[Foundation] Clarifications On Name Change Proposal

[Matt Tucker]

Evan,

I'll try to answer your questions as one of the signers of the 
letter/proposal:

 > Will the current proposal go to a vote as it stands, no matter what,
 >  or are there chances to amend it before it goes up for a vote?

It's probably best to think of the letter and the proposal as two 
separate things. If you read through the letter, you'll see that our 
actual proposal is pretty narrow. It basically defines when the term 
"Jabber" should not be used by the JSF and then calls for the creation 
of a team to determine a new name. So, it's quite possible that you 
might not agree with everything in our letter but would still agree with 
the proposal terms. The letter is basically meant to get the discussion 
going before the proposal is voted on.

> 1) If the proposal passes, what name will be used between July and
>    October 2003?

As far as I know, we would continue to use Jabber Software Foundation 
until an actual name change occured.

> 2) What happens if the Name Team's proposed new name(s) are rejected
>    by membership in the (suggested) October vote? Does the Team go
>    back to the drawing board, or does the name stay "Jabber"?

The way the voting works will be determined by the Team. I'd guess that 
people would vote on what names they liked most so there would almost 
for sure be a winning name at the end of the voting process.

> 3) Does the Name Team have the option to simply re-propose the name
>    "Jabber"? Or to drop the name change project entirely, based on
>    further study?

The first part of the proposal is essentially a referendum stating that 
Jabber should not be used for the name of the organization or for names 
of protocols that the JSF creates for branding (i.e., "Jabber IM 1.0 
Basic"). If the membership agrees on this in principal, that would be 
the mandate for forming the workgroup. The workgroup would then follow 
that mandate to the best of its abilities.

> 4) Is the Name Team a JSF Work Team as described in section 8.3 of the
>    bylaws? I just want to make sure of that.

Yep.

> 5) Who will study the (direct) costs to the JSF of changing the name?
>    I believe there's probably corporate papers to file, etc. Is it up
>    to the Name Team to do this estimate, or does this need to be done
>    before the July 23rd vote?

This would be done by the team.

Regards,
Matt