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Open Source Media Changes Name 116

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-liked-their-old-name-better dept.
SPYvSPY writes "In a move that emphasizes the differences between the blog media and big media, the so-called 'Open Source Media' group changed their name back to 'Pajamas Media' in response to public criticism, including (presumably) yesterday's posting on Slashdot. Regardless of any political bent in their coverage, Pajamas Media acknowledged the public's criticisms and did something about it with remarkable speed, frankness and good humor."
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Open Source Media Changes Name More

Open Source Media Changes Name

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  • An Announcement (Score:5, Funny)

    by BushCheney08 ( 917605 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:14AM (#14091172)
    My previously mentioned [slashdot.org] Free Software, Inc. will now be called Open Source Media, Inc.

  • So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bogtha ( 906264 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:16AM (#14091199)

    They change their name and get lots of publicity. They change it back, they got lots more publicity, and praise on Slashdot. Is that about right? Seems the name change did exactly what it was meant to.

    • They change their name and get lots of publicity. They change it back, they got lots more publicity, and praise on Slashdot. Is that about right? Seems the name change did exactly what it was meant to.

      wait til they get sued by pyjamas media next week....

    • Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sammy baby ( 14909 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:33AM (#14091448) Journal
      I think you're giving them too much credit.

      This is pretty obviously (to me) an example of blog triumphalism gone awry. You have a buch of bloggers ranging from the conservative to the frothing-at-the-mouth reactionary. One of them says, "Hey: if we all start IMing each other, we can make serious cash!"

      Their business model really isn't much better fleshed out than that.

      For an amusing take on their launch party, read this blog entry [jimlowney.com] about a professional photojournalist who was invited.

      • Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:4, Funny)

        by GQuon ( 643387 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @12:00PM (#14091810) Journal
        You have a buch of bloggers ranging from the conservative to the frothing-at-the-mouth reactionary.

        Oh, so they are bi-partisan? ;-)
        • They include anti-war liberal Marc Cooper, pro-war liberal Roger L. Simon, and Michael Ledeen, a pro-war conservative. I'd hardly call them a conservative organization. I'm a regular reader of Roger L. Simon, and anyone with any familiarity with his work knows that he's an honest, bi-partisan type. He's got VERY strong opinions, but he's fairminded. He's not the type to pull a stunt, and I don't think he's HEARD of slashdot, let alone is courting its readership.

          Bloggers on both sides see themselves as a rea
      • I can't tell if you're attacking their business acumen, their politics, or both, but it either way you're missing the point. There was a story yesterday about the name "Open Source Media", and a lot of commenters had a gripe with the use of 'Open Source' in that context. I submitted this story as a follow-up because it is interesting to me that they acted so quickly in response to public criticism. You can deem it opportunism or incompetence if you like, but my opinion is that they (unlike, say, CBS) are
        • Nobody had a gripe with Open Source used in that context. People had a gripe that the company name Open Source Media was already taken by http://www.radioopensource.org/ [radioopensource.org], who still in fact operate opensourcemedia.net (redirects to their site), while the opensourcemedia.com name claimed by Pajama Media is, in fact, just the 'how to get started with Zope' welcome page, not even a redirect to their real page. They just didn't look for conflicting trademarks.
        • To answer your question, I'm making fun of... well, both, I guess.

          In terms of their politics, I'm making fun of their insistance that the whole group is supposed to represent a broad cross-section of political views, when their left-most blogger is Glenn Reynolds, a guy who weighed in on the issue of torture of Iraqi prisoners by US forces by claiming that Dems should just keep quiet about it, or they'll just make the whole thing worse [instapundit.com].

          In terms of their business model, I'm just wondering when they're going

          • In terms of their politics, I'm making fun of their insistance that the whole group is supposed to represent a broad cross-section of political views, when their left-most blogger is Glenn Reynolds

            While it's true that Pajamas Media/OSM/name of the day has more than its fair share of right-leaning blogs (though I think the more apt description would be hawkish, as a fair number of those blogs are "Democrats that feel like they were mugged on 9/11"), I wouldn't call Glenn their left-most member. David Corn [osm.org]

      • For another amusing take on their launch party, see James Wolcott [jameswolcott.com]. Worth the read.
    • The term for this is "buzz marketing" and whether or not it was on purpose, I agree that it probably didn't do anything but help them in the long term, although there are lots of internet kiddies who hold a grudge. It's hard to start a grass-roots marketing campaign and even harder to do it by accident. At least they didn't do something cheap like make some small town change its name to pajamamedia.com like Santa and Halfway, OR.
      • Open Source, South Carolina. State chosen to make the city name hard to pronounce. Everybody lives in caravans because nobody can keep people off their land.

        Pajamas, Pennsylvania (alliteration is fun)

        Indymedia, Indiana. It's placed smack dab in the middle of Indiana.

        Sourceforge, Georgia

        Windows, Wisconsin. Just make city ordinance requiring everybody to paint their houses blue. Elevators have this [unito.it] installed.

        Pajamas, Nevada. (A bedroom community outside Las Vegas.)

        Pajamas, New Mexico. New media. New Mexico.

    • No (Score:3, Interesting)

      by GQuon ( 643387 )
      Why not believe their story about this?
      1. Branding firm gives pricey advice
      2. Advice is taken
      3. Calamity!

      It signifies an unprofessional attitude rather than a clever PR stunt. If they had a slashdotter in their core team, I think they would have thought of running a search in the USPTO database before settling on a name. Any PR from an extra slashdot post is miniscule compared to the unprofessional appearance this resulted in.

      I don't think Pajamas Media will stay as a name for long either....

      Dislaimer: Slashdot is a

    • > They change their name and get lots of publicity. They change it back, they got lots more
      > publicity, and praise on Slashdot. Is that about right? Seems the name change did exactly what
      > it was meant to.

      Nice shill! (Please paypal my share to Shill02@hotmail.com)
  • Perhaps they should add this to their Errors and Corrections [osm.org] area ;-)

  • Why Pajamas? (Score:5, Informative)

    by xfletch ( 623022 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:18AM (#14091242) Homepage
    Jonathan Klein [cnn.com] of CNN was debating with Stephen Hayes about the CBS forgery scandal. Klein said that "Bloggers have no checks and balances . . . it is just a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."
    • So, are pajamas a requirement of being a blogger now? If so, are there some outfits that are considered more suitable than others? And how will we refer to people who do their blogging in the nude?

    • Re:Why Pajamas? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Chr0nik ( 928538 )
      DINGDINGDING, we have a winnar!!!!

      They are probably poking fun at that statement with the name. Not that that's a bad thing. If I had the choice between going to work for some corporate monstrosity, and sitting in my living room in my pajamas. My remsume would be on the BIG pile.
    • Yeah, like CNN or Fox have checks and balances. The only thing they check is whether Karl Rove agrees with their voice of opinion and the occational glance at the poll numbers to be sure they can get away with it.

      Aside from the pajamas I see no difference between bloggers and "professional" journalists. Very few are investigative journalists and very few of those have the opportunity to investigate anything more interesting than cats getting caught in trees.

      Do you want investigative journalism or business
    • on FR they are called the pajamahadeen

  • Hoary Hedgehog dethroned (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:19AM (#14091250) Journal
    And so, a new champion rised in the world of horribly silly open-source names.

    Is the point really to make the application / technology users blush when they have to give away the name?
    • Well on the one hand...they have a horribly silly name.

      On the other hand...they scooped the MainStream Media in getting it!

      For the MSM to miss out on such an obvious strategy, they must be asleep at the wheel, just like during "Rathergate."

      Ergo, the MSM is dying.

    • Just wait, Lubricious Llama will reclaim the throne..
    • > And so, a new champion rised in the world of horribly silly open-source names.

      If you actually followed things you would know what is going on..... Pajamas Media was the working name of the outfit. I.E. when they decided to try cashing in on this whole journalism in your pajamas thing. "Journalism in your pajamas" was how the MSM always referred to bloggers, long rich tradition there of taking a term of derision hurled by your foe and turning it back on them by adopting it as your own term. Well anyw
      • attempt at slander in the blurb only reveals the 'political bent' of this site

        Especially considering they're talking about Roger Simon, fercrissakes. Attempt at slander is right. Simon is a long-time card carrying liberal. It's just that he's now a "September 11 liberal" as he would say, and it is instructive to see the response.
        • > Tt's just that he's now a "September 11 liberal" as he would say, and it is
          > instructive to see the response.

          There are a fair number of those. Christopher Hitchens being another "Proud to be called a Leftist" Progressive drummed out of the order for disagreeing with the orthodox view of 9-11. All of the sane voices on the Left broke ranks over 9-11 which is why all they have left are crazed moonbats. Sane folk took UBL at his word that civilization was now in a steel cage grudge match to the deat
      • If you actually followed things you would know what is going on

        don't try and weasel by claiming it to be SpyVSSpy's words

        Are you having a bad day today?

        Thanks for the informative parts of your post though, it helped someone who didn't actually follow this too closely.

  • Fool me twice... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jfabermit ( 688258 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:20AM (#14091266)
    First they lie about owning opensourcemedia.net, which is owned by Christopher Lydon's radio outlet. Then they lie about owning opensourcemedia.com, which is owned by Zope. They create some BS explanation for how the acronym is "easier to type", and we are supposed to grant them any credibility. They my be famous bloggers, but their notions about running a new website show them to be hacks when it comes to IT issues.

    • Owned by Zope? No (Score:3, Informative)

      by MemeRot ( 80975 )
      That's the 'how to get started with Zope page'. They've apparently set up a web server, installed Zope, and then didn't bother to configure the actual site. It's the equivalent of the IIS 'No web page is yet configured for this address' page.
  • On TFA ther is a banner that contains a quote from someone at their organisation, calling it Open Source Media... Methinks a publicity stunt has been pulled here: Change name to something controversial, get Slashdot etc riled up about it, get a lot of page hits etc, change name back.

  • Pajamas Media? (Score:3, Funny)

    by daniil ( 775990 ) <evilbj8rn@hotmail.com> on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:20AM (#14091276) Journal
    Whose bedroom are they reporting from?

  • Pajamas Media? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well, that puts that one to bed...
  • Good to see that.
  • It may not have anything to do with the slashdot posting at all, they may have already gotten more than enough critical commentary about the old-new name that they decided it would avoid further problems to just go back, and then the slashdot posting just really pissed them off.

    Don't forget, when you presume, you make a pres out of u and me.

  • Someone needs to open shop with the Dumbest Name Ever and others will stop trying.

    I mean, Pajamas Media? The name alone makes me want to lob ebola bombs into orphanages and run busses full of nuns off the road. No, wait... that how I always feel. Never mind about that.

    Anyway, someone please start "Grotty Foo-Foo Linux" or "Neener Neener Neeeeeeeeeeener Media" or some such intellect grating piffle of a name.

    Any other suggestions?
    • Yeah, okay, but there is a reason for the name "Pajamas Media."

      An old media person claimed that bloggers have no checks and balances on their work, saying that it's "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."

      So, they decided to take that and spin it to their own advantage. I'm with you on there being too many stupid names in online media, but at least this one sort of makes sense. You can explain Gentoo Linux to me all day though if you want.
    • There's a store near me called Barefoot Shoes.

      Every time I go by, I just wonder WTF?

      One of the cooler ones I've seen though is Ho Lee Chow (chinese takeout).
    • I've always been partial to the lesbian bike delivery service in San Francisco named Lickety Split.

      No really, I'm not making a bad joke, it was a real business.

  • A lot of publicity (Score:3, Insightful)

    by honeypotslash ( 927312 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:27AM (#14091371) Homepage
    They are getting a lot of attention on this. I, personally, had never heard of Pajamas Media before this. I'm sure they are soaking up the aftermath of this debate with a lot of free advertising.
    --
    Get your Free MacMini's here [freepay.com]
  • I didn't follow all the details of this story but I would be very interested to get away from my current vendor lock-in. So where can I get one of these open-source pajamas?
  • Back to your pajamas [google.com]naughty boys!
  • Pajamas has no business in the bedrooms of Slashdotters!

  • The Myttbusters should try and bust this myth... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by daniil ( 775990 ) <evilbj8rn@hotmail.com> on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:42AM (#14091573) Journal
    Unfortunately, it seems that this is one of the myths they'll never be able to bust. The myth about the so-called New Media not being media, about blogs being the voice of the experts. I mean, fuck, look at us, the commentators on one of the bigger blogs -- we're nothing but a bunch of egomaniacs who think that they "get it", but really don't when it comes to application development, IT, networking, etc... Unfortunately, we're far too common.

    • we're nothing but a bunch of egomaniacs who think that they "get it", but really don't when it comes to application development, IT, networking, etc... Unfortunately, we're far too common.

      Speaking as a card-carrying egomaniac, I'd like to think that I come up with a few cogent and well reasoned ideas now and then. And the fact is this is a forum for people's knowledge as well as their opinions. I find that more often than not, people here open up avenues of discussion about topics that the mainstream media won't touch because they don't fit conveniently into a sound bite or might piss off the advertisers.

      Maybe not everyone here has two neurons to rub together, but I think the vast majority of us can back up our egos with knowledge and common sense.

    • The myth about the so-called New Media not being media, about blogs being the voice of the experts.
      When I read this, it looks like to contradictory points.

      You're saying that
      - New Media is media
      and that
      - blogs are NOT the voice of the experts

      The "new media" is media too. That's in the definition. A discussion about how new media turn main-stream with higher readership would be interesting.

      When it comes to experts, every moron and his little sister has a blog these days. But some experts do too. You'll find e
      • I should've made it more clear that what I said in my post was mostly in response to what these 'pajama journalists' wrote on their web page [osm.org]: In the 1960's, the medium may have been the message, but in the new century, it's time for the medium to get out of the way. I can't see how this is possible -- how it's possible for blogs to give us "the experts themselves". For a blogger is still a "mediated expert": he still has only a subset of the facts, and he doesn't write everything he knows in his blog. In th
    • Pish posh! The biggest problem *I* have with Slashdot is that everyone considers themselves an "expert" when they aren't. I am! I've said many things of great import over the years and like to think that I've had a fairly wide ranging influence over the readers. In fact, I even argue that some of the industry's so-called "experts" like John Dvorak have read my JEs and posts with relish and have used them as source material for their columns. Where else would Dvorak have come up with the idea that games
    • I consider /. more of a forum than a blog.
    • chuck klosterman on blogs (via ESPN's Page 2 columnist Sports Guy):

      A term you hear people use a lot these days is "New Media," which really just means, "Electronic Media, Minus the Actual Reporting." This is what the Internet is, mostly. I constantly see all these media blogs that just link to conventional "Old Media" articles and pretend to comment upon them, but they add no information and no ideas. They just write, "Oh, look at this terribly archaic New York Times story. Isn't it pathetic?" But that sent
  • ...OSM PR claims all fuss over nothing, as the correct declared new corporate name was meant to be 'Open Sores Media.' Something about being on the bleeding edge...

    Sorry for the confusion - back to your nap.

  • For our non-American Speaking Readers (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dr_LHA ( 30754 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @11:57AM (#14091755) Homepage
    In English "Pajamas" is "Pyjamas". Its not a mispelling, its just the crazy American way of spelling the work.

  • Lawsuits may yet come... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Parity ( 12797 ) on Tuesday November 22, 2005 @12:08PM (#14091891)
    According to TFA, the OSM name came from a 'branding company'. Now, personally, if I'd hired 'experts' to come and design my 'corporate image' and ended up with this fiasco, I'd be looking to get my money back. I suspect a lot of people would be looking for not just a refund but 'compensation' for the 'damage' done to them (not that in the end they're really damaged, I think... lots of free publicity... but you know how these things work.) I'd sure like to know who the 'branding' company' was so that I can be sure to never, ever hire them or see them hired by any employer of mine...

    • Yup (Score:1)

      by GQuon ( 643387 )
      You'd think that a branding company would at least go to uspto.gov and do a search for possible conflicts.
  • I was thinking "Longtail Media" with homer in the Safety Salamander costume as the logo.
  • Slashdot should change their name!


    How about I-hate-Microsoft-dot or Apple-Dot?

  • They managed to go through a whole sequence of fund-raising and hire a branding company which came back with a totally inappropriate and appropriated name ... which tells me that they aren't smart enough to be in charge of all the money that they've been given.

    Has anyone mentioned this to their investors?
  • Note that media and intelligence (aka spooks) are the only areas where "open source" had an established meaning before the FSF started using the term: "open source" referred to the use of published, generally available sources in intelligence gathering. Other kinds of sources were "covert sources", "anonymous sources", and "confidential sources".
  • Maybe they had to back down after someone pointed out that their privacy policy [osm.org] includes terms like "You may not reproduce, distribute, copy, publish, enter into any database, display, modify, create derivative works, transmit, or in any way exploit any part of this site". Hardly "open source" - just another orwellian lie to cover up their corporate agenda with "freedom" dressing.

    I'm glad their PR firm managed to spin their surrender with "humor", but that doesn't mean their effort isn't a joke. When do we
    • George Orwell writings aren't "open source" either. Would you consider him to have had a "corporate agenda" as well?
      • He was satirizing when he wrote lines like "Ignorance is Strength" and "Freedom is Slavery", not to mention "War is Peace". "Open Source Media" was lying about being open source - as their policy I quoted specifies quite clearly. When will you fascists get past your nonsensical, self-serving binary reductions and stop lying about freedom and openness, not to mention your corporate agenda.
  • ... so shall they become corrupt, just like the "old media". Basically they'll have a blaze of fame and then they'll become targets for other bloggers who claim they are now corrupt...
  • They should have just appended a "2.0" to the name, which is what all the cool kids are doing these days.
  • Some of us had little birds tell us the name early and pointed out it would not fly. Perhaps that's why they were prepared to pull it so fast. The name change to Open.... appears to be a request by their Venture Capitalist and not really their choice. Many of the Pajamas principals hang out at: http://www.windsofchange.net/ [windsofchange.net] to discuss issues before blogging about them.
  • I will say, when you think of Open Source, you think of a certain ideology and this is in contrast to the ideology that the founders of the news site hold in many aspects. Although, in the narrow view of technology, the ideologies are consistent. Outside of technology, many /.'s will disagree with the points of view expressed on OSM or Pajamas or whatever it will be called.
    • I will say, when you think of Open Source, you think of a certain ideology and this is in contrast to the ideology that the founders of the news site hold in many aspects. Although, in the narrow view of technology, the ideologies are consistent. Outside of technology, many /.'s will disagree with the points of view expressed on OSM or Pajamas or whatever it will be called.


      I guess that we may call you a liberal, then?

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