establishing a naming scheme for Beta assembly revisions
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As we are approaching the first "ready" Beta hardware revisions I was thinking about how we could call the assemblies/releases that we will soon offer to the first developers from crowdfunding. Obviously we could start with a numbering scheme 0.1, 0.2 etc. but that will likely start getting confusing once we hit the 0.10 and 0.11 releases that look the same as 0.1 or 0.1.1... keep in mind we have a lot of backers without a software developer background.

So one idea was to do something similar as Ubuntu and give the releases speaking names in alphabetical order (not necessarily animals). Cameras have historically often been named after women... so what about this tradition? http://www.randomnames.com/all-girls-names-beginning-with-A.asp

Also we could indicate the target audience in the name as the very first revisions will likely be suitable for developers only:

E.g.
Developer AXIOM Beta I - April
Developer AXIOM Beta II - Becky
Developer AXIOM Beta III - Connie
Adopter AXIOM Beta IV - Dora
.....

Thoughts?

sebastian created this task.May 1 2015, 2:28 PM
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daFred added a comment.May 1 2015, 2:54 PM

What do you think about naming it like JJMM e.g. 1505
An we could add names like Ubuntu too: 1505 AngryAbigail, 1507 BeautyBelinda
In my opinion numbers are easier to associate with versions then names. ( I just remember JJMM of Ubuntu and not the names...)

Oscar added a comment.EditedMay 1 2015, 3:02 PM

I'd really not do women names. It could sound sexist. It reminds me of car fanatics that say 'she' and the 'girl' about their car. It sounds too 'Atomos-isch' to me ;)
Why not stick to only latin (I II III IV V VI etc) ?

FrancoisGandon added a comment.EditedMay 1 2015, 4:03 PM

I also think we should not refer to one gender, even if the names can be pretty. lets go for latin digits and films or/and directors or/and actresses and actors... that way it give us flexibility, while staying in one topic that make sense for apertus : open source cinema.

(and it also allows us to connect it with meaning, for example "the Dark Knight" can be an all black material camera, and "The invisible man" can be a naked version with no case, as some backers demanded. IMDB is a good tool for finding words)

E.g.

Axiom Beta I : Casablanca
Axiom Beta II : Kubrick
Axiom Beta III : Chaplin
Axiom Beta IV : Bardot

... Birdman, The Fly (for light cases geared towards aerial photography), Jurassic Park probably has copyright issues for eg

@daFred, I agree with a chronological naming convention, for people who want to actively participate, hack their model, or learn more on the site. I dont think it should be part of the popular name.

just an idea : )

JJMM would mean we are limited to releasing one camera model per month which could become a problem when we iterate quickly. Also the scheme is not self explanatory by itself...

Agreed with Oscars comment about not wanting to put emphasis on gender issues.

The idea to name the camera models after films/directors/etc. is wonderful! I guess we should stick to classic though.

Shining, Beauty and the Beast, Citizen Kane, King Kong, Vertigo, ET, Metropolis ...http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/top_100_classics_movies/?category=5

Oscar added a comment.May 1 2015, 9:36 PM

Perfect ideas! Short titles are perhaps best.
Or terms from classic movies. For example: Rosebud in steed of Citizen Kane.

Movies title don't credit an individual but a project, and they are spread in popular culture, we just need to check if there are legal issues for some.
So far, in the category one word, short classics titles:

"Rosebud"
"M"
"Jaws"
"Fargo"
"ET"
"Lolita"
"2001"
"Ben-Hur"
"Vertigo"
"Sunrise"

those are a bit long but I think they sound good (the fact that they describe a place, a culture, and a movie is very 'inclusive') and no legal issues I guess :

"Metropolis"
"Casablanca"
"Potemkin" for a waterproof case?
"Chinatown"
"Manhattan"

ok you guys decide ; )

daFred added a comment.May 2 2015, 2:56 PM

If we call the baby with the full name "Apertus Axiom Beta" the version name should be as short as possible. Shortest would be one character and we can build 26 versions. Subversions could be A1, A2....
And we still can give them alphabetical nicknames.
The name on the identification label (with serial number) should be short and straight...

MikeA added a subscriber: MikeA.EditedMay 3 2015, 3:24 PM
In T421#5907, @daFred wrote:

If we call the baby with the full name "Apertus Axiom Beta" the version name should be as short as possible. Shortest would be one character and we can build 26 versions. Subversions could be A1, A2....
And we still can give them alphabetical nicknames.
The name on the identification label (with serial number) should be short and straight...

Looking through the posts, this one seems the most appropriate for me.
Maybe shorten long name to AAB A1....A2

arkid77 added a subscriber: arkid77.May 5 2015, 3:21 PM

I think films are a nice connection... they could be cryptic yet relevant and very unique. Just as long as no hollywood bigwigs / lawyers find this somehow offensive.

Oscar added a comment.EditedMay 5 2015, 4:08 PM

Our lawyer has discussed this with his colleague. We should be careful with the names and look into this name by name if there is no trademark or other protection on the name.
Here is the reply of the lawyer (quick translation from Dutch):

I have done some research in national European and American trademark registers.

For Rosebud and Kubrick I found no trademark registrations.
I think the idea might work out.

In that case, it must be investigated name by name and case by case if the name is protected as a brand or not.
It may also be that other companies have already registered that name as a brand for their device (like SPIELBERG).

It must also be researched on the internet if no other company have already used a name for their cameras (with or without having a trademark registration).

Ideally apertus can choose something more abstract, such as the first name and the first letter of the last name.
Then the risk is much more limited.

If the decision is to make a continuous series, we can always research this case by case.

Sincerely

Wim

@Oscar : interesting.
I agree with @daFred concerning the serial number being short and "straight".
This task is there to try and cover the naming conventions from a collaborative and machine readable standpoint task).
Feel free to add to it, if you are using github.

Using "Cinema" names still gives us the possibility for ABCD.. naming order.
The 3 first letters can be also rememberable from an software/hardware perspective, and formated point of view.
Maybe its worth investigating the possible first names of the list:

Alice / ALI (this is a very flexible way to start the serie, its a girl, a book, a film, etc)
Akira / AKI
Allen / ALL

Boyle / BOY (Danny Boyle)
Blow up / BLO
Blob / BLO
Brazil / BRA

Casablanca/ CAS
Charlie or Chaplin / CHA
Chinatown / CHI

aombk added a subscriber: aombk.May 5 2015, 6:20 PM

personally i dont like versions of things having names of people or words that describe something else or anything like that.
actually it gets to my nerves. and they are everywhere!
and while i never remember names and words (my brain cannot make the connection of my installed android version with some kind of sugar candy) it is easy for me to know that version or revision 5 is newer than version 4.
but if version words are available people seem to pay more attention and remember them rather than version numbers.

i think this is a naming trend and i dont know what its called and how it got started (though i have a feeling that all evils start from apple) and whats the purpose of it.

-oh you have an axiom beta? thats great! you should try the new firmware by xyz developer. wait! what beta version do you have?
-i have the spielberg
-i dont know if spielberg is supported. is spielberg newer than Lucas? the new firmware supports versions kurosawa and up.
-i dont know but think the newest one is tarkovsky. maybe i will upgrade to that and watch his films too

-i dont know if spielberg is supported. is spielberg newer than Lucas? the new firmware supports versions kurosawa and up.
-i dont know but think the newest one is tarkovsky. maybe i will upgrade to that and watch his films too

sounds wonderful if you ask me :)

But I agree that the name of the camera should be handled as "addon", a nickname in the end, we don't need to label it with the full name + nick everywhere on the camera and stick to the numbering where character length and wordcount is important.

So now the tricky task I guess is creating and agreeing on a list of names with the community ...

Here are a few more suggestions for the names:
-) one or two words max
-) name should have the primary or sole association with the film/person by a majority of people ("Manhattan" or "Chinatown" do not qualify here)
-) no violent films

I don't like the idea of everyday names tbh, (male or female) and naming after famous characters/movies/people sounds risky.

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-03-17/naming-your-business-avoid-will-farrell-characters-and-other-trademarks

Any names that people associate with a specific person or character will probably fall under intellectual property. 'Apertus Beta: Kubrick' might get attention from the Kubrick Estate.

ditto Bladerunner, Inception, Interstellar, Casablanca, Terminator...

What about Latin names on some specific topic?

What about simple roman numerals?
If there is a need to denote different parts/variants, add a letter, e.g.

E-IV, T-IX, ...

Note: there can still be Version and Revision in addition to that for subversioning (like we do on the PCBs)

As we will need to name the first Beta soon.

I propose in all simplicity:

"AXIOM Beta I - Developer Edition"

yes i like it.
although i would prefer arabic numbering

"AXIOM Beta1 - Developer Edition"
or...
"AXIOM B1 - Developer Edition"

"AXIOM β1 - Developer Edition"

oh and yes without a space would be my preference

Roman numerals (or regular numbering) sounds good to me:

AXIOM Beta I (Beta 1)
AXIOM Beta II (Beta 2)
etc

sebastian reassigned this task from sebastian to getzi.Jul 1 2015, 10:30 PM

Can you summarize the agreed upon path and document it in the wiki please so we dont forget it.

close when done.

Oscar added a comment.Jul 1 2015, 11:46 PM

Nice suggestions.
My preference:

"AXIOM β1 - Developer Edition"
or
"AXIOM Beta I - Developer Edition"