Collaboration is the name of the game these days. In the Information Age, if you can’t collaborate, you’re not considered the strong silent type. You’re considered useless. Even in law school we find ourselves collaborating constantly. Whether you’re coordinating schedules with your study group, working in a small group with your legal writing classmates, or putting time into a club or publication, chances are you’re engaged in some form of collective information-sharing. All of this collaborating is taking place in an environment where everyone’s schedules are different and time is tight.

While emails, instant messages, quick chats on the cell phone, or perhaps SMS messages may be good for small-scale coordination, when the number of participants grows, things get awfully complicated. If you’re like me, you don’t have time for needlessly duplicative communication. But you still need some sort of mechanism that allows all participants to communicate in the same space and have some sort of archiving so decisions can be clearly delineated, timelines can be defined, and important files can be saved for use by all.

Screen shot from Basecamp

You guessed it; there is a tool that will do all of this and shine your shoes, too. It’s called Basecamp, and it’s a hosted web application that combines threaded messaging, file upload, chat, writeboards, to-do lists, and calendar milestones. The pricier versions have even more goodies. Basecamp rocks my world for several reasons:

  1. You can use some or all of its features; it’s up to you. We’ve been using Basecamp to coordinate administrative, technical, and content aspects of Tech LawForum since last summer. Though we started out only using the messaging and file storage features, that alone was extremely helpful. We’re now using whiteboards, and I’m phasing in use of the milestones capability. We’re expanding our use of Basecamp features as we need them, rather than as the application forces us.
  2. Basecamp doesn’t get in your way. The people at 37signals, the company that created Basecamp, have developed a reputation in the web app development arena. They’re experts at providing functionality without overkill. Setting it up is absurdly easy. Things work as you’d expect them to, which makes you instantly comfortable in the Basecamp environment. It’s so easy to use, it’s actually fun.
  3. Everything is in one place. Want to know why the Comments Editor decided to change the editing workflow back in January? Find it in Messages. Need to look at the second version of the outline your team put together for the brief? You can save multiple versions of the same file in Files. The old “could you resend me that file” email game vanishes, as do weird misunderstandings about discussions from days or weeks ago. Some of this functionality can be replicated with various online tools from Google, Yahoo!, et al, but Basecamp is specifically designed for this purpose, and it really shows.

There is a free version of Basecamp, but it only lets you manage one project at a time, and it doesn’t provide file sharing. I consider file sharing to be one of Basecamp’s biggest advantages, and if you’re working for a club or publication, you’re definitely involved in more than one project. The Personal plan costs $12/month, but it provides 200Mb of file storage and support for up to three projects. The next step up, Basic, costs $24/month and delivers double the storage and up to 15 projects. We’re using the Personal plan, and so far I haven’t found it at all constraining.

If you think $144/year is steep, you’re right. However, before you dismiss Basecamp as being too expensive, give the free version a try. You may find that it delivers what you need. You may also find yourself wanting the broader capabilities of the Personal or Basic version, particularly if you’re working in a club or publication. Once people in your team start using Basecamp, convincing those who hold the purse strings to shell out for the upgrade may not be so difficult.