Hi everyone, we’re currently working on the non-profit applications. This post is to check in, get feedback, and get some future planning done.

Give feedback on potential names

Before the main application goes out, we need to apply for and reserve a name. After going through the responses of the previous post, we have picked out a few potential names. If there are some names on this list that you particularly prefer or oppose, please share your thoughts below.

  • Federated Comms Canada (FCC)
  • Federated Open Comms Canada (FOCC)
  • Canadian Federated Platforms (CFP)
  • Open Comms Canada (OCC)
  • Canadian Federated Comms (CFC)
  • Canadian Communities Online (CCO)
  • Online Federation Canada (OFC)
  • Canadian Open Federation (COF)
  • Canadian Federated Agora (CFA)
  • Northern Federated Open Forum (NFOF)

.

If you have any other ideas, (such as variants of the names above) you can share those too. The specific requirements are as follows:

Societies must have their name approved and confirm that it doesn’t conflict with a name already being used by a corporation. This makes sure that the public is not confused or misled by a society’s name. Find out how to choose the right name.

This page is a great resource for thinking of names: Request approval for a business name | Gov BC

Join the non-profit team

We are currently looking at what roles need to be filled. Everyone is welcome (and encouraged) to apply if interested, even if you don’t have experience in the areas listed:

  • Administrative: Organization development, project management, legal experience, financial experience, etc.

.

While the non-profit application is being prepared, we will only onboard a few people. Afterwards we will do call-outs for more people, including those with backgrounds in other areas (ex. technical background, community engagement, visuals, grants, etc.) depending on what we will be working on.

To apply, please fill out this form. You can also message [email protected] by filling out the following template:

  1. What skills, experiences, or areas of expertise do you want to highlight?

  2. Is there a specific area that you want to help with?

  3. How much time are you able to commit to the non-profit on a weekly / monthly basis?

  4. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for the non-profit that you would like to share?

  5. Is there anything else about yourself that you think we should know?

Cheers 🍁

  • TroyEnglish
    241·
    9 months ago

    I spent several years as part of the larger non-profit organization KDE e.V. which managed a large open source project with hundreds of members and a budget of about $200k per year (mostly spent on servers, but also an annual in person development meeting). I also professional operated as a sysop in the BBS era, and network admin during the early internet (dialup) days. Hit me up if you want some additional support in any way.

    “There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.” – Phil Karlton

    All of the above sound super generic, and maybe that is the goal, but you sound like startup think-tanks, political parties, or lobbying groups. Also, acronyms seriously suck. Also, you want something that is trademark protectable, even as a non-profit, so you can use trademark law as a means to shut down impersonating websites and services that are acting in bad faith.

    Thus I counterproposal a bunch of nonsense single word but memorable names. I checked domain availability for each (at least one of .ca, .net, or .org), and google, but didn’t run trademark searches.

    Fedican

    Nortifed

    Librefed

    Polecomm

    Federom

    Tredecim (Latin word for 13, which is surprisingly available, but not likely trademark protectable)

    Fedinauts

    Canulan

    When I named my company, I specifically chose a name that secretly felt like it should be a corporation name in some far future sci fi setting.

    • CyborganismEnglish
      15·
      9 months ago

      From other comments in this thread, I think we need to keep in mind the bilingualism of Canada. Based on your suggestions, FedeCan could be a good candidate.

    • IninewCrowEnglish
      7·
      9 months ago

      Great points and a thing to remember is that creating a unique name makes it searchable, relatable and directs traffic straight to your organization. It’s like painting your sign red when everyone is painting theirs green.

      I think the word or a variation of the word Canada should be in there because …

      It’s an indigenous word (I’m biased on that because I’m indigenous) (the Huron-Iroquois word actually means village or community which is what this federated group is trying to create)

      It’s bilingual

      It’s unique to the country in a global perspective

      It’s searchable

      So variations could use Canada or Kanata, which was historically another version of how it was spelled (I’m not Huron-Iroquois, I’m Cree Ojibwe so I don’t speak their language)

      CanFed … FedCan