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"This post is part of Mashable's Startup Review series, which highlights great unsung startups. The series is made possible by Sun Startup Essentials.\nCompany Name\nBackboard \n20-Word Description\nBackboard makes it quick and easy to get feedback and approval on your documents, right in your browser.  \nCEO's Pitch\nThink of all the times you have created a document in the course of your work life\u2014a PowerPoint, Word Document, PDF, website or image.\nOnce you've completed a first draft, you send it to your colleagues for review and feedback. Soon, you find yourself merging several copies of the document with different suggestions, trying not to forget edits suggested over lunch or by phone.\nBackboard simplifies and automates the process of getting feedback on your work. Upload your file and invite your colleagues\u2014requesting and leaving feedback is easy and intuitive!\nMashable's Take\nBackboard solves a fairly common problem, or least, a fairly common inconvenience.  The process of getting something approved \u2013 like a press release or a design spec \u2013 can be time consuming and hard to follow, as the process degenerates to endless email threads and attachments.  Backboard\u2019s solution is to consolidate this whole mess into one web page, where the people involved can upload revisions, make comments, and ultimately approve the document.\nTo get started, you first upload the document needing approval.  You can then set different access permissions: either a public URL anyone can access, password-protected, or limited to people that you invite.  From there, Backboard offers a gorgeous document viewer with options for zooming in and out, sharing it with more viewers (via email notifications), checking out all of the revisions and comments in chronological order, and ultimately approving the document.  It\u2019s a smooth process with a great interface.\n\n\n\n\nBackboard isn\u2019t free for everyone, however.  While a basic account gets you permission for 1 person to create Backboards, if you want multiple people with these capabilities, the ability to upload documents larger than 5MB, and enhanced security, you\u2019ll need to subscribe to one of the service\u2019s monthly plans, ranging from $9-$49/mo.  \nWhich, leads me to my main question about Backboard: is it something you\u2019d pay for?  While I love the service and could see it being a great organizational and time saving tool, I\u2019m just not sure there aren\u2019t already enough free ways to essentially do the same thing.  \nEditor's Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.\nSponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/12/19/backboard/>