From the "Agoraphobia FAQ":
Q What the heck is an "agora", and why have you
named your software after it?
A "Agora" has several meanings, all of which are
relevant to this software project and the community that supports
it.
In Greek, "agora" means "marketplace/" In fact, in
Ancient Athens, the Agora was the open marketplace where
Socrates taught his students. So the Agora was an Open place
where both commerce and knowledge sharing took place. Our
software is an Open platform which supports both commerce
and knowledge sharing.
In Portuguese, "agora" means "now." Our software is
designed to help you get your web platform up right now by
giving you all the building blocks you need, including a unified
permission system, unified email alerts, workflow, content
management, and many other features.
In Hebrew, "agora" means "to hire." We believe that
the best way to find (and hire) competent web programmers is to
observe their participation in an actual development community.
Here at the Agora web site, you can see who asks good
questions, who gives good answers, who participates, and who
doesn't. You can see a programmer's entire history in the
community. Where else can you get that kind of knowledge of
your vendors before you hire them?
