[dna-dev] Rebranding JBoss DNA

[Randall Hauch]

Just a few moments ago I accidentally sent out an email to this list  
that probably seemed a bit strange.  I guess I should clarify what's  
going on.

Here's the news: next month (after we release JBoss DNA 0.7) we plan  
to rename the JBoss DNA project to "ModeShape".  Everything else will  
remain the same - the same software, the same community, the same  
charter, the same awesomeness.

Renaming or rebranding is always a difficult decision, and the  
benefits have to outweigh the disadvantages.  So, why are we doing  
this?  The primary reason is that we want to better distinguish  
ourselves from the JBoss line of products.  Having "JBoss" in the name  
is often confusing to people, because they assume it's a supported  
JBoss product, or they assume it is related to the JBoss Application  
Server project.  It's confusing to our users, and it's confusing to  
JBoss customers.  Having a new name will allow us to build our own  
brand and ecosystem.

There are disadvantages, of course.  Renaming can be disruptive and  
confusing.  Some people may think it's a fork, or that the old project  
has died.  Neither of these is true in our case, and we'll do our best  
to make it very clear.  I also hope to make the transition as smooth  
as possible for all of you, despite the rough start this morning.

Here are some Q&A:
Why the name "ModeShape"?  We actually had a lot of requirements for  
the new name. It had to be acceptable from a legal perspective (re  
prior use, trademarks, etc.), it had to be searchable (or allow us to  
fairly easily get our pages in the results), we wanted the .org  
domain, we need to be able to register accounts on public/social  
systems (e.g., Twitter, GitHub, Ohloh, etc.).  These were just a few  
of the big requirements, but you get the picture.
Do we have to change?  Well, all projects with "JBoss" in the name are  
being asked to rename, and many already have.  We're getting close to  
1.0, and renaming JBoss DNA before 1.0 seemed a much better  
alternative than after 1.0.
Why not use "DNA"?  That was our first choice, but it was determined  
that we could not use the name "DNA" on its own.
When will we officially announce the change?  I had hoped to make as  
much noise right after the 0.7 release, which is coming later this  
month.
Can we or should we tell others yet?  Unfortunately we don't yet have  
all the infrastructure in place, and we'll be doing that over the next  
few weeks.  So I'd prefer to share this news after we have more of a  
web presence.
What does "ModeShape" mean?  The term "mode shape" (two words) is  
commonly used in structural dynamics to describe the shape of a  
structure that is vibrating at a natural frequency.  Every structure  
has multiple natural frequencies and mode shapes, and knowing what  
they are is critical to understanding the dynamic behavior.
Is the license going to change? No.
If I'm a committer on JBoss DNA, will I be a committer on ModeShape?   
Yes!
Will the packages be renamed? Yes, we own modeshape.org, and we'll  
want to change the package names (and a few class names) to reflect  
this.  I plan on issuing a migration guide to help users transition.   
It does help that most people should be using the JCR API for most of  
their code.
What will happen to the JBoss DNA releases and project site?  All the  
existing JBoss DNA releases will be housed (unmodified) on the new  
site.  And, based on a lot of recommendations I've received, we'll  
probably set up http://www.jboss.org/dna to automatically redirect to http://www.modeshape.org 
.
Are the other uses of "ModeShape" out there us?  Yes, modeshape.org, http://twitter.com/modeshape 
, http://modeshape.wordpress.com, and http://github.com/modeshape are  
all ours.  (BTW, I grabbed the GitHub account even though we will  
continue to use SVN.)

Obviously much more information will follow over the next few weeks.   
In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions or  
concerns.

Best regards,

Randall

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