NTEN Project Name Change: We Need Your Feedback

If you've been reading this blog, you know that last week I started to work with NTEN on a social media and nonprofits curriculum development.  Yesterday, Holly Ross, NTEN Executive Director, posted this discussion thread on the wiki:

We've hit a snag in the road, and we need your help to get past it. It seems the lawyers affiliated with an about to be published book aren't too thrilled about our title. Given that they book is just weeks away from hitting the streets, that the author is a pretty nice guy, and that I don't want to hold up our work, the easiest solution is for us to find a new name for the project.

Can you help us brainstorm?

So, to change the name we need to:

• Come up with a new name
• Make the changes:
  
  • logo
  • wiki name
  • get domain name
  • replace "Be the Media" on the text in the wiki
  • change slideshare group name
  • retag all the items tagged in del.icio.us (can a tag be trademarked?)
  • change the name of the google group
  • re-do the screencasts on the wiki
  • leave comments on blog posts that written about the project directing to new url
• I am hoping that once we change domains, all links the wiki will automatically redirect

Any advice on making this a smooth transition? 

Now for the fun and wonderful part!   Many people have suggested fantastic names ... and asked great questions to trigger thoughts on a name and circumstances.

• Dave Cormier asked "Just wondering... what's the title supposed to do? Encourage participation by knowledge contributors? Encourage usage of the community resources?"

Response from Holly Ross:

We're trying to first engage the social media "experts" to share their knowledge so we can design a curriculum that addresses the social media "novice." So the title has to be a call to action for community participation, and then work for the social media curious that might be attending one of the trainings. It's a tall order.

• Clay Newton advised "Watch out for unintended acronyms on the list"

• Kerri Karvetski made this point: "I think that "social" will be dropped from "media" sooner or later, just like multi was dropped from media (see http://snurl.com/2shec  Micro Persuasion: Now Can We Please Kill the Phrase "Social Media"?  But "social" tis a buzzword. Clay Newton says "One of the challenges with this space is that the words are not equally understood across the full audience. As such you need to kill "weird" "internety" words like Wiki."

Shall we kill the buzzword?  (That link courtesy of Danielle Brigida)

• Stales advised  "I think two or three words for a title would be the best.  You want the title to be able to stand on it's own."

• Cogdog suggests "My first thought is playing with the "we"/"me" in looking at the front of the word "media" as trying to flip the "me" to a "we", so as a logo, the m could be inverted, or the "w" be superimposed on the "m" -- the only problem being that there already is a http://wedia.tv/ site. Maybe some variation on that."

Wonder what AIDG's legal department would think of that?

• Michaela Hackner suggested we avoid any jargon.  "Be careful, not all non profits are aware of our jargon.  I like the idea of using the term "tool kit" in the title or tagline"

• Joe Solomon said   "Make sure your domain name matches your name.  This helps A LOT."

• Beth Dunn made this point: "I think it's important that the name is clear and focused, especially if the end product is aimed at the novice. something direct, like Social Media Starter Kit For Nonprofits"

I love the "starter kit," but Chris Brogan has used that phrase.  Would we get into legal trouble with Chris?  Guess not ..

• Joe Solomon suggested "Social Media For Good"Now, I'm wondering if we'll get into trouble with Network for Good's legal department.  Katya?

• Mary Hodder suggested "we are the media" and it comes with a theme song and video.

Hmm .. looks like Josh Leo's blog is licensed by the least restrictive Creative Commons by license ... can we use the name?   Will we get into trouble with Dan Gilmor or O'Reily's legal department?  (What is an open book project?).  It is too close to "We Media" will that get us into trouble with Andrew Nachison.

• Michele Martin says "Not as excited about Me media related names because it's too organization-centric in a sense--makes it sound like it's all about me, rather than it's all about listening and the conversations."

 
Many folks suggested names and we had a little fun brainstorming. So, here's a round up from Twitter posts and the wiki discussion thread:

YOUR Media
Nonprofit Social Media Empowerment Guide
Nonprofits and Social Media Tool Kit
NpTech Social Media Empowerment Guide
NpTech Social Media Wiki
NpTech Social Media Tool Kit
NpTech Media Makers
We Are The Media
Your Nonprofit's Media
Make Your Media
Change Your Media
Create The Media
Social Media for Us
Social Media Makers
The People in Social Media
Nonprofit Social Media Makers
Social Media Masters
Mastering Social Media
Being Social Media

NP Social Media Producers
Empowered MEdia
MEdia Empowered
Empowered by Media SMEG (social media empowerment guide)
A play with camel caps?
MEdia EmpoWErement
SM4NPO
We Are Media
My Media
Not Your Father's Media--The NFP Media
It's Not Media, It's Conversation
The Conversation
Media as Conversation
Conversation of Community
Become The Media
You Can Mediate
Be A Medium
beer media
wee media
Be the Real Media
GotMediaGetMedia
npmedia
nonmedia 
npsocialmedia
medianonprofitus
Your Media, Your Story
Nonprofit Social Media Connection
Own Your Story
Our Media, Our Story
Social Media for Social Change
Don't Miss the Boat
Social Media Starter Kit For Nonprofits
Social Media for Nonprofits
Sharing Social Media
Community Social Media
Mold the Media
Meet the Media
Get Social
Be the Medium
Channel the Community
Charge the Community
Create Great You Media (my fav)
Take Back Your Media
It's Your Media
Social Media Cookbook
How to Make Media
Me Media
Me Media Institute
Me Media Cookbook
Me Media Revolution
Me is for MEDIA!
NpTech Social Media Tool Kit works
NpTech Guide to Grassroots on the internet
NpTech - Grassroots media
NpTech - Grassroots media HOWTO
NpTech - Grassroots media explained
NpTech - We're all the media
NpTech - Social media made easy
Social Media 4 Good
uthemedia / u-the-media
We are the Media
Me2We Media
NpTech2.0
webemedia
Everything You Want to Know about the Web But Were Afraid to Ask
NTEN's Online Welcome Wagon
Blog, Tweet, RSS: Use the social web
NTEN Tech Handbook
Hands-On Social Media
Talking nonprofits
Nonprofit voices
Modern communication for nonprofits
We are the ones we've been waiting for
Community communication
Communimedia guide
Communicating your message, building your community
Communitycation
Lift ev'ry voice
SharingMedia.org
Mission Building Media
Mission Media Central
Mission Engagement Media Tool
Move Online (just kidding, that's a whole different set of people to piss off, but maybe they'd be cool)

You are the media. We are the media. 

What name best represents the project? What name won't get us into trouble?

Comments

[Ruby Sinreich]

Well this is an interesting conundrum. Personally, I'd like to get away from the word "media" as I think it makes people think of newspapers and maybe TV instead of thinking about public communication, which is what I think it's really about.

I hope the new title can emphasize the point that we can no longer sit around and hope that our message gets conveyed to the public and to our constiuents. That's our own job and we have the tools to do it.

Here's my contribution to the brainstorm:

Talking nonprofits
Nonprofit voices
Modern communication for nonprofits
We are the ones we've been waiting for
Community communication
Communimedia guide
Communicating your message, building your community
Communitycation
Lift ev'ry voice

[Walt Campbell]

Have you considered "Wedia" - as in, "media that we create -- and consume -- together"?

[Carteea]

Putting the Me in Media
Can't Have Media w/o ME!

just thinking. :)

[LaDonna Coy]

Hi Beth and all --

Wow, what an incredible, creative list and number of choices we have. I wonder how many additional ideas will pop up as a result of scanning the list?

Ruby hit on a term that is interesting and a terrific combo, Communimedia. It comes up in a web search as .com here, as .net here but doesn't come up at all as .org or .biz. Nor do any books come up with the title, at least not on amazon. Not sure where one would find the soon-to-be published list?

Let us bemedia?

Is there someone reading this who speaks a language other than English who might have a suggestion for a word(s) that describes what this is all about? I often find the most beautiful and meaningful words come in languages other than English! Having a second language brings an unique richness.

Hmmm ... What if we don't have a descriptive name but perhaps a novel or unique or strangely memorable one?

[Alyssa]

We the Media?

I see similar things to that on the list (We Are the Media), and I could be missing that one, but it would make for a much easier transition!

[Tony Molloy]

A few more for the pot...

Beth eMedia :)

Your CoNTENt
Make CoNTENt
Create CoNTENt

Your Story
It's Your Story
Be the Story
Tell your Story

Media NotePad
NP Tales
NP Stories
NP Media

[Beth Kanter]

Tony,

That's hilarious!! Beth emedia .. :-)

[Deb]

Hi Beth,

I came to your blog from Twitter. You've had lots of good suggestions for your project---the first name that popped into my head was MediaSneeze... or SneezeMedia.

Good luck with choosing a name. :-)

[Lucy Hooberman]

You could consider an overall name for the whole project etc
"the community is the curriculum"
or
"nfpstories "
or "story community" or something generic

then have individual project names such as
social media for beginners
social media for newbies
abc of social media etc

sorry to be complex - but it's very hard to find one name to encompass everything and you may have lots of future projects..

just a thought!

[Christine]

I am Media
We are media
iMedia

[Morgan Sully]

I'm not sure if a name had been chosen yet or if this was the best place to post (also posted on the wiki), but:

How about:

The Social Media Toolkit for Nonprofits

I think a clear, minimal language without too many accoutrements would be the most effective.

Maybe too user interface geeky, but I think the title should be thought of as the 'log in' form/link to the curriculum - concise and you have a pretty good idea of what you'll get by following the link.

If we're wanting this to be adopted by a wide audience of people...

[JD Lasica]

I think straightforward is best here, so:

Social Media for Social Change
Social Media Starter Kit for Nonprofits
Social Media for Nonprofits
The Social Media Toolkit for Nonprofits

We Media has a different connotation.

(And my friend Steve Rubel is wrong about "social media" and "media" being the same. Not for a generation, at least.)

[Scarlett Swerdlow]

My organization is in the midst of a re-branding initiative, and I feel I've learned a few lessons about names and tag lines. Our experience with testing and focus groups is that concise and obvious is almost always better than cutesy, clever, or jargon-laden. I love a lot of the suggestions from an artistic and creative standpoint, but I worry they'd have minimal impact on many, or ever worse, cause confusion.

One of the specific words we tested in testing tag lines was "empowerment." (We're a statewide arts advocacy and service organization BTW.) Many people reacted negatively to the word. They thought it was too academic and trendy.

So, consider this another vote for simple and obvious. I like "Nonprofits and Social Media Tool Kit" or "Social Media for Nonprofits."

Maybe we even want to avoid "social media" and go with something like "Nonprofit Web Toolkit."

[Scarlett Swerdlow]

PS @Tony - When I first read Beth's posts about the project, I thought the tag actually was Beth eMedia. Took me a bit to have the light bulb moment : )

[Mike Domingo]

"Immedia"

I am media(or I'm media)

Could also play with the idea of "immediate/immediately":

"Become the media, IMMEDIAtely"

[Jill Ruchel]

I think it is important that the name reflect what it is all about, and not require a leap of interpretation for potential users or searchers.

That's why I like the simple, straightforward, descriptive 'Social media for nonprofits', which someone suggested.

It says what it is. It says what it is about. It tells people what they can expect to find there.

By the way, I think the whole 'Be the Media' idea is great. I am from Australia, and the use of social media by nonprofits here is way behind what many charities are doing elsewhere.

[Katya]

Love the name you landed upon. But geez, Beth, I would never sue you:) We love you too much!
-Katya & all your fans at Network for Good.

[Andrew Nachison]

Hi Beth. Well, guess I'd have to be a little faster for you to worry about getting into any trouble with me :) At any rate - it looks like a great project. Let me know if I can help or contribute - or if NTEN wants to collaborate with iFOCOS. The NTEN community might also be interested in the We Media Awards we've just launched - or in pitching new ventures at our Pitch It competition. More at: wemedia.com.