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Documentation and policy development for IGSN e.V.
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Changing the IGSN name #1

Open ramdeensarah opened 3 years ago

ramdeensarah commented 3 years ago

Issue IGSN stands for International Geo Sample Number, but IGSN are no longer restricted to geo samples and can be used for any physical object from the universe. This broader and emerging usage has prompted us to reconsider our name.

Considerations We would like to retain the IGSN abbreviation, IGSN is our brand, and develop a name that is discipline agnostic.

Recommended solutions The following recommendations for a new name have been made by the community:

Actions needed The purpose of this issue is to provide a space for discussion. Please add your opinions as comments. This includes additional recommendations, or support for existing suggestions.

JEDamerow commented 3 years ago

I like IGSN Global Sample Number. We work with multidisciplinary projects in ecosystem sciences that have a variety of biological and environmental sample types. Many people working with biological samples seem to have the initial impression that International Geo Sample Number is not relevant for them, and I think the change will help.

jescartin commented 3 years ago

IGSN -- IGSN Global Sample Number seems the most adequate. However it is strange to include an acronym within the name, and that both acronyms are the same. International Global Sample Number?

VeraBBender commented 3 years ago

I agree with @jescartin. Also I think International and Global in such close connection sounds somewhat awkward. Inter Galactic Sample Number, makes me think of a Beastie Boys song, but not what we intend - I guess...

Some spontaneous suggestions: IGSN -- International Groundbreaking Sample Number...? ;-) IGSN -- International Genuine Sample Number...? IGSN -- Interdisciplinary Global Sample Number...?

Currently I'm lacking further better ideas, thus, if I would need to choose from the above three original suggestions, I would go for just IGSN - no phrase.

DorisMaicher commented 3 years ago

Good idea @VeraBBender to exchange "international" for "interdisciplinary", since I agree that the duplication of "international" and "global" sounds rather odd.

Another suggestion: IGSN -- International Generic Sample Number with the meaning of "generic" referring to something general, non-specific, i.e. any kind of sample type.

VeraBBender commented 3 years ago

@DorisMaicher

IGSN -- International Generic Sample Number with the meaning of "generic" referring to something general, non-specific, i.e. any kind of sample type. Very good idea!

ramdeensarah commented 3 years ago

Additional comments received by email:

JEDamerow commented 3 years ago

Still think "Global Sample Number" has the best ring to it. Seems ok to have IGSN stand for "Global Sample Number", which is easy to remember. It also helps imply the "globally unique" aspect when describing to new users. Other options seem fine too, but will likely be more difficult for people to remember.

Have you heard of TDWG? Taxonomic Data Working Group, that changed name to Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) - they couldn't let go of the original acronym but completely changed the name of the group.

uschindler commented 3 years ago

G = General is also a possibility.

thorge commented 3 years ago

I like the idea of @DorisMaicher regarding "G = Generic". Even if this sounds far-fetched now, but with regard to e.g. samples from Moon or Mars, global would be less appropriate. ;)

ramdeensarah commented 3 years ago

Suggestions raised at the IGSN e.V. September General Assembly:

Next steps - we will bring this issue to vote again at the December General Assembly meeting.

In order to narrow down the options. Please reply to this issue with the following:

  1. The name you wish to discuss
  2. An explanation of why it is a good choice (pros)
  3. Why it might not be a good choice (cons). Please use numbers to help track if you include more than one response.

We will gather all the comments into one document for review and distribution leading up the the GA.

Thank you!

uliharms commented 2 years ago

The name IGSN is meanwhile protected by European law, see attached certificate, so "IGSN" must remain and for a simple acronym we need four words with these initials. Sample Number is unavoidable so the only remaining freedom is I - international or interdisciplinary with the first one being shorter and easier to pronounce, and G - global or generic or general (since we need to leave Geo behind) where the first one has only two syllables while the other options are longer. Since IGSN will be the usual wording the full name is not really important and I therefore argue for the shortest: International Global Sample Number! TM6562EU00-Urkunde 176741.pdf

LPowers-nggdpp commented 2 years ago

I vote for International Generic Sample Number. While International isn't ideal due to the planetary samples, Inter-galactic will be hard to take seriously. Generic is appropriate based on the Thesaurus entries: general, common, collective, nonspecific, inclusive, all-inclusive, all-encompassing, broad, comprehensive, blanket, umbrella, sweeping, universal, cross-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary. My second choice is IGSN as a stand alone.

jklump commented 2 years ago

My first choice is to simply call it IGSN.

My second choice is International Generic Sample Number. Pro: Relatively easy to pronounce. Con: "Generic" sounds a bit contrived like a reinterpretation of "Geo" - which it is. "International" does not cover the extraterrestrial materials, but "Intergalactic" sounds too much like a bad science-fiction movie.

"Interdisciplinary" would make more sense but is also more difficult to pronounce. Also, "International" sounds more catchy. Having "Global" follow "International" would be redundant.

Overall, I agree with Uli Harms that we should simply refer to it as IGSN, regardless of what we call the organisation.

jescartin commented 2 years ago

Hello,

My second choice is IGSN

My firs choice would be Interdisciplinary Generic Sample Number. ‘International’ is not a really matching word for samples that my know nothing about borders (including extraterrestrial ones) and avoids territorial issues.

Interdisciplinary is an extremely common word that is widely used.

While ‘IGSN’ alone is fine, I feel it is preferable to have a meaningful set of words behind the acronym.

Best and happy holidays,

Javier Escartin

On 23 Dec 2021, at 01:15, Jens Klump @.***> wrote:

My first choice is to simply call it IGSN.

My second choice is International Generic Sample Number. Pro: Relatively easy to pronounce. Con: "Generic" sounds a bit contrived like a reinterpretation of "Geo" - which it is. "International" does not cover the extraterrestrial materials, but "Intergalactic" sounds too much like a bad science-fiction movie.

"Interdisciplinary" would make more sense but is also more difficult to pronounce. Also, "International" sounds more catchy. Having "Global" follow "International" would be redundant.

Overall, I agree with Uli Harms that we should simply refer to it as IGSN, regardless of what we call the organisation.

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Geofab76 commented 2 years ago

My first choice is International Generic Sample Number. The Pros here are that with International we reach the international community and Generic covers all kinds of sample types. I don't agree with previous comments that "International" does not include extra-terrestrial samples: Those samples are usually collected from a space organisations which are usually assigned to one or multiple countries, hence an international community of space exploration collects those samples. The word international does not necessary need to point to the point of local, geospatial origin of the sample, in my opinion. For example a Moon or Mars sample could be collected by NASA so it would still be an US organisation. Another sample could be from a meteorite collected by JAXA the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. All those samples will still be international samples. Second, extra-terrestrial samples, such as meteorites or tektites can be found all across the globe, so they still contain an international context of where they are found and registered.

My second choice is also IGSN alone, but I also agree that I would prefer to have some meaningful words behind it. People often ask me what IGSN stands for and currently it is quite hard for me to answer those questions. I don't think just IGSN would help...

Dr. Fabian Kohlmann Managing Director Lithodat Pty. Ltd.

HelenGlaves commented 2 years ago

I see the argument about IGSN being a legally registered identity that we need to retain. Also IGSN is widely recognized and people will continue to use the acronym. The example of ESRI also springs to mind - they went the other way in that the acronym had a meaning but that has been dropped in favor of using only the acronym.

For those reasons, my first choice would be IGSN. However, if I have to choose another name, my vote would go to Interdisciplinary Generic Sample Number. This maximizes its potential use across different disciplines, and also potentially includes samples from beyond the Earth.

Helen Glaves

MoritzTheile commented 2 years ago

Coming late to the party (since I jump in for Fabian in the meeting today). I just stumbled over the term "Generic". Looking it up in a dictionary it says "shared by, typical of, or relating to a whole group of similar things, rather than to any particular thing". So "generic" is describing exactly the opposit what an IGSN is supposed to be: A unique identifier. The core property of an identifier is, that it is not shared at all. Just my two cents...

jklump commented 2 years ago

"Generic" in this context was understood to mean "generic across disciplines".