Backpack launches today

The fine folks at 37 Signals are taking the wraps off their second web application today, Backpack (the first was Basecamp). I have been using it for the past few days and have signed up for the $5/month plan. If I had to describe it to someone who knows enough about the web to be dangerous, I would describe Backpack as a blog crossed with a wiki. To everyone else it’s simply an organization tool.

Why is Backpack better than a paper notepad or application on your computer? For starters you will never not be able to find it or become disorganized after a disk failure. But the sharing aspects of Backpack are what really sold it for me, especially over my use of text files. I can either make a page public or invite certain people to it. If I invite people, they have the ability to modify the page (wiki!) and everyone can track the changes via RSS.

Give it a whirl, there’s a useful free version.