MapServer and Foundation naming

[Ken Lord]

Ok,  enough with the suffixes.

How about we go about the suggested naming in the other direction, one
that respects the history of MapServer, and allows Autodesk to nab the
branding they are after ...

Foundation MapServer

Autodesk MapServer

... It eliminates the 'enterprise' fiasco, and in my opinion
Foundation MapServer sounds pretty significant.  Those of you who are
Autodesk fans will hopefully agree that Autodesk MapServer has its own
sounds of significance, without making it appear to be the better
version by tacking on 'enterprise' ... and ties well into the existing
Autodesk MapGuide name. It also tells you right away that you are not
necessarily using the historic MapServer.

For the name of the foundation, I like something closer to 'Web
Mapping Foundation' ... something that can draw in other open source
mapping projects, and won't scare off other big names that may
consider contributing one day ... something that will let us slay ...
errr... 'reverse takeover' the ArcIMS world oneday hehe.


Now, back on the Mascot issue.  I'm still fond of the cuddly Platypus.
 ... webbed feet ... world wide web ... lots of connections there.

Cheers,
Ken Lord
Vancouver BC


On 11/30/05, Daniel Morissette <dmorissette at dmsolutions.ca> wrote:
> P Kishor wrote:
> >
> > It is still not clear what exactly will Autodesk's codebase contribute
> > to the MapServer codebase, if anything at all. Will it, won't it? Will
> > it forever be a separate but equal product? Why does it even need the
> > MapServer foundation?
> >
>
> I have tried to explain the positioning of each project/product and of
> the foundation in the following email, that should address many of hte
> questions:
>
> http://lists.mapserverfoundation.org/pipermail/discuss/2005-November/000017.html
>
> P.S. Please don't jump on the online forum vs mailing list question at
> the beginning of the email, we've beaten this one to death before and we
> already know our respective positions on that.  :)
>
> >
> > but what good does it do to MapServer? If those 5000 are going to go
> > to the msfoundation website, see a cheetah and an enterprise, they are
> > going to choose the latter. If that doesn't work for them, they are
> > never going to come back, unless they are unlucky to be forced to use
> > the large, unwieldy product.
> >
>
> I think it's clear that the Enterprise bit hurts. But how do we move
> forward? I still think that sharing the MapServer name sounds like a
> good idea.
>
> Let's say we get them to change Enterprise to something else, i.e.
> "MapServer <some_animal>" and "MapServer Cheetah" (change the animal
> names to anything as long as it's nice distinctive names)... the idea I
> think is to have something similar to Mozilla Firefox vs Mozilla
> Thunderbird, do you (not just you, but the community as a whole) still
> see a problem with something like that?
>
> Daniel
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>  Daniel Morissette               dmorissette at dmsolutions.ca
>  DM Solutions Group              http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>