[okfn-discuss] [ckan-discuss] New name for ckan.net: call for proposals

[Rufus Pollock]

On 21 November 2010 17:46, Ed Summers <ehs at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 20, 2010 at 8:13 AM, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
>> Speaking with people about CKAN.net over the last year it has been
>> clear that the name CKAN / Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network
>> does a poor job describing what the site does (it's far too geeky and
>> hard to spell!)
>
> Personally, I always loved the name CKAN. But I was a Perl hacker in
> another life. Even though I don't use Perl much anymore I remain a
> huge fan of how the CPAN community worked.
>
> I always hoped to see CKAN embrace the (A)rchive function a bit more,
> by actually starting to archive data, and not just being a directory
> to where datasets live elsewhere. If there aren't any plans to do that
> anymore I guess a name change might be important.

Yes, one of the conclusions of the last year or so is the need a more
tightly linked the storage/archive part if ckan.net is to function in
its purpose of supporting the finding, reusing and sharing data -- and
that functionality is now there (but not quite deployed).

> I agree with Jessy, that it might be best to start with a brief
> statement of who would be using CKAN, and what they would be
> doing...before jumping to new names and taglines.

FWIW the current "tagline" is:

CKAN is an open registry of data and content packages. Harnessing the
CKAN software, this site makes it easy to find, share and reuse
content and data, especially in ways that are machine automatable.

Possible new simpler tagline:

A place to find, reuse and share data

Who: data hackers/geeks/mungers (another area we need a new name,
perhaps 'datar' (!) -- corresponding to code-r)

What: collecting, cleaning, packaging, maintaining, documenting (how
to use) ... data ...

Rufus