[Linux-aus] Should we change? Yes. To change is to grow.

[Chris Neugebauer]

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 11:19, Russell Stuart
<russell-linuxaus at stuart.id.au> wrote:
>
> My own preference is an organisation's name tells you what it does (you
> can probably guess of what I think of MBF changing their name to Bupa),
> LA's name hasn't (ever?) reflected what it does, so a change wasn't a
> bad thing.  However, I also thought no one outside of LA's membership
> had dealings with it, so as a practical matter the name was not that
> important.  It's a bit like the AFL I guess.  I don't follow the game,
> but I do know who our local team is.  It is sort of unavoidable as the
> local team are a very active part of the community - sponsoring school
> coaches, sports ground equipment with their name emblazoned on it and of
> course is on every TV, radio and newspaper on a weekly basis.  This is
> probably a consequence of the AFL peak body doing their job well in
> ensuring the local team has the knowledge and organisational skills
> needed to get their name out there and well known  - but the odd thing
> is I don't have a clue what the AFL peak body is called.
>

Hilariously, you *do* actually know what it's called.  It's "AFL".  In
this case, the AFL has done a fantastic job of making themselves
completely indistinguishable from the sport they represent (Australian
Rules Football) to the casual observer.

This is one example of a brand that changed its name -- from the
*Victorian* Football League to the *Australian* Football League --
which represented its changing focus throughout the 1980s.  The result
was that more teams from outside Victoria became interested in
participating in their organisation.

That's the sort of recognition our organisation should have when it
comes to Free and Open Source software issues.  It's a great example
of a name change being used to capture mind share beyond its original
constituency.

--Chris

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--Christopher Neugebauer

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