8apps.com – Launched

Posted in Projects by Jon, January 17th, 2007

The first jonkenpon product, 8apps is now live and well into private beta testing. 8apps is a brand new productivity-focused social network made up of a suite of 8 indispensable online applications. 8apps accounts are given out on an invite-only basis, but readers of this blog are welcome to an account if you contact me.

So, what exactly is 8apps?
8apps is the social network that it’s ok to use at work. 8apps is the social network that you NEED to use at work. 8apps is a collection of online productivity tools that help you to work better, all wrapped up in a social network environment. Your contacts/friends within 8apps automatically become available for you to use within the 8 apps. For example, share a list in the task manager with your boss. Start a new brainstorming board with some overseas friends and see where it takes you. 8apps exists to help you to connect, and then provides you with tools to use that connection.

Take a look at the video intro below (in two parts! apologies – it’s long. I was excited):
8apps Screencast Part 1
8apps Screencast Part 2

You can view a quicktime version in one part here

8apps is an evolutionary step forward in what I set out to do with Orchestrate last year. In Orchestrate, I created a simple-to-use application that people just “got”. There was hardly any explanation text and I didn’t market the app at all (as it was more of a personal project) but despite that, it caught on. Orchestrate graced countless blogs and even one very well-known business newspaper.

I’m hoping that in 8apps, I can provide a suite of 8 applications that provide both an indispensable function and a simple, easy-to-grasp user experience.

However, I’m not interested in competing with existing services. I don’t want to make an online MS Office, an alternative to Google Calendar or 37Signals copycat. I want to fill the holes in the productivity / project timeline that these services do not. A suite of small, focused applications that you can use in tandem with these already-established “major players” to give your productivity and personal organisation a big boost.

8apps in this private beta test stage is currently made up of 3 applications. Those are Handshake, Orchestrate and Blueprint.

Handshake
Handshake is the “glue” that holds the rest of the 8apps together. Handshake is a social network where you can find and make contacts, vote on your contacts’ abilities (which creates a nice polar graph for them like on my profile page), send mails and give appraisals. Any contact that you add in Handshake then becomes available for you to use in the other apps.

Orchestrate
Orchestrate is a multi-pane task manager and Orchestrate in 8apps is an improved version of the original Orchestrate. It’s faster to use and enables you to share your lists and colour them however you like. Your list layout – and even the layout of your shared lists – is preserved for your next visit.

Blueprint
Blueprint is a collaborative brainstorming board. It’s a place for you and your Handshake contacts to throw around ideas and swap links. The project manager retains control of the layout with drag and drop and can organise the information according to how it makes sense to them. Blueprint addresses the need to brainstorm online, but recognises that brainstorming is inherently chaotic and cannot be wrapped around a rigid structure.

For more information on any of the applications, please watch the above screencasts!

There is also an 8apps Blog (no, this doesn’t count as one of the apps!) where I will be chronicling the progress of the project in terms of added functionality, bug fixes etc. Despite having only been online for a few hours, 8apps is already drawing interest from the pre-existing Orchestrate users and whoever they choose to invite from now on. I’m really looking forward to seeing the community grow from personal recommendations so we build up a really focused and motivated user base.

If you have an invite for 8apps, welcome aboard! I hope 8apps helps you in some way.
Cheers
Jon

Edit: A kind JKP reader has submitted this article to Digg. If there are any other Digg users out there, please Digg!

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