In the previous post a commenter, Kel, asked if Staction was a replacement for Backpack; it’s not. In fact, Staction isn’t even a replacement for Basecamp in a lot of respects. In our opinion Backpack, and Basecamp are perfect in their own ways. They’re simple, and easy. They’re sturdy, and do their job well. But if you work like us, Basecamp feels a bit tedious.

If you work with one window open to Campfire/IM, and one window open to your PM app, while emails from team members trickle into your inbox, -you have the problem we had. There was a bit of a crisis of communication. In a group, there are 3 basic types of communication:

• Interruptive, fast paced communication that stops other work from happening. Like Campfire, or IM.
• Discretionary communication that happens when you have time. email, or messages within an app.
• Historical documentation. Information that is recorded, but not looked at unless needed by an individual.

So as you’re working, you have to constantly ask: “Where should I put this information?” Should I email it? Is it urgent? Is it something I can just stick in the project messages? Would it be better somewhere else?

What would be nice is to naturally evolve conversations like they happen in real life. You yell over the cubicle for the file you need. Your coworker responds. It’s fast. It’s succinct. Better yet, it would be great if that information was contextually useful, and searchable.

Staction is a little bit project management, it’s a bit of IM, it’s a little bit of Twitter. It’s all of these things, and we’re thinking of it as a new class of app. People management, – not project management.