[Design] Proposal for temporary branding for service

[Mitchell Kapor]

I like osaf.us

On Aug 17, 2006, at 10:33 AM, Jared Rhine wrote:

> Given these perceptions of mine:
>
> + cosmo-demo.osafoundation.org is an ugly URL
>
> + Final branding for the hosted service will not be available until  
> Jan,
> possibly Feb (and then more time to update the Hosted Service to  
> that final
> brand)
>
> + I'd prefer a decent, short domain name on which to prototype Hosted
> Service features such as email integration, management dashboards,  
> outage
> reports, etc.  As the Beta Hosted Service will be under some "full  
> domain"
> (an assumption), prototyping would be better done the same way.
>
> May I propose the adoption of a "temporary brand" for the hosted  
> service, to
> wit:
>
>   osaf.us
>
>
> Benefits:
> + We own osaf.us already and in fact it has already been configured  
> for use
> in the the email submission of events to a calendar prototype  
> earlier announced.
>
> + It's pretty short, pronounceable, memorable, and has other  
> positive brand
> benefits.  It's got "us" in it, implying community.
>
> + It does not dilute the OSAF brand or introduce a new term/name  
> internally
> or to the public.  Just a different suffix.
>
> + We can use the same string, osaf.us, to refer to both the domain  
> name and
> the brand.
>
> + As Pieter said in private email: "I think of it as an in-house  
> tinyURL to
> make the sharing process seem somewhat less formidable and simpler."
>
>
> Impact:
> + Would introduce a new term to the community lexicon.
>
> + This term would be known to the public and would be likely to  
> show up in
> emails, blogs, status reports, etc.
>
> + This will mesh with a needed (and currently roadmapped)  
> deprecation of
> both cosmo-demo.osafoundation.org and scooby-demo.osafoundation.org  
> with a
> couple months in favor of a single free Alpha service providing both a
> production Cosmo server instance and a production web calendar  
> instance.
>
> + The osaf.us name would be in use up to the time that a final  
> brand is
> fully approved and rolled out to the pre-Beta Hosted Service.
>
> + I view the pronunciation as "oh-saf dot you ess".
>
> Work required:
> + Change account dialog and defaults in Chandler to refer to  
> osaf.us/cosmo
> instead of cosmo-demo.osafoundation.org/
>
> + Maintain backwards compatibility with cosmo- 
> demo.osafoundation.org name to
> support any pre-switchover users
>
> + Some existing copy, FAQs, instructions, home pages, etc should be
> rewritten to refer to the temporary name
>
>
> Downsides:
> + A second change will be required before Beta.  Copy, images,  
> domain names,
> scripts, filenames, Chandler account defaults, and mindsets will  
> need to be
> changed twice.
>
> + Some people aren't going to like it
>
> I'm going straight to a proposal for a specific name to try to avoid
> URL-by-committee, avoid asking the branding team to spend time  
> coming up
> with a temporary name, etc.  I'm not closed to alternatives; I just  
> want to
> prototype the Hosted Service under a full domain and not
> cosmo-demo.osafoundation.org.
>
> I will drop a pointer to this thread into service-dev for  
> reference, but
> since this proposal touches multiple products and and needs  
> branding team
> review, this proposal is being directed to design at osafoundation.org.
>
> I would definitely like to here feedback, concerns, and accolades.   
> If it
> seems needed, we can proceed to a poll, lazy vote, or fiat.  Thanks  
> for
> considering the idea, either way.
>
> -- Jared
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