Michael McDerment on Software Should Be Social Because No One Works Alone

I have been working with the folks at FreshBooks, and social architecture principles are a major aspect of that company's future design plans, as this post by Michael McDerment indicates:

[from Software Should Be Social Because No One Works Alone by Michael McDerment]

FreshBooks is about to introduce a new era for freelance and contract workers. In this new era each independent practitioner will have their own FreshBooks account and they will be able to SHARE timesheets with other FreshBooks account holders IF they choose to. What is the significance? Now each of these independents can stay within their own FreshBooks account and share a timesheet for the same project. Simple. Tidy. Afterall, they each have their own office from which they share the work load…it’s the same principle.

When you can collaborate on your relationships from within your own account, it really helps. Think about Project B - the one no one expected to come out of Project A. It’s a second project that involves only the copywriter and the developer (and not the web designer). Within the new FreshBooks paradigm, the copywriter and the developer can stay inside their own FreshBooks account and simply share a timesheet with one another, while seamlessly working on BOTH projects. Sounds about right, doesn’t it?

We at FreshBooks are going to help you run your business in a very natural, social way. That’s one of the reasons we design software. We believe it should help you work naturally. We believe that software should help you DEEPEN your relationships. You don’t need to log into 3 different accounts to work on 3 different projects so you shouldn’t have to.

You stay in your account. Simple. Hallelujah.

Although Michael doesn't explicitly mention it, the model that he lays out for FreshBooks is a federated one. Each user will only need a single login, no matter how many other accounts are connected. This is the right way to build social software, unlike the mistake made by 37signals in Basecamp (see Basecamp and the Federation of Work), where a highly connected person like me can have a dozen or more Basecamp logins, and no consolidated view across those siloed work environments.

More importantly, getting this middle tier of the social architecture right (individual::social networks::markets) means that you enable a market to work, if there is one to be made. Think about the future market when FreshBooks can help bring together free agent consultants and the companies that employ them. More to follow on that front.

[Full disclosure: FreshBooks (2ndsite) is a client, and I have a financial interest in the company.)

tags: eocial+architecture, federation, +of+work, freshbooks, michael+mcderment,

Comments

[John Koetsier]

I'd love to see a response by Jason Fried of 37signals on this one.

There's another issue with 37signals (if memory serves) in that you can't have just one account with them and add all their services to it ... the account models for each app they have are separate.

Easy for developing, no doubt, but not great for clients.

[Jason Fried]

Thanks for your thoughts. A couple things.

1. Most people are not like you. Most people are not as connected as you. Most people, the vast majority of our customers in fact, have one Basecamp account that they use with their clients or just internally. Yes, there are folks with multiple accounts, but they are the slim minority exception, not the norm. The majority of our customers aren't well connected techies, they are small business owners that use a tool alone or with their clients. They have their own small world. Multiple Basecamp systems are rare among these folks.

2. We are working on a product we've code named "Compass" that will provide single-sign-like capabilities to customers that use multiple versions of our products. We don't comment on release dates so I can't share any additional information, but it's something we're planning.

The inconvienent truth for techies is that most people don't have the problems that techies do. Most people aren't roaming between multiple Basecamp accounts. Most people also use the same username/password everywhere so they already have "single sign-on." But we do agree -- a more unified sign on across multiple products is useful so we are working on it, it's just not the most important thing right now.

Another thing to remember is while it feels like we've been at this for years, it's only been 2.5 years since Basecamp has been released. Backpack just turned 1 a few months ago and Campfire is just a few months old. We like to nail the basics in our apps first and then work on the more complex issues later. Multiple products with multiple logins is a more complex issue. It's time is coming, but it would have been wasteful for us to spend our time on such a complex issue a year ago.