The GOSH Name can be confusing? What is the G?

General
#1

Hi GOSH-folk!
I’m on the GOSH community council, and helping run GOSH grants, and GOSH gatherings, and hence I talk about GOSH a lot on the internet or in the real world, and a problem i run into is that often even I don’t actually know what to call it when people ask “What is GOSH.”

In particular, the “O” “S” and “H” seem pretty straightforward, but it can be confusing what the G is.

I’ve heard people call it the “Global Open Science Hardware” - network or organization , or the “Gathering for Open Science Hardware.”

The “Gathering” version is more official maybe? since it literally says that on our Logo in the upper left hand corner, BUT then we run into all sorts of problems, for instance when we talk about different “GOSH Gatherings,” or EVEN WORSE when people refer to the “GOSH Global Gathering” which is redundant no matter what the G stands for!

The tricky thing also is that if the G stands for “Gathering” then it sort of makes it seem like the main purpose of this network is just to have a gathering, but I think for a lot of folks it is a lot different than that, which is why i think some folks refer to GOSH in general as “Global Open Science Hardware.”

(maybe the G could be “Generalized” Open Science Hardware?)

Normally, this isn’t seen as much of an issue to people in GOSH, because we can just say “GOSH” and know what we mean. But it’s been difficult for me to talk about this to other folks who know nothing about this. Also we are putting together the website for the upcoming “GOSH global gathering” and I want to make sure I’m talking about it consistently.

Bonus side question: Como se dice GOSH en espanol?

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#2

I remember earlier discussions about this, anout GROLScH, FROSH and waddever global…

and a draft logo to focus more on the global, than the gathering.

GlobalOSH_nonEuroCentric._hardware-1024x426
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But i agree that it’s totally confusing…

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#3

Cool, maybe our Council can help put this matter to rest in a meeting this week. It would be great if we had a name, hahahahah

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#4

It was originally Gathering for Open Science Hardware because the origin of GOSH was an event. The Global Gathering would therefore be Global GOSH or GOSH Global and then you’ve got e.g. GOSH Great Lakes. This didn’t always make clear to outsiders that it was an event hence the double “GOSH Gathering” sometimes being used.

Where Gathering didn’t make sense in a particular context, people have used GOSH as Global OSH but inconsistently. We generally stuck with Gathering to describe the community itself and the forum etc as it is also a “Gathering” of people, albeit online. As more activities happen, this is maybe getting harder.

If the council/community want to generalise the G to avoid using the word Gathering then that’s an option!

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#5

Hi all
I prefer Global to Gathering to refer to the Open Scientific Hardware community
In spanish I will translate it as Comunidad Global de (or por el)Hardware Científico Abierto
We also have some troubles with reGOSH because it does not work so well … we were thinking about residences of the global open scientific hardware community but when we have to translate it we say is the Red Latinoamericana de tecnologias libres para ciencia y educación (also because libres explains better what we mean than open in spanish):upside_down_face:
AfricaOSH is much more clear :grinning:

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#6

I agree that there is confusion. I would “vote” for keeping Gathering. It is the most common name, attempting to change will make things much more confusing.

I would not worry about having a redundant G in “GOSH Global Gathering”. People don’t seem worried about me going to an “ATM machine” typing in my “PIN number” and seeing the stars coming up on the “LCD display”.

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#7

thanks for this!

Yeah I have been pondering whether you would use “Abierto” o “Libre” in general for this kind of stuff. But “hardware” is generally understandable like this?

I also have trouble figuring out if it should be “de” “por” o “para”, still don’t have a good handle on that, jajajaj

So overall would you prefer, “Comunidad Global de Hardware Cientifico Libre”
or
“Comunidad Global de Hardware Cientifico Abierto”

(Working on the bilingual web page for GOSH Gathering Panama 2022 right now)

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#8

Side frivolous note: Bonus points to anyone who figures out how to make the G entirely meaningless like in “GNU: GNU’s not Unix”

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#9

jejej I think this sounds better

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#10

Certainly “GOSH is Open Science Hardware” will work.

Quite meaningful though :P. Will I still get points?

I constantly forget what S and G stand for, and start thinking that the S is for “source”, and the “G” for Global. But I imagine that’s just me :slight_smile:

I like the current name. Hardware is understandable, but still clearly an anglicism. It can be translated to spanish as “equipamiento” (as in equipment) or “herramientas” (as in tools).

I like “libre” over “abierto”. “Comunidad Global de Hardware Cientifico Abierto” sounds ok :slight_smile:

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#11

ohhhh, i love the recursive acronym!!! you got all the points! This is actually my personal favorite now :slight_smile:

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#12

How about starting a poll with all the propositions above! :slight_smile:

What does G stand for? Select your favourite option!
  • GOSH: Global Open Science Hardware
  • GOSH: Gathering for Open Science Hardware
  • GOSH: Genuine Open Science Hardware
  • Global GOSH: Global Gathering for Open Science Hardware
  • GOSH Gathering: Global Open Science Hardware Gathering
  • GOSH: Gathering for Open Source Hardware

0 voters

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Community Council meeting summary 2022-02-23
#13

We had a meeting about this at the last council meeting. Basically we said that at least for English, we didn’t feel we could definitively set the G to be anything other than “Gathering” which it has been more-so historically.

But we also decided to just kind of downplay the full name in any of the branding we create. That is “GOSH” seems to be the most common and recognizable name overall, more so than what that G actually stands for. So when we have the graphic designers create assets for the new gathering, they will focus on logos and signs that say “GOSH” moreso than ones that say “Gathering for Open Science Hardware”

It also seems there is more general agreement all over on the spanish name for the organization of
““Comunidad Global de Hardware Cientifico Abierto””

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#14

Side note: if the organization is referred to as
“”“Comunidad Global de Hardware Cientifico Abierto”""

what should the event be called in spanish?
e.g. "
“Reunión para la Comunidad Global de Hardware Cientifico Abierto””"

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#15

I like better
Encuentro de la comunidad global de hardware cientifico abierto

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#16

How about changing “GOSH Global Gathering” into “GOSH Global Meetup”? After all, meetups are used quite often for gatherings. :slight_smile:

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#17

I think “meetup” would work!