Still alive, but no excitement to report. I’ve been working on an open source project called Very Quick Wiki intermittently over the past few months, but due to some differences of opinion with the guy running the project I decided to work on my own version about a week ago, and have been putting in a ton of hours on that since – I actually didn’t sleep a few nights ago while trying to get some coding done. The end result (hopefully) will be a Java clone of the MediaWiki software that runs sites like Wikipedia and Wikitravel.
The development of the code is going well – I should have it running on this site in a week or two – but I need help with the name for the project. I’ve been calling it “Java MediaWiki”, ’cause, well, that’s what it is and I’m not creative, but I’m fairly sure there are trademarks around “MediaWiki”. After drinking some wine Audrey and I came up with “JAM Wiki”, which sounds like an acronymn for “JavA MediaWiki” and has the added benefit of being pronounced “Yahm VeeKee” in Swedish, but after sobering up again I’m not so sure about that one. And no, Centrificon is just not gonna work this time. So if anyone has suggestions I’d love to hear them, and if I use your suggestion then you’ll not only receive fame and glory, but I’ll either buy you a beer the next time I see you or else send you a picture of a squirrel on waterskis (up to you). Things to consider:
- The domain name (or something reasonably similar) needs to be available.
- Ideally the name would convey the idea that the project is a MediaWiki clone written in Java, but that’s secondary to just sounding cool.
- Examples of “good” names for other products include “Google”, “MediaWiki”, “Mozilla”, and “Tivo”. Not-so-good names include “Mind Rockets”.
- The domain name will probably need to be 6-10 characters, so the name should either be short or truncate nicely. For example, “Java MediaWiki” truncates easily (and obviously) to “jmwiki”.
- I may not actually be the photographer of the squirrel on waterskis photo, so you shouldn’t plan on using it commercially.
Suggestions are welcome, the comments link is below…
dude, the name jamwiki is good. as an imbecile who can barely turn on a computer, i do know one thing about software and websites–it seems like the name is like one of the most important things. so, i recommend listening to audrey and the wine, coz i like it.
i actually like the name a bunch more when it’s written all as one word like that – “jamwiki”. “jam wiki” looks like it’s got something to do with canned fruit. anyhow, it now has the gallaway blessing as well as audrey’s nod of approval, so if scott gives it a thumbs up then i’ll start sending out the pictures of waterskiing squirrels.
I agree “jamwiki” is good, and alcohol always leads to good decisions (regardless of what your eyes, your wallet, and your spottie memory say the next morning).
“javiki” is one that I thought of. It’s pretty lame at best, but you could do some cool marketing gimmicks once it is huge enough to take-over-the-world because it sounds a lot like “Java Key”. Which leads to some sort of slogan about how “javiki is the Key to …blah blah”. Also, you could send out those cool little “never-sink” key holders that rich people use with their boat keys when they are boating and drinking Crystal. But I digress from my first statement of, “It’s Lame at best”.
The real question here is, how do you capitalize the name “jamwiki”? Is it “jamwiki”, or “JamWiki”, or “jamWiki”, or something even cooler? As for the marketing campaign, you’ll have to make a lot of Jam to pass out as s.w.a.g. at all the software conferences in Vegas. And you might want to make some toast called “Wiki” so people realize that “Wiki” without “Jam” tastes boring and dry and generally not good, but when you add the “Jam” to the “Wiki” it tastes really good.
How about “Super Sonic Over-Drive”? Is that good or bad?
Here are some others:
Sweetness
Smooveness
Sony (Although that may be taken. You might want to check first.)
Code Monkey Runner
New-Fangled Special Stuff
Teslah (Notice the “h” at the end, so you don’t get confused with that new crazy car company)
Without Staples
CHARD (Champion Honered Application Research Design)
Accenture (I think Jason can get a deal on that name)
Numb3rs (like the crappy T.V. show only way better)
Candy Code
Jurassic Code
RANCEFY (Ryan’s All New Code Entirely For You)
SPerM (Special Performance Management)
JavaPedia
I’m sure I will think of others.