains why security is no problem to a new customer.

Posting sketches with Campfire

Chris Busse recently chimed in with an interesting use of Campfire over at Signal vs. Noise. He prints out screens, marks them up with a Sharpie, and scans them in a way that makes it a snap to get the resulting .png file into Campfire.

Partly because of my love of putting up sketches in Campfire (sometimes to the ire of my co-workers when I go Sharpie-crazy), I recently got an HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 All-in-one device which has a scanner with an Auto Document Feeder.

I take a piece of paper out of the printer and sketch, or mark up a print out of a design with a Sharpie and run it back through the ADF . I have the HP utilities set to not show any dialogs or prompts, and the image is scanned immediately to a specific directory as a 75dpi PNG , which I can post right up in Campfire with a very short elapsed turnaround time.

37signals uses Campfire to post sketches and share designs too. You can see how we do it in Behind the scenes at 37signals: Design [Signal vs. Noise].

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

Campfire keeps Eli Duke in touch with friends/family while in Antarctica

We were intrigued by Eli Duke's recent comment about Campfire at Signal vs. Noise: "Get this. I’m living (and working) in Antarctica right now, and I’ve been using Campfire to chat with my friends and family back home. I set up a time and people just show up and come and go and we have a great time with it."

So we decided to follow up with Eli to 1) learn some more about how he uses Campfire to stay in touch and 2) find out what on earth he's doing at the bottom of the world.

What are you doing in Antarctica?
I'm washing dishes for the National Science Foundation at McMurdo Station on Ross Island. I'm at the bottom of the barrel (and the world) and loving it! I'll be here for about 5 months (Oct - Feb) for the entire Antarctic Summer.

How do you use Campfire to chat with friends/family?
I set up an "Antarctica" chat room, turned Guest Access "on", and then sent the chat room URL to all my friends and family along with my chatting schedule (in 4 different time zones). For instance:

McMurdo Station, Antarctica -> Tuesday, 7am - 10am
West Coast, USA -> Monday, 10am - 1pm
East Coast, USA -> Monday, 1pm - 4pm
Granada, Spain -> Monday, 7pm - 10pm

Half my family and friends live on the West Coast, the other half live in the Midwest, and my sister is studying in Spain right now. It was so cool to be able to have a single meeting place for all of us. At one point 3 separate continents were represented in one chat room: I had just woken up, my friend in Indianapolis was eating lunch, and my sister in Spain was getting ready for bed.

What's better about Campfire than other options (IM, etc.)?
First and foremost, it is completely idiot proof and SO easy to use. I can't stress that enough. When people (mainly my parents) clicked on the URL for the chat room, all they had to do was type in their name and click "Sign In". That's it! They didn't have to download anything, they didn't have to learn how to use new software, they just typed in their name, clicked one button, and they were ready to chat.

Secondly, Guest Access! As long as that is "on", the chat room is there and it's always open. Each week when I sign in I see that lots of people have stopped by even when they knew I wouldn't be there just to leave me a message. Also, people frequently stay in the chat room after I leave and continue chatting without me.

Any tips or tricks for other Campfire customers?
I get a lot of repeat questions: what's it like down there? is it cold? have you seen any penguins? I uploaded a few basics pictures that answer some of those questions, and the links to those pictures stay in side bar at all times. So, whenever I get a repeat question, I just click and drag the link over to the text box and click enter. The picture pops up inline and it doesn't have to be uploaded again. Super duper simple.

Flare: A site-specific browser for Windows/Campfire customers

Windows users: You can now download Flare 0.4, the first self-updating, stable release of Flare, the site-specific browser for Campfire. Flare lets you stay logged into a room in your Campfire account and notifies you of any new messages.

Flare's features:

• Stay logged into your favourite Campfire room in the background - even between reboots.
• Quickly switch between open rooms using Ctrl + the room number
• Be notified of new messages with a preview.
• Tray icon changes colour to show new messages have arrived (in case you miss the preview)
• Request your password through the app if you've lost it.
• Run multiple copies of Flare keeping you logged into many different rooms at once.

When new messages, pastes, files or users arrive you'll be notified with a semi-transparent message preview...

...and if you miss the preview, Flare's icon will glow orange until you next view the window.

Update: Looks like the server for Flare is down at the moment.

Metafilter thread on "stable, private chat rooms" points to Campfire

In Stable, private chat rooms..., a Metafilter poster asks for help...

Let's say I have a small group of people -- 10 and under -- and I want to provide a stable, private chat room that participants can enter and exit at will. Let's further say that I would want whatever software that provides this to account for different technical skills (no command-prompts) and when everyone leaves the room it isn't taken down needing to be recreated again in the future? Proprietary software is fine. For Profit software is fine. (Free is better!! ;-)

The comments come pouring in: "How about Campfire?...seconding campfire...Campfire sounds exactly what you want...Campfire, absolutely...Campfire was my first thought...etc."

If the scenario described above sounds familiar, then check out Campfire.

Layer Tennis uses Campfire as back-channel during matches

Coudal Partners and Adobe CS3 are teaming up to present Layer Tennis and they're using Campfire to make it happen.

If you've never checked it out, here's a summary of just what Layer Tennis is:

We're hosting a series of live design events on Friday afternoons called Layer Tennis...Two artists (or two small teams of artists) will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a "volley" and then we post that to the site. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens. The matches last for ten volleys and when it's complete, everyone with an opinion sounds off in the Forums and we declare a winner.

The participants use Campfire as a back-channel to discuss the match while it's going on. Chris Glass, one of the players in a recent match, gave a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to "play" and praised Campfire as a better alternative to IM for group chat. We're avid viewers of Layer Tennis so it's cool to know Campfire helps it all go down.

There is a back-channel set up to handle the nuts and bolts of the match. We're coordinating delivery of images with Coudal, and anwering questions to Rosecrans using Campfire. I've never used this online app before, but it's better than instant messaging for group chat. Really.

If you ever need to bring a small team together to discuss something in real-time, Campfire is a great solution. Read more about why it's better than plain ol' IM.

Below is one of the volleys from Chris' match. Check out the whole thing.

The Tech Brief: Campfire is a great alternative to in-person meetings

Campfire Heats up the Typical Meeting is a post at The Tech Brief which talks about why Campfire is a great alternative to conventional meetings.

Meetings are simplified with Campfire, allowing you to talk through a protected chat client that automatically dates and categorizes the transcript; eliminating the need for a note-taker. Transcripts are also categorized in a user friendly format, allowing you to search by multiple criterions.

Campfire also allows you to upload files 10MB or less in size; allowing the chatters in your room to view logos, text documents and even code. The three latest files uploaded are conveniently located along the side of the chat screen. This can greatly facilitate the progress of your meeting, allowing you collaborate in an open field. Users are able to view documents close up rather than looking up at a projection screen which should enhance participation.

In regards to participation, in a chat environment, it is beneficial to let users type as they come up with ideas. There is no longer a worry of interrupting others or the inevitable fear of public speaking...Campfire allows people, miles apart, to work together better and easier than ever.

Are you part of a team that uses Campfire to work together? We're looking for more Campfire case studies so let us know.

A new Campfire notifier plugin from Bruce Williams

Campfire does Continuous Integration too is a post by Bruce Williams where he introduces his Campfire notifier plugin. "I’m aware there are a couple campfire_notifier plugins floating out there, and all certainly have their merits. I wrote mine specifically to address the need for custom messages and to support the full range of CruiseControl.rb events—which I didn’t find elsewhere," he writes.

I love Campfire for software development. It’s a simple, powerful way to collaborate, going beyond plain chat with search capabilities and inline images … and even cooler when you start to integrate the various tools you use on the side, chronologically folding outside activity into the conversation with fellow developers (subversion commit notices and diff links are a couple good examples).

One tool I’m really liking these days in CruiseControl.rb from the good folks at ThoughtWorks; it’s a nice, easy-to-configure continuous integration application that plays nicely with the way I think software should be developed (quickly, creatively, and with a barrage of testing). It also turns out that some thought has been put into extending CruiseControl.rb with plugins… and I love building plugins. Seriously.

Oh, and did I mention I love Campfire? Bet you can figure out where I’m going with this…

Tonight I’m releasing my campfire_notifier plugin, (grab here ... you can read about the installation process in the CruiseControl.rb docs). It’s probably a bit raw, but it seems to do the job, allowing you to hook any build event you like.

We're working with Bruce on a case study to learn more about how he uses Campfire. Stay tuned.

Using Campfire as a note-taking solution and for Getting Things Done

In Campfire & Getting Things Done, John Ratcliffe-Lee offers advice on how to use Campfire "as a great note-taking solution for class, meetings, etc."

I feel that Campfire's excellent real-time record keeping ability, multiple chat room (or page) features, access options, and file management tools are ideal for not only the GTD system but point-of-contact record keeping that lets you integrate easily into 37signal's other software such as Basecamp project managing...

Create a new chat room (as with every 37signals product, paying for it gives you more room to grow) for things like "@home" or "@work". You can log-in to your Campfire and see the activity in each of these sections and keep a real-time record of whatever you like inside each chat room. Giving other people access as members or sharing a Campfire page can increase productivity as well. The topics feature can also be used as a tag-replacement, giving more detail to whichever room you are in...

The first link below outlines a great way to take notes for class that can be made even better in Campfire. Instead of having to set-up a master schedule and link pages together, etc., you can start with a fresh Campfire account for each semester. At my school, 5 classes a semester is the normal load, so Campfire's free version works perfectly. For example, my new Campfire account could be called "fall06.campfirenow.com."

From there, create a chat room for each class with it's name (i.e. COM 460: Adv. Multimedia Comm.), these rooms act as pages where your notes for each class will be kept. Along with any relevant documents, files, etc.

Since Campfire logs the exact date and time each time you enter a room or "page," it makes for more intuitive note-taking. You can just type whatever the teacher is saying or notes you want to take. Think of Campfire as your big 5-subject notebook in the sky that lets you take your notes everywhere there is a net connection. Campfire logs the time and date of whatever you type and you can search for something specific in it's excellent transcript section. A lot faster than flipping through endless pages of blue or black ink.

Someone from you class need the notes? Want to share your notes for a group project or double-check with a professor? Either share whichever Campfire page you want or give anyone with an e-mail address member access to the chat rooms. A lot more simple and effective than meeting a person all the way across campus, 11pm on a Monday night. If you have to share a room, locking others that contain sensitive information is easy. Also, you can add topics to each room or page to give a more detail to each class.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

Get visual alerts every time a new message is posted in Campfire

If you'd like to get a visual alert every time a new message is posted in Campfire (one that's visible even if your browser window is not), then check out this bit of code Snailbyte cooked up. It uses Tinder, an API for interfacing with Campfire, to create an activity notifier for KDE (the knotify method can be replaced with a call to Growl for Apple users).

For Mac users, Pyro also offers this functionality (and a lot more).

Your Campfire chats in a dedicated application, with the number of unread messages on the Dock icon, in Growl and on the Campfire tab bar. Drag and drop file upload. Accelerated room switching. AppleScript support. Pyro for Mac OS X 10.4 does all that, and is completely free, so download yours now!

You can also use Tinder to hook Campfire up with Subversion, Trac, and Capistrano. More on Tinder.

Campfire + Pyro = Collaboration Heaven

In Campfire + Pyro = Collaboration Heaven (MacApper), Jordan Golson talks about how Campfire is helping his team collaborate on a new site.

For the uninitiated, Campfire is an online chat service hosted by 37signals that allows you to chat and send files while saving everything online. You don’t have to worry about missing anything when you are away from your desk because when you sign back into Campfire, everything that has been said in the past is there waiting for you. It’s great if you work with a bunch of people in all different places and time zones.

Jordan's a fan of Pyro because it means he doesn't have to keep his browser running all the time to stay logged into Campfire.

Firing up Pyro is just like logging into Campfire. It asks for the Campfire account that you want to log-in to and then for your username and password. Once you’re logged in, the familiar Campfire interface appears with a few little extras. Pyro gives you keyboard shortcuts to switch from room to room within Campfire and also to adjust text sizes. All the Campfire features work perfectly including file uploading, transcript reading and searching. The developer does warn you of issues with Safari 3.0 but I haven’t noticed any issues.

Another Pyro advantage is drag-n-drop file uploads. You can drag any file from the Finder into Pyro and it will automatically upload it to the current room. It’s especially handy for popping screenshots into a room.

Tinder: Campfire API

Developers who want to work with Campfire should check out Tinder, the unofficial Campfire API. We use it to send Subversion check-in notices and Capistrano deploy messages into our development chat room.

Marc Hedlund has set up a similar system and raves about it:

This turns out to be extremely useful. Not only are all the updates going to the same place; you also get to see how the checkins and deploys relate to the conversation. Awesome.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

Campfire vs. regular IM

Why choose Campfire over a conventional instant messaging network? There's a page at the Campfire site that explains why Campfire is a better solution than regular IM. It gives you a good overview on why Campfire is "the businessperson's answer" to the chat dilemma.

Regular IM: There’s no destination.
Campfire: Your group chat has a home.

Regular IM: You have to be there all the time.
Campfire: You can show up late or leave early and still not miss a thing.

Regular IM: Networks are incompatible.
Campfire: Networks don’t matter.

Regular IM: File sharing is unreliable.
Campfire: File sharing works easily.

Regular IM: Conversations and files disappear
Campfire: Easy access to chat archives and transcripts.

Regular IM: Your chats are not secure.
Campfire: Your chats are secure.

Read the whole comparison for the detailed explanations.

Campfire is "the businessperson's answer" to the chat dilemma

Duct Tape Marketing's profile of Campfire says, "A tool this powerful has the ability to impact traditional forms of communication."

Chat is one of those tools that was created with the teenager in mind, not the business person. 37signals released the businessperson’s answer to this dilemma.

• Every chat has a permanent URL
• Campfire chats don’t require special chat software or networks
• Instantly share and discuss files with your colleagues/clients
• Search or browse through transcripts of past chats
• Chat securely over SSL (Plus and Premium plans)

The fact that no one, guest or member, has to worry about which platform the chat is on is what will really make this service take-off.

Want to harness the power of group chat for your business? Learn more about Campfire.

Campfire helps Futuretrack5 collaborate across time zones

In Putting the 'e' in Team - Campfire, Futuretrack5 discusses how Campfire helps their team collaborate across different time zones. When they began using the tool, it "became crystal clear just how revolutionary Campfire is."

What email is to mail, campfire is to teams. We connected on a whole new level. The simplicity of Campfire is ideal for group chat. Unlike IM which tends to be one-on-one, Campfire is like well… sitting around a campfire! Rather than roasting marshmallows, we burned through getting work done on XHTMLize. We exchanged ideas, swapped stories & posted photos of ourselves (the way file sharing is implemented is incredible). Finally after 2 year I can put faces to Stan & Dmitry!

This morning my routine changed. Before Basecamp I logged onto Campfire. I could quickly catch up on what Stan & Dmitry discussed while I was asleep.

Now for internal projects, I’m going to turn to Campfire as the tool of choice. Each project will have it’s own room. Using chat as a basis for development leads to agile delivery. With Campfire our business is going to be more connected, productive & fun.

I can understand now how 37signals manage to live by their ‘get real’ philosophy. Campfire is the key ingredient to team collaboration & productivity.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

Web firm Viget Labs picks Campfire over IRC

Web consulting firm Viget Labs recently opened a new location and realized it would be a challenge to maintain constant communication between staff at its two offices (one's in D.C., the other Durham, NC). Their initial solution was to use an internal IRC server but they soon realized Campfire is a better solution for keeping communication flowing.

We were skeptical at first, but after a month of constant use Campfire has proven to be a better tool than we initially anticipated:

• Communication has improved – Instead of just the core development team, we now have everyone involved in discussions throughout the day. Project Managers can alert us of new issues that crop up in production (that we don’t see in our exception notifications) and Developers can get clarification on a proposed feature.
• Cool bots – When they’re not hanging out in the VL “Bot Tub,” our Capistrano and Subversion bots send messages to the team whenever a deployment or commit happens.
• Context included – When people sign in, they can see what has been happening throughout the morning. This means that a Project Manager can see what features have been implemented and are ready for review on our autobuild site.

I’m increasingly optimistic about our ability to maintain our “offline” culture in this on-line meeting space. We always strive to keep a good sense of humor even in stressful situations and Campfire has allowed us to maintain the same levity in our daily communication. Sure, sometimes we have to force some conversations back on track, but we’re able to have fun and get work done at the same time.

Pyro 1.6 is released for Campfire

We can't run our business without Campfire and Pyro is our browser-of-choice when running Campfire.

Pyro 1.6, the latest release, brings these great enhancements:

• The new sidebar search field in Campfire now also works in Pyro.
• Moving through the Lobby and the Files, Transcripts & Search tabs is now much faster.
• There is a lock icon in the upper right corner of a Pyro window for SSL-encrypted connections.
• Drag and drop enhancements:
  • Any file type can now be dragged onto a Pyro window.
  • If you drag a folder or a package (.app etc) it will be zipped on the fly.
  • If you drag an image from a web browser, instead of uploading it, Pyro will paste the image URL to the room.
• The Next Chat and Previous Chat keyboard shortcuts have been changed.
• Lots and lots of bug fixes.

So if you've got a Mac, and you use Campfire, do check out Pyro. You'll love it.

Room descriptions at Campfire

Campfire lets you add a description to your different rooms. This can be a helpful way to clarify the purpose of a room.

You can also have some fun with this field. We like to fill the description area of our main chat room with quotes that are inspirational or educational. It adds some flavor and keeps things fresh.

To change the text in your chat room, just go to the room and click the "Edit" link located under the room name.

Twitter, Campfire, and the power of persistent real-time chat amoung groups

Everyone's atwitter for Twitter. It's changing the game for how many people communicate. And the reason it's working is very similar to the reason Campfire works: Power is unleashed when you bring a simple UI to persistent real-time chat among groups.

Let's break down what we mean by that:

Persistent chat means people can leave and re-enter the discussion at any time and still participate. It's there for consumption whenever you're ready. It's "always on" yet can also recede in the background. It offers information when you want it but you can also tune it out when you don't want to be interrupted.

It's real-time. It happens now. Yet it also shifts time in a way too. You can "talk" without everyone having to stop what they're doing at exactly the same time. When you're ready, it's ready.

The group aspect lets you create your own inner circle. You choose who can see what. Open the doors to your friends and co-workers. Close them to the the outside world. Everyone's in the loop.

And don't forget the simple UI. You can get data in easily. There's just one field. You type and go. That means people actually use it.

Twitter and Campfire are clearly different animals. But fundamentally, they both get their strength from the same source.

How Erik Mallinson uses 37signals products to get things done

Erik Mallinson has written a 4 part series on how he uses our products to get things done. Part one starts off with Backpack, part two covers Basecamp, part three goes for Highrise, and the wraps it all up in part four. It's comprehensive and insightful. Thanks for putting these together, Erik!

Flare: The Windows app for Campfire

Our Windows users of Campfire have longed for a Pyro-like app of their own. Unfortunately for them, Pyro is Mac only.

However, now they can check out Flare. It's like Pyro, but it's for Windows. When new messages, pastes, files or users arrive, Flare will notify you with a semi-transparent message preview. And if you miss the preview, don't worry - Flare's icon will glow orange until you next view the window.

Some key features:

• Stay logged into your favourite Campfire room in the background - even between reboots.
• Quickly switch between open rooms using Ctrl + the room number
• Be notified of new messages with a preview.
• Tray icon changes colour to show new messages have arrived (in case you miss the preview)
• Request your password through the app if you've lost it.
• Run multiple copies of Flare keeping you logged into many different rooms at once.

Flare works on Windows XP Home, Pro, Server 2003 and Vista.

Sharing code samples with Campfire

One of our favorite Campfire features is real-time code sharing.

When you paste PHP, Ruby, Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript, or other programming code into the chat area, Campfire will retain the formatting and display it to everyone in the room. It's one of the best ways we've found to share code samples and solve coding-related issues in real-time.

For example, if you can't figure out why some HTML code isn't working, just paste it into the room and your co-workers can look it over and leave their comments in real-time. Sometimes the longer you stare at something the harder it is for you to spot the problem. Sharing the code in Campfire is a great way to quickly get fresh eyes on it.

Fireside chats: Group chat interviews using Campfire

We use Campfire to conduct Fireside Chats, roundtable group chat interviews that we publish at Signal vs. Noise. It lets us bring together interview subjects from around the world and puts them in a forum where they can type, upload images, and volley questions back and forth in a way that's just not possible in other media.

Some example Fireside Chats:

• John Maeda and Diego Rodriguez
• Dan Cederholm, Jason Santa Maria, Ryan Sims, and Greg Storey
• Icon designers
• Seth Godin and Mark Hurst
• Khoi Vinh and Jeffrey Veen
• More...

Campfire for school: "Think of Campfire as your big 5-subject notebook in the sky"

In Campfire & Getting Things Done, John Ratcliffe-Lee says, "Campfire's excellent real-time record keeping ability, multiple chat room (or page) features, access options, and file management tools are ideal for not only the GTD system but point-of-contact record keeping."

He also outlines a smart way to use Campfire for taking and sharing class notes.

Start with a fresh Campfire account for each semester. At my school, 5 classes a semester is the normal load, so Campfire's free version works perfectly. For example, my new Campfire account could be called "fall06.campfirenow.com."

From there, create a chat room for each class with it's name (i.e. COM 460: Adv. Multimedia Comm.), these rooms act as pages where your notes for each class will be kept. Along with any relevant documents, files, etc.

Since Campfire logs the exact date and time each time you enter a room or "page," it makes for more intuitive note-taking. You can just type whatever the teacher is saying or notes you want to take. Think of Campfire as your big 5-subject notebook in the sky that lets you take your notes everywhere there is a net connection. Campfire logs the time and date of whatever you type and you can search for something specific in it's excellent transcript section. A lot faster than flipping through endless pages of blue or black ink.

Someone from you class need the notes? Want to share your notes for a group project or double-check with a professor? Either share whichever Campfire page you want or give anyone with an e-mail address member access to the chat rooms. A lot more simple and effective than meeting a person all the way across campus, 11pm on a Monday night. If you have to share a room, locking others that contain sensitive information is easy. Also, you can add topics to each room or page to give a more detail to each class.

Pyro adds functionality to Campfire

Use Campfire? Use a Mac? Then check out Pyro. We're big fans of the way it shows unread messages in the Dock and lets you drag and drop files into a Campfire chat room.

Your Campfire chats in a dedicated application, with the number of unread messages on the Dock icon, in Growl and on the Campfire tab bar. Drag and drop file upload. Accelerated room switching. AppleScript support. Pyro for Mac OS X 10.4 does all that, and is completely free, so download yours now!

APIs for our products

Break out the cigars! New to the world: the Highrise API. The Highrise API joins the Basecamp API, Backpack API, and the unofficial Campfire API.

These APIs enable developers to build tools like the Backpack Quicksilver plug-in or the many Extras developers have built with the Basecamp API.

If you create something helpful with one of our APIs, let us know and we’ll happily help you promote it to our customers.

Want to learn more about APIs? Check out the Wikipedia page on application programming interfaces.