Forum OpenACS Q&A: New name proposal

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on
I probably should post this to the contest, but since I'm not sure if
anybody is monitoring that anymore, I'll put it here. I would like to
propose a name for the ACS/pg port.

It struck me this morning that what makes this project interesting is
it's relationships to two existing OSS projects--namely ACS and PG, of
course. We need to build relationships with each project community
because we need both to implement features we are looking for, keep us
informed of the directions they are taking, and so on. And to the
extent that we have been successful here, it's largely because we have
a liaison aD (Ben) and one with the PG development team (Don).

So I thought the project name should reflect that unique relationship.

I hereby propose PAX: Postres/ACS Xchange. (For those of you who don't
speak Latin, pax means "peace".)

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Posted by Lamar Owen on
PAX would be a good name, if it were not already the POSIX portable archiver standard replacement for cpio and tar.
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Posted by Michael Feldstein on
OK, then, how about PAX Digita?
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Posted by Ben Adida on
Hey, I am monitoring that contest! There are decent names in there, and we have to pick one soon. There have been suggestions to use something like "OpenForce Community System" because of the link to OpenForce (this new company I'm working on entirely dedicated to Open Source), and the fact that I hope all of you developers/users out there will consider becoming part of OpenForce as Service Pros (S/Pros for short). However, I'm not ready to make that call unless people like that possibility. What do people think?

Pax would have been good... too bad it's taken. Pax Digita is not very catchy....

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on
Sorry, Ben; didn't mean to imply you were slacking off. 😉

I love the name "Open Force," but I'm not sure that it's appropriate for this particular project. Since ACS/pg is (at least for the moment) intimately tied to two existing projects, I think it's important that the name reflect the heritage in a way that attracts ACS and PG developers. In other words, the name should be descriptive marketing.

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Posted by Roberto Mello on
What's wrong with "ACS/pg" ?? It clearly states the inheritage it has, even more than PAX.

As to using OpenForce, it would not be a bad idea, but I still like plain "ACS/pg"

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Posted by Michael Feldstein on
ACS/pg would be fine with me. It's just not very exciting. If PAX is already taken, then how about the homophone--PACS, or Postgres ACS?
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Posted by Lamar Owen on
Well, PACS used to be a trademark... lessee... then was known as the Telebit ACS, but I'm trying to remember the original... Paradata, I think, was the original.  They made a couple of mainframe gateway products: HoneyLAN and PACS.  HoneyLAN allowed LAN connectivity from NetWare clients to a Honeywell/Groupe Bull mainframe through synchronous modem loops -- 16 sessions over a single sync link, IIRC.

PACS was the asynchronous version, allowing 8 async lines from the one card for more standard gateways.

Paradata was bought out by Telebit, who marketed it as the Telebit ACS (and changed over to 16 port Digiboards instead of that custom board Paradata used).  Telebit, of course, was then bought out by Frantel.

However, the US PTO doesn't list PACS as being a trademark of Telebit or Frantel -- however, there ARE trademarks for PACS in the computer field.  Check the search on the USPTO site (uspto.gov).

Otherwise, it sounds fine to me.

But, then again, ACS/pg sounds fine, too.  I'm not picky (although, I really wish we could call AOLserver something different, as those three letters cause feelings of animosity amongst many open source affacionados).

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Posted by Christian Eva on
Just to confuse a bit more ...
I propose ApoCS - A (ArsDigita) postgres Community System
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Posted by Don Baccus on
My major problem with ACS/pg is that it's a lengthy thing to say over and over and over again...by the time you're done, the sound-bite time's done and over with.

The only problem with "Open Force Community System" is that OFCS
would be pronounced "oh, focs".

Hmmm...maybe not so good?

Probably shouldn't tie it to Ben's company, if only that it might cause people to question the motivation. We're not doing this to make Ben's company work, though if Ben's company does work many of us may well contract with it.  There's a difference that might be lost on some.  We're doing it because we want it ourselves and want others to have it.  Not sure how important that really is, but it's a thought that comes to mind.

Catchy names stick in folks' mind, there's no doubt about that.  That's why I originally raised the issue, though I'm not a marketing type I do recognize certain realities.

Would Apache be as popular if it were called the OSWS (Open Source Web  Server) or the like?  Probably not.

As time goes on, I am getting used to or maybe numbed by ACS/pg.  As alphabet soup goes, it's not bad.

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Posted by Ben Adida on
In the spirit of being eventually less DB-specific, I've heard a request to have openACS. Let's just forget about the OpenForce name.
The positive thing is that it's less of an acronym, so a bit more catchy, and the domain name is still available.
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Posted by Don Baccus on
I like openACS a lot.  Wonder how Philip will react?  This also covers  our ass if we decide to make an attempt to support both PG and Interbase.  It more accurately describes our true goal than the name ACS/pg, because our true goal is to deliver a fully open-source ACS, not simply express our love for Postgres.

Of course, we may remain faithful to Postgres, but I kind of like the goal of working towards supporting both or at least easing the difficulty involved by abstracting out db-dependent stuff.

When Oracle finally goes Open Source, we'll let aD use it :)

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Posted by Ben Adida on
okay, I've registered the openACS domains because that seems the most promising. Can we get a quick show of "hands" with a few responses? Do people like openACS? "Open Ax" for short :) just a quick vote on this bboard will do.
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Posted by Roberto Mello on
OpenACS sounds really good ! Now that we have a catchy name, we might as well have a catchy (and cool) logo so we can express our OpenACS pride by stamping the logo in our pages.

I can see hundreds of "Powered by OpenACS" on pages over the web. Ops, sorry, got carried away but it would be pretty cool 😊

Any graphics people out there up to the task of creating a logo ??

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Posted by Brent Fulgham on
I like OpenACS as well.  Although, as Don notes, Phil might take
offense since ACS is *already* open.  But it's database layer is
not open -- and (at least under Debian guidelines) that would prevent
it from living in the "free" archive.  It would have to go into
"contrib".  For what it's worth 😊

So, another "Yes" vote for OpenACS

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Posted by Ben Adida on
I would say that the current ACS/Oracle is not an open system, given that it has no chance of living without Oracle, and that it is built in an Oracle-specific manner. openACS also connotes that we're open to more than one DB back-end.
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Posted by Gregory McMullan on
I've been having an attack of life lately, but as I thought about openACS early on, I'd vote for it.  I wondered about whether aD would appreciate the implications, too...
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Posted by Lamar Owen on
OpenACS.... Kindof has a ring to it. Riding the coattails of OpenLDAP, OpenBSD, OpenGL, etc..... Count that a Yes.
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Posted by Christian Eva on
openACS is simple. clear and most welcome! Go for it!
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Posted by Michael Feldstein on
I like OpenACS too.
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Posted by Steven Caranci on
openACS sounds good to me.
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Posted by Don Baccus on
Sounds like we're on.  Though I raised the aD question, don't imagine for a moment that I personally care.  They've made their choice, and it isn't really Open Source.  I raised the question to make sure folks  were certain to think about it before making their opinion known.

If aD feels embarrassed by it, the heck with them.

Vive la openACS!

(Ben will correct me if I'm wrong).

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Posted by Don Baccus on
Brent, your comment about Debian Open Source guidelines are interesting, I hadn't even considered such things.

Makes me appreciate even more the effort you folks are up to.  It is a useful dichotomy, and it is great you folks differentiate on that basis.

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Posted by Chris Rasch on
I like OpenACS.  In keeping with the tradition of associating a mascot with an open source project (penguin, demon, feather, elephant), may I suggest that a stylized Samoyed become the formal mascot, given the already strong informal associations....
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Posted by Don Baccus on
If we used a samoyed as a mascot, wouldn't we need to name it openALCS?

(OK, it's a bit pun, I admit it)

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Posted by Gregory McMullan on
Hey, Ben - I notice that we still have the directory "www/doc/acspg" - should that become "www/doc/openacs"?