Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Massachusetts now the "Dot Commonwealth"

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the my-dear-lord dept.

RomulusNR writes "The 'state' of Massachusetts is firing back at years of Siliconia by nicknaming itself the ".commonwealth". (Ya see, MA isn't really a state, it's a Commonwealth, as are KY, VA, and PA, allowing them to come up with this somewhat tacky nickname.) Boston Globe has a story on this, and there's also the official .COMmonwealth site. Oh, and another groaner: MA is also now "the state of things to come". " Yes, it is official: Virgina - the .com state and MA are now in competition.

5 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. NOW they've done it... by jht · · Score: 3

    I've lived here since 1984, and that means:

    When the Patriots set a record for worst spanking in a Super Bowl, I wasn't embarassed to say "I'm from Massachusetts".

    When the ball went through Buckner's legs, I wasn't embarassed to say "I'm from Massachusetts".

    When Mike Dukakis got crushed in the '88 presidential election, I wasn't embarassed to say "I'm from Massachusetts".

    When our economy went in the tank in the early '90s, I wasn't embarassed to say "I'm from Massachusetts".

    When, in the midst of a boom, all our key local institutions (New England Telephone, Jordan Marsh, Digital, Shawmut bank, and many others) got gobbled by out-of-state companies, leaving us a corporate backwater, I wasn't embarassed to say "I'm from Massachusetts".

    When the Sox spit the bit again, to the hated Yankees, I wasn't embarassed to say "I'm from Massachusetts".

    But the .commonwealth? Now I'm embarassed! Gawd, I wish I could pimp-slap whoever paid for that clunker!

    For a better view of our fine state, try The Massholes page. Much more appropriate than some lame-ass marketing slogan...

    - -Josh Turiel

    --
    -- Josh Turiel
    "2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
  2. At least Pennsylvania's technologically smart.. by RISCy+Business · · Score: 3

    I just moved to PA. Coudersport, PA, to be exact. It may be BFE, but if it wasn't for Hell Atlantic, Coudersport would have more DS3s per square mile than Cleveland and Buffalo combined. (Maybe it being the home of Adelphia Communications Corporate has something to do with that? :)

    Anyways, Pennsylvania's done something much *much* better than MA. We got new license plates this year. They're blue white and yellow, very tasteful IMO. And at the bottom (in PA, you don't have a county sticker/stamp) is a good one liner.

    www.state.pa.us

    HA! Touche, MA. God I love living in a state that has a sense of decency and taste. :)

    -RISCy Business | Rabid unix guy, networking guru

    --
    your company here.
    shelby != ford
  3. I, Marketer by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5
    Somewhere out there is some east coast yuppie, who makes a lot more money than me, bragging to his friends that, ".commonwealth" was his idea.

    I'm copywriting these before he does it again.

    .massmailachusetts - cyber promotions.

    .TandAssachusetts - porn domain.

    .sundaymassachusetts - for catholics.

    .ACHOOsetts - local clarin distributor.

    .yahoochusetts - no explanation needed.

    .sadomassachusetts - Local S&M forum.

    .criticalmassachusetts - Nuclear Regalutory Board.

    .gasachusetts - Amoco domain.

    Ah, Noble and Proud Massachusetts, land of many names.

  4. States might consider doing more than marketing by JordanH · · Score: 3
    It seems to me that if States were really serious about pushing their net.friendliness, they would consider building infrastructure.

    Laying some fat fiber along highway rightaways would be a fairly inexpensive thing to really improve net performance in a given state.

    States could link up all the major population centers and also provide grants to carriers to increase coverage in the smaller towns if fiber isn't justified to that area. Local governments could issue bonds to chip in their part. If a small town wanted their own fiber connection to some major hub, there could be matching funds made available or something.

    Doing this could really improve intrastate net performance and if the lines were located strategically, could link up with major arteries going out of the state to various high bandwidth destinations like Silicon Valley, Seattle, etc.

    It's the kind of thing that is ideal for Government to consider as it requires huge capitalization up-front, but by selling line time to the carriers, at discounted commercial rates, it could be recouped over time. It might also increase the demand for new line construction so dramatically, that the companies that lay fiber could gain huge economies of scale and the price of new lines construction would go down.

    Eventually, when the installation was paid for you could give the line time away to carriers based on their ability to provide high bandwidth out-of-state. The carriers who are investing a lot in laying lines now might react negatively at first, but really it's very complimentary to their services as they are generally laying the Extra-state lines that will be big connection points for these lines. Really, if states want to start providing information and services over the net, like they seem to be saying they do, they kind of have a responsibility to make sure their citizens in smaller towns are covered well too.

    Having this is justified just for Schools and Universities alone, and would benefit Industry a great deal too. It also would allow Intrastate eCommerce a leg up over eCommerce from far away. I've always thought that regional eCommerce makes a lot of sense in that you can combine the benefits of eCommerce with more efficient distribution (warehouses closer to the customer). A lot of communities are concerned about eCommerce taking serious retail sales away from their local merchants.

    Where would Interstate Highways and Hydro-electric power be if we had to wait for Industry to provide them?

  5. gimme a break by Ater · · Score: 3

    *sigh* Is there no end to this kind of crap? I'm just of sick of clueless suits aimlessly tacking on buzzwords and other crap to generate interest. The worst part of the whole internet revolution is this whole buzzword trend thats come across. Seems like everyone's adding "Cyber-", "E-", "-Online", or "-.com" in a pathetic attempt to cash in off the web. The sad part is even the government has been induced into all of this mindless drivel, passing various "Cyber-" bills and what not, and now the state of Massachusetts is pulling this crap. I'm not questioning Massachusetts' status as a top technology state, but all this method of advertising it is pathetic. You're not going to win many people over with this, because nobody cares about how witty and clever your naming ability is. Concentrate on proving that Massachusetts is a real legitimate place to locate a technological business. In fact, I bet the majority of skilled engineers and programmers Mass is trying to recruit will probably be turned off by this blatent act of shallow self-promotion and head back to the Silicon Valley. And just another hint Massachusetts, you do have one of the top tech schools in the nation (MIT of course), why not focus on getting all those promising students to continue their work in MA instead of trying to flash around a punned logo.