Mmm. General Convention is named for a build of Linux?

http://www.ubuntu.com/

It's kinda like calling the event "Windows 98".

Hey Huw.

Try this...

Ubuntu, pronounced [ùbúntú], is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept.

An attempt at a longer definition has been made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1999):
“ A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."

That's from wikipedia.

Rev. Kurt Huber
St. Peter's, Monroe

Hey Kurt -

I know. But, it's a case of "cultural piracy repeats itself".

We (ECUSA) are pulling a word out of another culture that has already been yanked. It's a company name, a global brand. We're trying to apply an old meaning to a word that is not meaningless in English.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(disambiguation)

You'll note that the wiki says first "Ubuntu is a computer operating system that uses the Linux kernel." Then it says it might refer to some other concepts as well. Granted the Wiki is written by English-speaking internet & computer people who would show a bias in this area: but that's my point.

In American culture, this stolen word already has a meaning.

The GenCon office should have checked with the marketing team before they did this.

"In American culture this stolen word already has a meaning."

I don't think the word is "stolen"--an exceedingly judgmental characterization. I think it is used as a way of paying tribute to another culture. And the idea that Ubuntu brand has permeated American culture is far-fetched, to say the least. Ask the next 100 people you see on the street what it means and see how that goes.

Hi Jim -

To be clear the word is no less "borrowed" by the software than by us.

When I showed the logo to a fellow geek - the first thing he said was "they used the colours too", referring to the Ubuntu Software Logo of stylised yellow, orange and red people holding hands in a circle. I'm not a design person, so I wouldn't even have noticed that!

Google the word and see how many of the first 30 or so results have to do with the software. If your average person "on the street" were, instead, a person at her desk and her coworker said "What's Ubuntu?" A google would give her only one answer for a while. Look at the entry on the wiki under "ubuntu" with no qualifications: software. (A google of Episcopal Ubuntu turns up interesting things.)

Of course, polls are polls (lies and statistics, etc) and our hypothetical polls are even worse. I'm pointing out it means something - and I'd imagine a copyrighted or trademarked something, at that, although I may be wrong - in this country.

I thought it funny enough to make a comment at first - not even something that needed to be defended as it was so obvious.

Like I said on my blog, we could have called this convention "OS 09" but that's already been used too.

Huw, the average person in the pew, on the street, at a desk, has not the slightest idea what linux is, let alone ubuntu. If you can't concede that we can't have a reasonable conversation. The biggest problem with this word is going to be that people are unfamiliar with it--not too familiar with it. That it doesn't play well with the in-group of which you are a member is immaterial.

I, too, had noticed how similar the two Ubunto logos are. Not completely surprising, I suppose, given that each logo is meant to illustrate the concept -- harder still to illustrate?; I wonder.

I also wonder how many will think the "I in you and you in me" is something new age rather from the gospel of John 15 ( 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.)

By the way, google gafcon and see what you get:

http://www.gafcon.com/

FOCA?

http://www.nrlc.org/FOCA/LawmakersProposeFOCA.html