Slashdot Mirror
Mozilla's Joy Of Naming
An anonymous reader writes "Thought the Firebird naming conflict was over? Think again! (If you thought, "What naming conflict?", go to the back of the class and read Slashdot's, previous coverage.) MozillaZine has got an exclusive interview with Christopher Blizzard, mozilla.org staff member, Red Hat employee and author of the Mozilla branding strategy. It's one the first official statements from mozilla.org (Mitchell Baker published a letter that she sent to the Firebird database project admins a few days ago). As well as the interview, MozillaZine also takes a look at some of the more recent media coverage of the conflict, which is overwealmingly biased in favour of the Firebird database project (who still haven't adequately explained how it was different when they picked the same name as the older Firebird BBS). Compare and contrast with MozillaZine's interview of Ann Harrison of the Firebird database project."
by ALEX BISHOP | Christopher Blizzard has been working with Mozilla since the source code was released. In this interview, the author of the Mozilla branding guidelines gives an insight into mozilla.org's position on the Firebird naming conflict.
How involved were you in the decision to rename Phoenix to Firebird?
I was involved as much as the rest of staff@mozilla.org was. That is, Asa gathered most of the suggestions for names. If you have a large list, you have to whittle it down to a few reasonable candidates and then get those cleared by trademark lawyers. That's what happened in this case. Asa came back to staff with a list of suggestions and we chose the one that made sense and cleared the legal hurdles. Firebird was the name we chose.
A recent CNET News.com article states that mozilla.org is backing down from using the Firebird name. How much truth is there in this claim?
We're still going to use the project name Mozilla Firebird, so the News.com article is false. I think that's pretty clear from our branding document. Just to be clear, Mozilla Firebird is going to be the name of the pre-releases that we're going of the-browser-formerly-known-as-Phoenix before it becomes our primary platform for delivery of the Mozilla platform. Once it's our mainline build it's going to be Mozilla Browser.
That being said, as long as the project exists the Firebird name will be in use, just like SeaMonkey is still in use. Note, though, that most people don't call our current browser SeaMonkey so you probably won't see it in wide use once that transition takes place.
To what extent was the branding strategy influenced by the complaints of the Firebird database community?
It wasn't, really. The branding strategy has been in the works since late last year, well before Phoenix was even on our radar. The only part of that document that was really affected by Firebird database folks was the careful use of "Mozilla Firebird" instead of just "Firebird" and the clear distinction of a "project" vs a "product". We've been talking about using "Mozilla Browser" or something similar for quite a while now.
Do you think that mozilla.org should have contacted the Firebird database project before announcing the new name?
Hindsight being 20/20, sure.
To be honest, though, I don't think that anyone on staff thought that they would care. There isn't room for confusion (I mean, who is going to confuse a database and a browser? I think my mom can tell the difference), there isn't any infringing use, and the name is in wide use outside of both of our projects, including previous use in the software realm. We're simply using a name that's been used over and over again in the past. We've been called all sorts of nasty names over the past few months, being accused of all kinds of malice and ill intent. I can assure you this is not the case. The reality is that if we're guilty of anything it's being a bit apathetic.
According to some reports, in the days immediately after the new name was announced, mozilla.org either ignored emails sent by Firebird database community or responded unhelpfully. Some have even suggested that this left the database project's leaders with little choice but to organise the mass emailing campaign. How did mozilla.org respond to these early messages and could a better reaction have avoided the large-scale protests?
If I remember correctly, they went from zero to mail bombing in less than 60 seconds. I don't remember there being very many, if any, cordial messages at the beginning and those were quickly lost in the cacophony of form letters and unreasonable demands. It's interesting to point out that our biggest problem at the beginning was telling who was in charge over there. We certainly couldn't tell from the incoming email.
I would also flip that question on its head. Would mozilla.org have responded better if they hadn't engaged in a mail bombin
Just pick another name. It's not that hard. They were there first.
Besides, Firebird is a really crap name, IMHO.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
"not as advanced as postgresql" hmm...
The feature sets of Firebird and Postgresql differ, they are used for different purposes.
Pretending to be Oracle, does not make you more "advanced".
http://jesus.everdense.com/