I am happy that our demo was able win praise from Om. We have done some other well-received previews as well.
But, in general, hype makes me nervous. Having spent many years building a large web business, it is long way from having a good idea to having a consumer web app. Mike Arrington recently put together a nice article that hints at potential beta pitfalls. Don’t get me wrong, we are trying to generate a little buzz, but we are also interested in product feedback especially from people like Om who see a lot of products and businesses. The funny dynamic that emerges is the more the hype the less you want to put something out there that is not quite feature complete.
Right now we are getting 30 Boxes onto a dedicated machine and finishing a couple of important features. We have created a nice and open architecture for skinning the design and want to have a couple more (in addition to the “Tiger OS X” that Om posted).
We are getting lots of people signing up to beta test. We are grateful for that and will make sure that you are the first ones to have at it. Our 30B blog will open up soon but before that is out there, I have a few additional comments.
This product is not for the hard core Outlook user! We taking the path of least resistance and then building upon that.
FAQ item: what’s up with the numbers and names? First of all, it is very difficult to find domain names, so our parent corporation 83degrees was something fun relating to a back-burnered project related to weather. The nomenclature was inspired by the folks at 37signals who are kicking butt. We use backpack to manage our working lists and will make them public upon launch.
For the product name, we really didn’t like any combinations with the word calendar and we didn’t want to make up a word or borrow one from a foreign language. Instead we went for something descriptive. In this case, while 30 is about a month, it actually describes the primary UI which is comprised of 30 “boxes.” We find it to be short, emotive, and easy to read.
Amplify this post: related | bookmark it! | digg it!
No Soap, Radio! 
I went through the process of coming up with domain names for my startup/webapp. It’s time-consuming and at times frustrating. I like 30Boxes the name very much. Look forward to using it.
As a name for a calendar, “30 Boxes” is brilliant. Succinct, unique, simple, elegant. After all, what is a calendar? It’s 30 boxes. Brilliant.
The name makes me want to use the product. I have high hopes for it. Hopefully it will be as quick as in reality as it is in my mind 😉 I just hope it doesn’t require me to use the mouse too much.
Pingback: desparoz On The Go » The 30 Boxes meme
Looking forward to seeing this product — will there be an API for integrating into other applications?
[Narendra: you bet! ]
Dude 30 boxes? WTF? Thats like 4 weeks plus 2 days. The layout clearly has 28 boxes (4 weeks).
Most Calendars have 35 boxes (5 weeks).
[Narendra: while 30 is roughly monthlike, 30 boxes actually describes the user interface which is made up of a single add box (1), 28 day boxes (2-29), and the day view box (30). ]
Don’t get me wrong I can’t think of anything better 🙂
So, is this like iCal with tags? Tags are the new tabs. Does 30boxes have tabs? 🙂