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New Name: Gumbo Labs

With our new name, I think it almost requires we have an official recipe. My friend Mike Hahn, wordsmith that he is, came up with this: -- SimonDorfman - 28 Apr 2009

Gumbo Labs Recipe:

• 1 caldron local culture, seasoned to taste,
• 1 dollop of art,
• 1 measure fresh technology,
• Reduce culture over low heat.
• Fold in art and technology.
• Bake until done.
• Share with your friends.

Let's brainstorm about our "tag line":

• collaboration lab for the inventors of tomorrow
• some sort of play on this blog name: we make money, not art
• An Artist Collective with a Technology Bent
• A Tech Hive with an Art Problem.
• An Artist, Technologist & Inventor Collective
  • An Artist, Technologist, Inventor, Learner/Teacher Collective
• Geeks of every variety
• A Geek Collective
• Technology Geeks, Art Geeks, Inventor Geeks – All Kinds of Geeks
• Some Ideas Need Juice
• A Stew of Heady ideas
• Soul Food for Thought
• Creativity is the spice of life / Invention is the spice of life
• Use a formula for a tagline, such as ...
  • GumboLabs = (space/(ideas + stuff))*time, or
  • GumboLabs = (time/(ideas + stuff))*space, or some such arrangement that gets the message across succinctly
  • GumboLabs - (materials * collaboration) = (education + innovation)
  • see http://www.morenewmath.com/ for more ideas on this notion
• "breathing life into inanimate objects and creating new ways to interact with things. It's for artists, programmers, designers, hobbyists and anyone else interested in robotics, technology, communication and interaction." stolen from this page: http://www.howduino.com/
• a space for hackers, builders, artists, fabricators, inventors, engineers and anyone else who follows dreaming by doing.

Logo

brainstorm about images/visual elements/concepts to use for our logo:

• wrench
• gumbo pot
• laboratory stuff (beakers, voltage testers, etc.)
• electronics schematic elements

I've made a little sumthin'. I'm not totally happy with it. For instance, I think the shrimp should look more like a shrimp and resistor signs in the antennae more obvious. But hopefully it'll get the ball rollin'. (UMBOLABS INC) ---- HunterKing - 25 May 2009 Here is another idea for the logo: This could have other objects in the "gumbo pot" (paint bush, soldering iron, etc.). The full name could be arched and centered across the top with LABS on the bottom removed.-- JasperFields - 02 Jun 2009 Here is another idea for the logo: I finally got a chance to try out one of my logo ideas. It's an ambigram made with the miso font. It's a little too hard to read. Maybe not the best idea for a logo. But it is kind of fun. I have another idea I want to try... -- SimonDorfman - 18 Jun 2009 I like the friends of lafitte corridor logo at the bottom right of this image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/editor/3511140724/sizes/o/ -- SimonDorfman - 05 Jun 2009 other hacker space logos:

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Old brainstorming for a name stuff

At the meeting last night, we decided we do want to change the name. Our plan is to continue brainstorming ideas on this page during this week, then pick a name together at the meeting next week. Here are some of the ideas mentioned last night. Please add more. -- SimonDorfman - 15 Apr 2009

• Gumbo Lab
  • I registered GumboLab.org and GumboLabs.org in case the group wants them. If not, I'll use them. -- MikeHeckman
    • awesome. i think whatever name we go with, we should also get the .com and redirect it to the .org -- SimonDorfman
  • Electric Gumbo Lab (although 'Electric Gumbo' was used as a title for a collection of short stories)
  • the wikipedia article on Gumbo could probably help inspire some ideas for a tagline... "holy trinity" of celery, bell peppers and onion
    • Replacing the old holy trinity of celery, bell peppers & onion--with the new: Technology, Art & Invention
• Re:make NOLA
• Re:solder NOLA
• Re:wire NOLA
• JambaLab (a portmanteau of jambalaya and lab(oratory))
• LagniappeLab
• NOLAb
• Krewe de GNU (or Krewe de Gneaux?)
• Fleur de Tech
• NolaSpark
• Big Easy Labs
• Dixie Developers
• The Labyrinth
• Lab-efaction (means to decay or ruin)
• e-Lab-oration
• Co-Lab-O-Rate (the purpose of such a place)
• Hul-Lab-A-Loo! (cuz it's kooky)
• Lab-Arraques (booze)
• Labniappe

Old discussion about whether or not we want to change the name:

discuss name: hacker hive? what’s in a name? who do we want to attract? maybe have artist collective in the name. hacker-artist collective. -- SimonDorfman

• The alliteration makes it catchy and memorable. I sometimes wonder whether hacker sends out the wrong idea. It definitely has a negative connotation in common vocabulary, and often I think people find out otherwise by some research into malicious hacking, which might exclude people coming from more of artistic background. Still, other than that I think it’s a great name and I wouldn’t be surprised if we can’t brainstorm anything better. Not to mention by keeping it we could help that perception problem -- HunterKing
  • well said, hunter. i have similar thoughts. i wonder if we could give ourselves a tag line that would cause even those skeptical of the word hacker, to be drawn in. Maybe this: !HackerHive.org - An Artist Collective with a Technology Bent. ??? Or when we're talking to government folks who might give us money have the tag line be: collaboration lab for the inventors of tomorrow - SimonDorfman
  • ...thoughts about hobnobbing with the bigwigs. I think you might want to consider the "hacker" nomenclature. I know that rescuing the word from some of its bad connotations is part of the purpose...and it definitely has cache in certain circles. But I would think that people like Mitch Landrieu who might be supportive of the concepts involved might be turned off by the label. You might want to think about Fab Labs...which doesn't exactly explain itself either, but.... -- DavidRobinson (via email to SimonDorfman)
  • Hacker is not a show stopper for me, but did give me pause about getting involved. Understand the reclaiming the word, but after 30 years of explaining, I have other battles I would prefer to wage. -- MarkAnderson
  • I am in agreeance about the word hacker. If we are relying on selling ourselves to other people, particularly business owners who give tons of money to Microsoft to protect their businesses from what they believe to be known as "hackers", we should use the word sparingly. We do need a name which implies themes of technology and local innovation. I like the incorporation of the word "Hive" but I can't think of an alternative for Hacker. -- BenjaminEckel

• I would like to see a name with a NOLA flavor. I think the hive of hacker hive fits that, so not discounting the name. Just, if there is a name change, I would like there to be some allusion to the city (LagniappeLab , NOLAb, Krewe du GNU, etc.). -- MarkAnderson
• I can see everyone else's concern over the "hacker" word. I'm in general agreement - if we became an organization that sought political cooperation, even though we know the distinction, we'd probably be battling some ignorant prejudice. I'm 50-50 on it. I don't mind it, but I do see other peoples' point and recognize this is one battle we could completely sidestep if we changed the name. Some suggestions off the top of my head: Fleur De Tech, Big Easy Labs, Dixie Developers, etc. -- MikePerry (via email to the list) - 15 Apr 2009