You can now access your JacobSix Workbook, Projects, Top Actions, and Closed Actions in your Projects all from your IM client.  The JacobSix IM Helper is very easy to use and makes it simple to see what you have to do without logging into the JacobSix site.  You can type "/workbook" and the IM bot will reply with the top actions in all of your projects.  Other commands it supports now are /projects, /top, and /closed.

For example, typing "/projects" will reply with something like:

1: Project A - Due: 01/01/2010

2: Project B - Due: 01/25/2010

You can then type "/top 2" to see a list of the top open actions in Project B.  You can type "/closed 2" to see recently closed actions in Project B.

You can read more about how to set it up at the JacobSix IM Bot help page.  It involves linking your Google account to your JacobSix account and adding the IM bot to your chat contacts.  It's that easy.

The IM service will support more commands in the near future.  We are planning on allowing you to close actions, add actions, message a project and team members, and receive notification when something happens in the projects you are following.

Try out the IM bot and let us know what you think.

JacobSix now supports OpenID, Facebook, and Twitter users. Using RPX from JanRain ( https://rpxnow.com/ ), I was able to incorporate the new login methods in a short time. Besides making account creation very easy for new users of JacobSix, existing users can link their OpenID, Facebook, or Twitter accounts to their existing JacobSix login. This will make it easier to login in the future using the quick RPX sign in widget.

For new users, look for the "Sign In with OpenID" link in either the Sign In page or the Sign Up page. For existing users, check out the changes in the "My Profile" page. There is now an OpenID Provider section for you to link your account. It's very simple and once you do this, sign in becomes a breeze.

In the profile page, you will also notice a link to verify your email address. Soon, all email addresses will need to be verified in order to receive JacobSix notifications of project updates and invites. You can click the "send verification email" link to resend the email, which will have instructions on how to verify your email address. You can also change your email address.

Lastly, you can now link your Google account to your JacobSix account. This doesn't do much now, but I will be working on adding Google Apps integration into JacobSix, as well as many other Google features (Wave, IM, Voice). For example, I want to give you access to project information and status through a Google IM contact. You can ask the bot to let you know what's on the top of your workbook and it will provide the list. More on Google app integration later.

Now, back to work. I'm adding an Action page, which gives you all the 411 on a single action in one page. I want to make it so it's shareable and linkable so that it can easily be emailed or communicated in different ways. Also, designs are coming along for a possible iPhone application for JacobSix. Exciting!

The latest release of JacobSix is out.  We've added a few useful features and hope that you enjoy them.  Here's the rundown of what is new:

   

Click here to download:

Latest_Version_of_JacobSix.zip (37 KB)

We have spent some time redesigning the front page of JacobSix. We hope you like it and below is a small selection.

The design is to allow us to expand and provide more information to potential users of JacobSix. Some good suggestions came that asked us to provide this information prior to a sign-up. After all, why sign up to something that seems a mystery. We will be adding some screencasts of the application as well as more screen shots for those that want to see what it's all about before they enter any information.

We will also be working on screencasts demonstrating the functionality of JacobSix as well as working on much needed documentation and help. We will post these videos and links to the help here when we have a good start.

We are working hard to keep making JacobSix a simple, yet powerful Project Collaboration application.  The last sprint has been a very productive one.  Many late nights and lost weekends have added up to some very good progress on JacobSix.

Here are some of the major features additions:

• Ability to follow a Project - There is a little pin to the right of the project name in the Overview section of the project page.  If this is pinned (pin facing down), you will be following the Project.  What does this mean?  Well, you will get emails when anything changes in the Project, such as new messages, new Milestones or Groups, added Links or Notes.  Pretty much anything at all.  This allows you to keep up to date on any happenings in a Project so you can react quickly.  Eventually, following a Project will lead into IM messages in the future.
• Ability to follow an Action - The same pin you can put on a Project you can put on an individual Action.  If you don't want to following the entire project, you can just concern yourself with one Action.  When an action is pinned, you wil receive emails if anything about that action changes.
• Condensed View of Action Lists - You can click the magnifying glass icon above the action list to collapse the action details.  This allows you to fit more on the screen.  You can always expand an individual action to see the details.  The condensed view mode carries across all action lists and your workbook.
• Displaying Avatar next to Messages - In the Recent Messages list, we now show the avatar of the person who posted the message.
• Invitations by User Name - You can now search for users that are collaborating with you on other projects to invite them to a new project.
• Burndown Chart - For those of you who are into Scrum Agile Project Management, then a burndown chart is available.  This chart is based on the Estimated and Actual hours, using the Project Start and Due or Milestone Start or Due dates to build the range.  This chart is in the More Charts page.
• Commenting on Actions - You can now comment on an Action.  The action assigned and any followers of the action or project will be emailed of any new comments.  This is a good way to communicate and ask questions about an Action.

We have many more enhancements coming soon.  Here is a rundown of what we will be adding soon:

• Project Feed - The project feed will give you a running stream of all activity in a project.  So, if someone closes an action, it will be in the feed.  If someone adds an action, in the feed.  If a new message is posted, in the feed.  The feed is a temporal view of all things happening in your project.  We will provide an RSS link to this feed so it will be easy to follow day to day the projects progress.
• Contacts - The ability to store users in a contact list so you can easily invite them to future projects and also communicate with them.
• User Page - A page dedicated to a user, showing any actions assigned to that user for common projects.

I hope you are finding JacobSix useful and it is helping you with your projects.  If you have any suggestions, feedback, or praise, please let us know at http://getsatisfaction.com/tahelpya/products/tapingya_jacobsix.  We appreciate all suggestions and consider them all seriously.  We want to make JacobSix as useful as we can.