As you know, IT Mill Toolkit is an open source framework for developing rich web applications in server-side Java. Unfortunately the name, IT Mill, has been a bit hard to remember and to associate with the value proposition. Thus we have been discussing about the possibility of calling the upcoming release of IT Mill Toolkit 6.0 with a new name… The big question is what.
Please tell us your opinion by selecting one of the names from the poll above. The product would be “officially” called something like “Name Toolkit”. As a thanks for your time, we’ll select one of the voters randomly on January 7, 2009 and send him an iPod Touch. To vote, you must be registered to this forum (but don’t worry it takes less than one minute - just select register from the top of this page). Changes to win are really good as there aren’t too many voters
PS. If you happen to come up with a good idea for a name and it has name.com and name.org free, do not hesitate to propose it below!
As some of you have noticed, the number of votes have exceeded the number of users on forums. The reason is that I added an external voting page that allows voting without registering to forums (to get more voters).
Actually - the drawing has not been done yet - please accept my apologies for the delay. I’ll do the drawing and write a summary of the voting results here shortly. Good side - you still have possibility to be the lucky winner !
The poll results above is not completely accurate - it contains some double-posts (outside page for voting did not prevent double posting). After analyzing the poll logs, I deleted some votes. The corrected results are here:
It is interesting to note that the voters that participated though the forums voted for different names than the voters that participated through external voting page (advertised though Google AdWords using keywords thought to be relevant). These pie-charts illustrate the differences quite clearly:
Interesting name “floom”, in English [American]
it’s possible it has negative connotations? It is very close “sounding” to a negative term called “floosy” or “floozy”. People will wonder what a “floom” is, hmm, is it related to “floozy”? or “flue” as in getting sick? … just some comments on name vs language “understandings”.
Just saw this contest, looks like name is a done-deal? ie, it’s been definitely decided?
Perhaps leverage Google Web Toolkit, GWT, as a prefix or suffix to a name?
Actually the name is not decided yet. We weren’t completely satisfied with any of the names and are now starting a new “brainstorming” round - this time with “professional marketing people” in the team.
I think that a good name is fundamental and if we change the name, it must be done right. All ideas for the name are (more than) welcome!
You have a tough task, the “name”. I had suggested using a relationship with the Google Web Toolkit [GWT]
because it’s [IT Mill toolkit]
based on GWT, and it’s highly unlikely that Google is going to go away anytime soon. Plus there are other strengths related to a Google relationship.
The IT Mill toolkit [the toolkit]
is really an enabler for GWT, it enables easy use of the technology. It is tempting to use the technology transport or communication method such as “Ajax” in the name, however this could date it [ looked how DAO came and went, now its JPA, next?]
.
Perhaps just give it a Finnish name? Base it on a Finnish landmark, terrain, geography, or similar object. I am in Boulder, Colorado, we have many companies here that adopt Boulder in their name, or a local geography, Left Hand Networks, Left Hand Brewery, and so forth. I am sure you have the equivalent in or around Turku. Just not Turku, in English it is too close sounding to the bird turkey. [I suspect that observation will cost me some beer if I visit Finland :-)]
What is a famous sea feature there? Or a particular area, say one with lot’s of oak or maple trees? Or a favorite park? Mountain? Street?
You don’t have to choose a name on technology, but you can tie it indirectly to technology. Or not at all. A succcessful name in the next country-over, Ikea, does not imply what it does. Of course Nokia there too [see my beer tab increasing …]
.
Thanks for good ideas. A Finnish name could be a good option. Did you know that Nokia is a small city in central Finland near Tampere? They had Nokian Jalkinetehdas Oy - meaning “Shoe factory at Nokia Inc.”. And then they ended up with the Nokia we all know…
In any case - if we’ll end up with a Finnish originated name, I’ll be buying the beers