Hi. I wanted to get the name and logo discussion off the ground.
First a bit of history as i understand it: In 2009 Mark Burdett (and others) started an east bay community mesh networking project called 510pen. It had several nodes in Oakland (maybe 20+), and still has a few active nodes. The routers used were
open-mesh.com routers, which come pre-configured for mesh. 510pen applied for some decent amount of funding (Mark can elaborate) but did not get it. Over time the project stagnated and several routers went offline.
The assets carried over from 510pen are:
* A small amount of brand recognition from the people who ran or are still running mesh nodes.
* A few deployed mesh routers.
Our current project could be communicated as a reboot of 510pen, or as a new project with roots in 510pen, or as an entirely new project. We have to decide if we want to re-use the name and/or logo of 510pen.
To get a sense of people's opinions, here's a survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PFL7B25Please fill it out!
At the meeting this upcoming Thursday, we'll give everyone a few minutes to fill out the survey if they haven't already and then have a discussion about it.
Personally, here are my totally biased thoughts on the logo and name, and I invite everyone else to chime in with theirs:
510pen pros:
* It communicates to locals that it's a local project.
* It puts a focus on the open, which we're all about.
* It's clever.
510pen cons:
* Does not communicate what the project is (except open).
* Does not work well outside of the bay area where people don't know 510.
* Difficult to communicate in speech. Most people Jenny and myself have talked to needed it explained.
* It might be problematic if it expands to e.g. SF.
Logo pros:
* It's awesome.
* It references the nice Oakland oak tree design.
* It brings to mind roots, as in grass roots.
* It doesn't look corporate.
* It works well in black and white.
Logo cons:
* It looks like the houses are connected underground, which brings to mind cables, not wifi. (but then again, i think we should be focused on creating a community communications network, not specifically a wifi network).
* It references the Oakland oak tree, even though it's not an oakland-specific project.
Personally, I'd like to see us go with a different name but keep the logo. How do you folks feel?
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