Forum OpenACS Q&A: Response to Time for a name change?

As has been stated in this thread previous, the most important thing is to get the A as in aD out of the name ASAP. It's a hindrance in pitching the system because it gives the impression that the community is reliant upon the company and because aD's viability is constantly in question.

That being said, IM-almost-hereritcal-O the least interesting piece of the stack in the OACS is the ACS stuff, meaning the tcl code and the datamodel. Sure, that stuff is a great help, is tested and works nicely (most of the time) but the real power of the system lies in AOLserver and the true use of true RDBMSs.

A rather complicated database or web application usually can take advantage of some OACS code, but it usually requires a large amount of custom development. These two pieces provide the true RAD environment, rather than something like the news module. So I think it's important to somehow stress that what makes the OACS so strong is the strong foundation of a great webserver app and strong DBs.

I agree with Michael that stressing something like a "community toolkit" is kind of passe. "Knowledge management" and "groupware" are hot now, but could go the way of "community" soon as well.

Names like Pueblo, Oasis or Agora are very attractive to me because they provide a bit of mystique in their metaphorical connotations. The best name that I've heard so far, in fact, is Zocalo (Pat Colgan's idea). To paraphrase Urban Parks Online (yes, a gratuitious Musea plug, sorry), Zocalo is the nickname for the Plaza de la Constitucion de Oaxaca. Here is a description:

Strolling down the pedestrian walkway, Macedonio Alcala, one arrives at the daily fiesta that is the zocalo. Children run after their globos (large tubular balloons), plastic helicopters and Pokemon balloons which are all sold by vendors in the open space next to the Cathedral. There are activities for all ages in the plaza, a characteristic that demonstrates why this space has always been a primary social place. Sitting on benches, parents enjoy the soothing sounds from the fountains as they watch their children play. Vendors circumambulating the zocalo sell corn, chapulines and fruit to customers at the shoe shine stands scattered throughout the plaza. Friends gather on the benches to discuss events they read about in newspapers bought by the nearby newsstands. Every night, musicians serenade customers eating at the cafes and on Thursday nights the Banda Musica del Estado performs classical music and old popular Mexican songs.

Since Zocalo is a place where people come to do anything from commerce to relax to romance, it would seem to be a nice metaphorical name, much like the other suggestions.

That being said, Zocalo sounds WAY TOO MUCH like Zope, our closest cousin in the open source development world. It would probably cause too much confusion.

Other ideas in this vein, though, might be something like Carnival. When I mention this idea to Roberto, our community Brazilian, he asked whether we would have naked dancing ladies, too. I could not argue, since I thought his idea would be a feature, not a bug.

talli

PS
What about the color scheme? Since the new OACS site has been built, it would be nice to keep the same color scheme so that a whole lot of work doesn't have to be done over again, but I'm only saying that in a selfish effort to avoid more work.