Hi JSecurity Community,
After a months of pondering, discussion and debate, the development
community has voted successfully to change the project name from 'JSecurity'
to 'Ki' (pronounced "key").
This change comes for many reasons:
* To ensure that, as a project of the Apache Software Foundation, the
project name can be as free and clear as possible from any potential naming
conflicts that might be cause for legal conflict. After much research, we
dicovered that the name 'jsecurity' might potentially be a risk, and we
wanted to avoid that.
* By having a name without the 'J' prefix, we are free to more intuitively
provide support in the project for languages other than Java. Of course you
can do that with a name prefixed with 'J', but it is certainly less
intuitive. This might be a very real benefit, as we could potentially see
remoting stubs for Flex/ActionScript, C# and/or others that want to talk to
a Ki Java-based backend server.
* Although a 4-year old project, we are new to the Apache Software
Foundation and the Incubator. A name change can represent a fresh start for
the project, and for anyone that might wish to join and contribute (note
this was not a factor in the decision, just a side benefit moving forward).
* Ki, because of its pronunciation ("key"), can be a source for good
branding and design - security 'ki's, Lock and 'Ki', etc, etc. The
possibilities are wide open. If you're a designer, we'd love some ideas!
* Lets face it, a super short domain and package name (ki.apache.org /
org.apache.ki) is pretty darn cool.
Once the ki user and developer mailing lists are set up, we'll make another
announcement so you all can change over at that time. Jira has already been
transferred here: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KI. We will have a
proper Apache Incubator Ki website set up sometime soon. The existing
jsecurity.org website will be online for a while, but will change to make it
clearly known about the project move. After some time, we'll shut it down
completely, probably simply redirecting to the new ki website.
So, finally, you might ask, "Why the name Ki?".
Answer:
'Ki' is a pronunciation for the Japanese Character 柵 (i.e. 城), which can
mean 'fortress' or 'castle'. It also carries the underlying connotation of
being surrounded by a protective barrier - like a wall or moat. This is a
nice fit for a security framework which is the protective barrier
surrounding and used within your application. So, we're lucky enough to
have a 'web 2.0y' name, but one that actually still has meaning in our
problem domain.
Feel free to ask questions and leave comments, and we hope you'll migrate us
as we all move forward into this new stage in the project's life.
Best Regards,
Les
