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entries for 2002/10/23
barn raising
So I won't really change my name. Not today anyway.
But I am thinking a lot about names in general. Especially
the names of my projects. Some of my names are really strong: linkwatcher, ransacker, versionhost, "greed, sex, and murder",
thatAtlantaSite.
But some of my names are kinda weak: rantelope, blogdrive, sixthdev.
Cornerhost was a bad name, but I think the "neighborhood" motif
makes it work. In fact, the "inner-circle" list really
ought to be "neighborhood@cornerhost.com". "Inner circle" was
a dumb play on the "corner" concept. Maybe I'll change the name.
"SixthDev" is a play on sixthday, which is a reference to a movie
which contained an idea that relates to the architecture of one
of my modules. Or in other words, it's a crappy name. I tried to
be clever. It didn't work. So it's time to kill a darling.
What concept do I really want co capture with my software libraries?
That they're great for corporations? No. That they're faster than
EJB, more powerful than Zope? No. I want to say that they're easy,
they're great for getting people together and building apps, because
they're reusable and a lot of the work has been done for you.
My code isn't the stuff you use when you want to build a skyscraper.
It's for when you want to get something working quickly, that's practical and going to last. And if I'm doing that in the context
of Cornerhost... Then the metaphor that comes to mind is a good
old fashioned barn raising.
See, you don't hire an architect to put up your barn. You round up
everybody in town, cook up a big ole mess of food, and spend the
whole day visiting and building the barn.
Open source software ought to be like that. Do it quick, do it
right, and you ain't gotta be all fancy. Just show up and pitch
in, and everybody has a great time. And at an internet
barn raising, everybody gets to take home their own barn.
So. Forget the software. It's just software. It'll change anyway.
I reckon it makes more sense if I focus on helping folks pitch in
and divy up the work.