37signals
Encyclopedia
37signals is a privately held web application
company based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was co-founded in 1999 by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim as a web design
company. Segura left in 2000 and Kim left in 2003, leaving Fried as the only remaining founder.
Since mid-2004, the company's focus has shifted from web design to web application development. Its first commercial application was Basecamp
; this was followed by Backpack, Campfire, and Highrise. It maintains two freeware
web applications, Ta-Da List and Writeboard, which are described below. The open source
web application framework Ruby on Rails
was initially created for internal use at 37signals, before being publicly released in 2004.
The company is named for the 37 radio telescope
signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz
as potential messages from extraterrestrial intelligence. In 2006, co-founder Jason Fried was named to the MIT
Technology Review
TR35
as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
and Shopping.com
. The Meetup.com
website was designed by 37signals. In 2000, it created the satirical website eNormicom, which was themed around the dot-com era
. In 2003, the company launched 37express, a web design service, whereby a single web page would be redesigned for a set fee in one week.
Work on the company's first product, the project management application
Basecamp
, began in 2003.
By 2005, the company had moved away from consulting work to focus exclusively on its web applications. The Ruby on Rails
web application framework
was extracted from the work on Basecamp and released as open source
.
On July 20, 2006, the company announced that Jeff Bezos
had acquired a minority stake through a $10 million investment via his personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.
, Signal vs. Noise, which was launched in 1999. Content since February 2005 is archived, and the blog is powered by a custom-built blogging tool, having formerly used Movable Type
. The blog generates revenue from advertising
.
framework
created by David Heinemeier Hansson
, one of the 37signals programmers. It was originally used to make 37signals' first product, Basecamp
, and was since extracted and released as open source
in 2004, as well as being the framework that 37signals use to make their web applications.
Often shortened to "Rails" or "RoR", it is programmed in the Ruby programming language
.
The official Ruby on Rails website states that it is "sponsored by 37signals".
The development of Ruby on Rails is now managed by the Rails Core Team, with Hansson still contributing.
and intranet
for small business. The application has two main functions: user-created pages (which can include text, images, and files) and an iCalendar
format calendar
.
Features of the user-created pages include to-do lists, inline photo galleries, notes and file attachments, and page sharing.
Features of the calendar include support for iCalendar, email
/SMS
reminders, color-coding of calendars, and iCalendar sharing.
project management
tool launched in 2004. The Ruby
on Rails
framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.
Basecamp primary features are to-do lists, milestone management, forum-like messaging, file sharing, and time tracking.
An API
exists for Basecamp, allowing interaction with other web and desktop applications; an example of this is the creation of desktop widgets.
service, launched on February 16, 2006.
The application uses Ajax
technology for real time communication, and supports optional 128-bit
SSL
encryption
.
To use the application, users must either create a new chat room
or be invited to one. Unless a chat room is specifically chosen to be "off the record", browsable transcripts of chats and uploaded files are stored for future reference. Images that are uploaded in the GIF
, PNG, or JPEG
formats are represented as thumbnails in the chat room.
status) is a "shared contact management" web application which supports basic CRM
tasks. The application was launched publicly on March 20, 2007.
The application centers around person and company pages, which collate information such as images, notes, and contact detail. "Cases", which are pages/categories within which related notes, images, and people can be kept.
The application supports "drop-boxes", whereby a user can email a message to be imported into the account. It also permits importing data from vCard
s, Microsoft Outlook
, ACT!
, and Basecamp accounts.
to-do list
application launched in January 2005.
The application requires account creation, after which to-do lists can be created and edited. It allows the tracking of list modifications via RSS
feeds
.
Lists can be shared either publicly, through a unique URI
, or privately as password protected lists. The functionality of the application is based on the lists created for Basecamp and Backpack.
Writeboard supports Diff
, a feature which compares different versions of a single documents, and allows basic text formatting through Textile
, a WYSIWYM
markup language
. Writeboards can be linked with Basecamp
and Backpack accounts.
known as the 37signals Job Board. In October 2006, the company launched the 37signals Gig Board for one-off jobs; this website had fewer postings and was disestablished in February 2009. The company is a founding member of The Deck, a small online advertising network with 47 members , on which it advertises its products.
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
company based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was co-founded in 1999 by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim as a web design
Web design
Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...
company. Segura left in 2000 and Kim left in 2003, leaving Fried as the only remaining founder.
Since mid-2004, the company's focus has shifted from web design to web application development. Its first commercial application was Basecamp
Basecamp (software)
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by 37signals and launched in 2004. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.-Features:...
; this was followed by Backpack, Campfire, and Highrise. It maintains two freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
web applications, Ta-Da List and Writeboard, which are described below. The open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
web application framework Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
was initially created for internal use at 37signals, before being publicly released in 2004.
The company is named for the 37 radio telescope
Radio telescope
A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...
signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz
Paul Horowitz
Paul Horowitz is a U.S. physicist and electrical engineer, known primarily for his work in electronics design, as well as for his role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence .-Biography:...
as potential messages from extraterrestrial intelligence. In 2006, co-founder Jason Fried was named to the MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
TR35
TR35
The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...
as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
History
The company's initial focus was on website redesign, including work for Panera BreadPanera Bread
Panera Bread is a chain of bakery–café quick casual restaurants in the United States and Canada that sells breads, sandwiches, soups, salads, and other bakery items. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.-Corporate history:In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co...
and Shopping.com
Shopping.com
Shopping.com is a price comparison service owned by eBay and operates websites in USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Shopping.com started out with the name DealTime.com which still operates as a related, but otherwise separate website....
. The Meetup.com
Meetup.com
Meetup is an online social networking portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest, such as politics, books, games, movies, health, pets, careers or hobbies...
website was designed by 37signals. In 2000, it created the satirical website eNormicom, which was themed around the dot-com era
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
. In 2003, the company launched 37express, a web design service, whereby a single web page would be redesigned for a set fee in one week.
Work on the company's first product, the project management application
Project management software
Project management software is a term covering many types of software, including estimation and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems, which are used to...
Basecamp
Basecamp (software)
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by 37signals and launched in 2004. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.-Features:...
, began in 2003.
By 2005, the company had moved away from consulting work to focus exclusively on its web applications. The Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
web application framework
Web application framework
A web application framework is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, web applications and web services. The framework aims to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in Web development...
was extracted from the work on Basecamp and released as open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
.
On July 20, 2006, the company announced that Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos is the founder, president, chief executive officer , and chairman of the board of Amazon.com.-Early life and background:...
had acquired a minority stake through a $10 million investment via his personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.
Signal vs. Noise
The company maintains a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, Signal vs. Noise, which was launched in 1999. Content since February 2005 is archived, and the blog is powered by a custom-built blogging tool, having formerly used Movable Type
Movable Type
Movable Type is a weblog publishing system developed by the company Six Apart. It was publicly announced on September 3, 2001; version 1.0 was publicly released on October 8, 2001. On 12 December 2007, Movable Type was relicensed as free software under the GNU General Public License...
. The blog generates revenue from advertising
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
.
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a free web applicationWeb application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
framework
Web application framework
A web application framework is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, web applications and web services. The framework aims to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in Web development...
created by David Heinemeier Hansson
David Heinemeier Hansson
David Heinemeier Hansson is a Danish programmer and the creator of the popular Ruby on Rails web development framework and the Instiki wiki...
, one of the 37signals programmers. It was originally used to make 37signals' first product, Basecamp
Basecamp (software)
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by 37signals and launched in 2004. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.-Features:...
, and was since extracted and released as open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
in 2004, as well as being the framework that 37signals use to make their web applications.
Often shortened to "Rails" or "RoR", it is programmed in the Ruby programming language
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
.
The official Ruby on Rails website states that it is "sponsored by 37signals".
The development of Ruby on Rails is now managed by the Rails Core Team, with Hansson still contributing.
Books
- Defensive Design for the Web: How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points, New Riders Press, 2004 ISBN 0-7357-1410-X
- Getting Real, self-published e-bookE-bookAn electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
, 2006 - REWORK, 2010, ISBN 978-0-307-46374-6
Products
, 37signals has created four commercial web-based applications and two free web-based applications.Backpack
Backpack is a web-based personal information managerPersonal information manager
A personal information manager is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to Personal information management as a field of study...
and intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
for small business. The application has two main functions: user-created pages (which can include text, images, and files) and an iCalendar
ICalendar
iCalendar is a computer file format which allows Internet users to send meeting requests and tasks to other Internet users, via email, or sharing files with an extension of .ics...
format calendar
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...
.
Features of the user-created pages include to-do lists, inline photo galleries, notes and file attachments, and page sharing.
Features of the calendar include support for iCalendar, email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
/SMS
SMS
SMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
reminders, color-coding of calendars, and iCalendar sharing.
Basecamp
Basecamp is 37signals' first product, a web-basedWeb application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
project management
Project management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
tool launched in 2004. The Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
on Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.
Basecamp primary features are to-do lists, milestone management, forum-like messaging, file sharing, and time tracking.
An API
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
exists for Basecamp, allowing interaction with other web and desktop applications; an example of this is the creation of desktop widgets.
Campfire
Campfire is a business-oriented online chatOnline chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
service, launched on February 16, 2006.
The application uses Ajax
Ajax (programming)
Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
technology for real time communication, and supports optional 128-bit
128-bit
There are currently no mainstream general-purpose processors built to operate on 128-bit integers or addresses, though a number of processors do operate on 128-bit data. The IBM System/370 could be considered the first rudimentary 128-bit computer as it used 128-bit floating point registers...
SSL
Transport Layer Security
Transport Layer Security and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer , are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over the Internet...
encryption
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
.
To use the application, users must either create a new chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
or be invited to one. Unless a chat room is specifically chosen to be "off the record", browsable transcripts of chats and uploaded files are stored for future reference. Images that are uploaded in the GIF
GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....
, PNG, or JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
formats are represented as thumbnails in the chat room.
Highrise
Highrise (originally publicized as "Sunrise", a name which was replaced due to legal issues regarding its trademarkTrademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
status) is a "shared contact management" web application which supports basic CRM
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
tasks. The application was launched publicly on March 20, 2007.
The application centers around person and company pages, which collate information such as images, notes, and contact detail. "Cases", which are pages/categories within which related notes, images, and people can be kept.
The application supports "drop-boxes", whereby a user can email a message to be imported into the account. It also permits importing data from vCard
VCard
vCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...
s, Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...
, ACT!
ACT!
Sage ACT! is a customer relationship management software application which is used to keep track of client and prospect details in a single database that can be shared by multiple users...
, and Basecamp accounts.
Ta-Da List
Ta-Da List is a freewareFreeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
to-do list
Time management
Time management is the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific...
application launched in January 2005.
The application requires account creation, after which to-do lists can be created and edited. It allows the tracking of list modifications via RSS
RSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
feeds
Web feed
A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an aggregator...
.
Lists can be shared either publicly, through a unique URI
Uniform Resource Identifier
In computing, a uniform resource identifier is a string of characters used to identify a name or a resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network using specific protocols...
, or privately as password protected lists. The functionality of the application is based on the lists created for Basecamp and Backpack.
Writeboard
Writeboard is a free, collaborative, non-real time text editor, which allows for the creation of password-protected web-based text documents. As in Ta-Da List, changes can be monitored via RSS feeds.Writeboard supports Diff
Diff
In computing, diff is a file comparison utility that outputs the differences between two files. It is typically used to show the changes between one version of a file and a former version of the same file. Diff displays the changes made per line for text files. Modern implementations also...
, a feature which compares different versions of a single documents, and allows basic text formatting through Textile
Textile (markup language)
Textile is a lightweight markup language originally developed by Dean Allen and billed as a "humane Web text generator". Textile converts its marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML and also inserts character entity references for apostrophes, opening and closing single and double...
, a WYSIWYM
WYSIWYM
WYSIWYM is an acronym for What You See Is What You Mean, and refers to a paradigm for document editing...
markup language
Markup language
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...
. Writeboards can be linked with Basecamp
Basecamp (software)
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool developed by 37signals and launched in 2004. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.-Features:...
and Backpack accounts.
Job Board
37signals operates an employment websiteEmployment website
An employment website is a web site dealing specifically with employment or careers. Many employment websites are designed to allow employers to post job requirements for a position to be filled and are commonly known as job boards. Other employment sites offer employer reviews, career and...
known as the 37signals Job Board. In October 2006, the company launched the 37signals Gig Board for one-off jobs; this website had fewer postings and was disestablished in February 2009. The company is a founding member of The Deck, a small online advertising network with 47 members , on which it advertises its products.