37Signals will be launching a “shared contact manager” called Highrise. I of course have signed up, for me, this just affirms that putting a contact manager online is not such a bad idea.

Why they build it:

Knowing the history of a company’s past interaction with people is a great way to save time and make future conversations more valuable.

The scenarios they try to solve:

• See all follow-ups scheduled for this week
• Review Susan’s notes before calling her contact at the printer
• Set a reminder to write Steve a thank-you note next Friday
• Review all conversations I’ve had with Chris from Apple
• Organize interview responses for potential candidates online
• See a list of all the designers your company has hired in the past
• Enter notes from a call with a potential client
• See all the people your company knows at The New York Times
• Schedule a follow-up sales call with Jim in 3 months
• Review all the people tagged “Leads 2006”

After reading, this I believe the Plaid is a worthy product. Now if we can just get it into some testers hands.

Jay Kelly of WiredParish is sponsoring a free podcast seminar on how to leverage emerging technologies for effective ministry. Jay interviewed me about Web 2.0 and how it can impact ministry. I was able to explain why productivity in ministry is a good thing. I was also able to describe Plaid in detail. Jay’s reaction

I am extremely excited about the release of Plaid. I think it will have a dramatic impact on those of us in the ministry community […] I think he is putting together a great set of tools.

To listen to the podcast, check out the blog and subscribe to the entire seven week FREE seminar. Click here to directly download the Pastor Hacks episode.

One of the things that I would love to read are two lists that Jay encouraged listeners to create.

Please feel free to post your lists of things about the ministry you find burdensome; Jay aptly said that these are the kind of tasks that suck the life out of ministry. If you have a such a list, we would love to read it and incorporate what we can into Plaid.