"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
William Shakespeare from Romeo & Juliet
Our name has changed. Maybe you’ve noticed. Why SW/Eden?
On a midnight drive through the mountains and deserts of Oregon and California I chatted with Eric and Vahid via Skype. They could see my knuckles white against the blue glow of my speedometer. I couldn’t see them at all, because of the steering wheel, my knuckles and the fact that I was driving. The topic; all things creative and community in regards to the BP candidacy of eosSweden. One question that took up almost 90 minutes of our 5 hour conversation was, “What’s in a name?”
What we learned is - sometimes nothing - sometimes everything.
They hadn’t even run the first public Testnet when Eric Björk stepped into the EOSio world. He immediately took on the name eosSweden and secured the URLs eossweden.io, eosio.se and a couple others for good measure. The name made sense -- he’s in Sweden and wanted to build a Swedish EOS community. What’s more, at that time the only other candidate out there, had also used their location in their name. Eric is the first to admit, even though it wasn’t creative, it still worked during that initial period.
Something tugged at the back of his brain though. The name eosSweden seemed off.
Then he met Vahid Toosi. Vahid is a passionate and generous entrepreneur from Stockholm with a contagious zeal for EOS. Vahid had been involved with EOSio for sometime and had started using the name eosSweden for his projects without knowing that Eric was using it for his BP run. Shortly after meeting, they realized they needed to come together to officially establish eosSweden as an entity, co-founding and unifying their projects and direction. However, they also recognized a name change was in order.
That tug at the back of Eric’s head was also tugging on Vahid as well. eosSweden was too centralized. Eric had brought me on to help with all things community related and visual. I live on the other side of the world. We needed a name that reflected our cultural variance. A name that echoed where we wanted to go as an organization. A name that demonstrated our divergence from the expected path.
That night in my car, the miles flew by, each one a virtual tick on the digital odometer. As I raced towards dawn and the perpetual sunshine of southern California, the importance of including our holistic identity into our name came to the forefront of our discussion. It was abundantly clear that eosSweden as a name, didn’t quite reflect who we are or the passion we have for the EOS ecosystem and the potential impact it has on the world.
Although Eric and Vahid were 5200 miles away (around the world), it felt like they were there in the car, on the drive with me. We laughed, discussing our personal and professional lives and the serendipity that had brought us together. We are all very different - different backgrounds, families, work environment and adventures and yet, we all wanted the same thing. We wanted to be a part of building a technological paradise. A technological Eden. We each had come to the conclusion that EOSio could lay the foundation for that to happen and that we could all play a part in its genesis.
Paradise -- Eden… That would be nice. We think it’s possible. EOSio is not only turning regular tech upside down but it’s turning blockchain tech upside down as well. Maybe it’s turning everything upside down. Which would have some interesting geographical ramifications. If everything is upside down, then Sweden might just be SW of Eden instead of just the Arctic circle.
Geographically speaking for me, somewhere just north of Mount Shasta, California the name was born. SW/Eden. We aren’t really talking about the Eden that most people think of when they hear the name. We are talking about the Eden that EOSio has the potential to create. For us our passion inhabits the name. Creating a Technological Paradise… the Eden Operating System.
On that drive, Eric, Vahid and I discovered that as a BP candidate for EOS, we wanted to be two things. First, an arborist - Planting the trees (building the Blocks) of that Eden. Second, a cartographer, helping create the map so that other people can find their way in and through this Paradise. Eric had already been doing that with his involvement in multiple Testnets, including the first one and also through the work he was doing (along with others) to create the Voting Portal for the ecosystem.
What’s in a name?
SW/Eden: A location that is not a location found geographically. A technogeographic place where trees are planted (blocks are produced) and routes are mapped through the technotopia by some of the many who are passionate about EOS and the paradise it can become.
We are SW/Eden.
- Post Script:
On occasion you might hear us use the term edenx internally. That’s another technogeographic term we use about projects or ideas that have something special about them or are somehow set apart. Because --- well ---- X marks the spot - EOS is the spot - the treasure that has the potential to change everything. It is also the X factor that special quality, ability and talent that sets YOU apart… And at edenX, we want to be the x-factor for the EOS community.
READ Part 2 here... https://steemit.com/eos/@seanxa/what-s-in-a-name-part-2-the-leaf-in-sw-eden