Naming things (why this blog is named CodeJam)
March 29, 2015
I got codejam.info years ago, with the idea to build a tech blog to share tips, thoughts and resources about code.
Choosing this name was tough. I wanted a name that evoked programming, and possibly free software, while still being short and sounding original.
Among all names I thought of, CodeJam was my favorite. “Code” is able to evoke programming in just 4 letters, without being some kind of geeky jargon. “Jam” was my musical touch.
Jam
A jam session consists of people improvising music together. No preparation, more like “let’s just play together and see where it leads”. And that regardless of anyone’s level, and without necessarily knowing each other, in a very spontaneous way. Only a basic set of rules (chords, tempo, time signature), and creating something unique and beautiful.
You have a lot of freedom in what you play, but you still need to be consistent with the group. It’s a very rich creative process, and it resonates with vision of building software; let’s just code together and see where it leads! Which is why CodeJam sounded like a perfect fit for my blog.
Error: CodeJam is already defined
Turns out there’s already something called Google Code Jam. Yeah, Google, just that. If like me you didn’t knew about it, it’s a competition created by Google for recruitment purposes.
How could I not find this before buying the domain (and in fact, during the whole next year)? I don’t know.
I discovered this while mentioning my blog on IRC, when someone replied “Oh, I thought you were speaking about Google Code Jam”. And I was like “Wat?.. Holy shit!”.
At first, I thought about changing my domain. It meant changing my
email, moving all the services I host at home: IRC, XMPP, mail server,
web server including my blog and personal page, and would have resulted
in a few dead links, unless I keep renewing codejam.info just to do
301s. And the hardest part: finding a new name.
So what?
The thing is, I like this name. Except the fact that Google already use it for its recruitment event, I believe it’s a really good choice for the reasons I evoked in the first part of this post.
After asking a few friends’ opinions, and a night thinking about this dilemma[1], I decided to keep CodeJam. After all, Google Code Jam is not a trademark and I don’t care about my blog not being in the top results when searching “CodeJam”. Where’s the problem then?
Long live CodeJam!
Jamming further than code
Over the years, this blog drifted from being purely about programming, and I’ve been sharing other things I care about too, like photography, music, sports, brewing and so on, so it’s now more about the “jam” than the “code”.
I also realized that the powerful concept of the musical jam session not only resonated with my approach to programming, but also with my approach to life (just that), where I like to create environments where a diverse group of people can spontaneously get together and feel like expressing themselves freely, allowing unique and beautiful things to happen.