Jacqueline McNally wrote:
Adam Doxtater wrote:
Again I ask, can we put the whole "OpenOffice/OpenOffice.org" thing to a vote? Either public or internal would be fine, but I think it might be a good idea.
Our name is OpenOffice.org.
So what you will asking people to vote for is to change the name.
What distinguishes us from the other ubiquitous office suite is ".org", they don't have one, and we have the opportunity to tell people why we do.
Either that or we can all argue over it a while longer ;-)
Well, it is one of those circuitous discussions ;-P The last time it was discussed was in Nov 04 wrt branding. "OpenOffice.org" is very much part of our identity. For example, it is included in our logo and splashscreen.
Stallman makes a similar argument for GNU/Linux vs. Linux and the majority of the people I have met call it Linux despite Stallmans efforts. This really isn't to say that his way is the wrong way, but the majority of the public ignores it. That argument is also neverending. Meanwhile people go on calling it Linux.
I think the consensus was during that rather robust discussion that we leave the name as it is as many community members, particularly longstanding native-language projects, have put a lot of effort into establishing that identity.
+1 Understood
A good thing (I think) that came out of that discussion was developing a logo that does not include our name, so a more visual identity may be established. But if you look up any information about branding, identity, and even trademarks, you will read that you need a strong name and a visual identity or mark.
I can understand the importance of brand identity, as I've worked very hard to create my own... BUT... if an identity can be improved upon by change, then would that warrant changing a few graphics? After all they are very easily edited. Look at the Mozilla Firefox team. They went through two name changes and came out stronger than ever. This is because of identity/branding being improved upon... at least in my eyes (and I'm guessing the Firefox team is thinking the same thing right about now). While I see the importance of the .org in the name (don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from on that), I don't see it as being a strong point in the marketing department. When looking at it from a consumer standpoint (not from a typical free software zealot's viewpoint), what advantage does the .org provide? Does the typical consumer understand that? Probably not. Or with the reverse, how does it hinder the marketing effort? Should a product name need to be accompanied by an explanation of its meaning? Seems overly complicated to me.
My $0.02 of course :)
Adam
All the best Jacqueline McNally Lead, OpenOffice.org Marketing Project
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