How do folk fell about “autonomous vehicles” I wonder. I suspect they are pushing a marketing term we can latch onto that fits better than crypto? perhaps!
Personally, I’m warming up to this suggestion. You see the word “autonomous” in news stories more and more these days. Maybe Elon and his compatriots are blazing some trails for SAFE.
When I did my recent writeup, I used the phrase “autonomous data network” which I have seen around the web with reference to SAFE (on SAFE’s sites.)
I like autonomous data network. It fits.
A big part of the security that SAFE offers comes from the fact that humans are no longer in charge of the specific day to day management of data that is inside of SAFE. Instead, the data is SAFE in the hands of machines that will manage that data collectively.
Part of that is utilizing disk space, but I can’t say it’s even about renting disk space. It’s much more like a user buying PUTS is buying disk space, as opposed to renting it. Or even, buying a slice of the web in perpetuity.
I need to research making SAFE apps some more! :).
I’m still a big fan of “SAFE the internet”. Especially given the FCC news about net neutrality. It’s time to SAFE the internet!
I’ve tried several conversational approaches before to present the concept of SAFE and the only one that sparks genuine interest in the majority of those I inform is : “you know they’re remaking the internet right?” Immediately their ears perked up and feel compelled to say “who”. As some people outside of the technology sphere like their meals drizzled in multi syllable oratory glaze (though not too heavy 
) I go on to tell them “a multinational team of engineers headed from Scotland”.
Next question is usually " why are they remaking the internet?", “It keeps getting hacked. Billions of dollars are being stolen from bank accounts and that’s not all”. At that moment I’ve drawn them in far enough to begin telling them a few somewhat superficial details. Like that it’s being designed to actually pay you to share some your storage space from whatever computer you have even your phone. Next question usually is “why?”.
See how I structure my statements?. I try my best to maximize curiosity while considering their technical knowledge. The approach that works most consistently is one that starts broadly then slow narrows with increased listener interest. My answer to the last question is usually “because the more people on the new internet the more secure it is by spreading our data throughout the world. Not just keeping it one place.” If I get a confused stare I give them this analogy, " it’s the same as how people are safer if they’re spread over a wide area instead of one or two buildings like the world trade attack." The traumatic emotional link almost always causes them to furrow their brows in agreement. 
Something along the lines of:
“Join our SAFE, autonomous network.”
“The People Network: SAFE, autonomous”
or
“SAFE, Autonomous: The People Network”
This could all be terrible but I see we’re doing some brainstorming and I thought I would pitch in the best that I could.
Cheers.
I think another important point to illistrate here is that humans are a central point of failure as are servers. You can automate human admins with servers and a bit of code but that still isn’t eliminating the centralization and thus security vunerability. SAFE data is distributed across the entire network (I’m a bit fuzzy as to how the actual software itself gets distributed) via what is essentially a series of digital contracts and self authenticated encrypted data. It’s like comparing storing your treasure in a cave and getting a giant ogre (human) or a giant robot (server) to guard it vs turning your treasure into magic sand to spread all over the world and call back to you whenever you need it. In the former it doesn’t matter if you use an ogre or a robot, they can both be killed but sand is a lot harder to find and collect let alone convert back into your treasure. And it’s this decentralized nature that allows the SAFE network to BE autonomous because a centralized network would be at risk of attack and could not self heal or adapt if attacked as evidenced by state destroyed servers. You destroy conventional servers and it doesn’t matter how awesome the software loaded on them is, it still goes cablooie.
Does any of this actually matter? It’s like worrying about how to market TCP/IP to the masses.
Build it, ship it, market it to developers and let them build cool apps and services on top of it, and then the masses will use it.
Just keep maidsafe lol
Maid:
Make Another Internet Damnnit!
Safe:
Simple And Forever Everywhere
I agree with this approach. At this stage, it is just about winning developer mind share (and maybe a few crypto/tech enthusiasts).
With the right apps, they will be using safe net without even really realising it. They will just download the browser, create an account, then go to app.
Edit: To add, autonomous data network sounds good though!
I think would be great just:
SAFE: The People's Network
And then you could list all the technical qualities: Autonomous, Anonymous, decentralised…
Yes actually it does matter because unless the masses believe they CAN operate society in a decentralized way they won’t start THINKING in a decentralized way which leads to ideas and demand for apps for the developers to make. Consider how much the advent of the printing press or the telephone changed how people organized themselves. You didn’t need to know HOW a printing press worked but the fact you could cheaply go buy a book or publish your own book (relatively) compared to manually copying it word by word, page by page, was revolutionary. You didn’t need to know how a switchboard worked but the fact you know you could call someone up using this magical device changed how people interacted. Same with computers. Same with the internet, or cell phones. When I was a kid even cell phones were rare. Now they’re all over the place. So yes it matters. It matters because it changes how people think about politics, about social interaction, it matters because it changes and expands the boundaries about what people believe is possible and what they can achieve realistically and do with their lives.
Maybe the word ‘network’ is an issue in the expression ‘autonomous network’.
It has much less impact than the word ‘autonomous’, and the association of both words fails to spark my imagination like ‘autonomous cars’ does. Also, people do not use the word ‘network’ in everyday life, nor can they associate something really engaging with it.
‘autonomous internet’ is probably not perfect, but at least the statement can be understood by everybody.
One of the problems I think is a lot of people don’t even really understand how the internet works. Hell a lot don’t even understand how their own computers work. So when you go to try and explain about improvements or innovations they have no point of reference to understand what you’re talking about.
Probably sounds old and trite to members of this forum but maybe falling back to “New Internet” wouldn’t be so bad. It does take everything down to the basics.
There are a few very good suggestions given within this thread, I would like to add a few suggestions or to summarize opinions aired above.
We are talking about marketing. But marketing needs a goal. What is the goal of marketing? I would say that there are several goals.
How do we approach those groups? Well there we need to tell different stories.
I would prefer to make the people want Safe because they can only get something when they install this new “app” as well, just as all their friends. We can lure them into this ecosystem by developing the new “Whatsapp, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitch, Instagram” and for that we need developers and creative minds. So a few hackatons which bring designers, thinkerers and deverlopers together to create a safe app that is just so much fun to use, that it is safe is just another bonus!
Very well said. Marketing needs a specific goal, and those 3 are the only choices for SAFE so we need to choose one and focus on it. Well written, agree completely.
Here in the U.S.A., the term “driverless” is often synonymous with “autonomous”. Furthermore, “autos” is often used shorthand for “automobiles.” Now consider “Autonomous Autos”, “Autonomous Vehicles” and “Driverless Cars”. Some of these are quite a mouthful of words. Of these I think we’re warming up to the term “Driverless Car” since it sounds less technical, less sci-fi, and more comfortable, since it sounds like the AI will be taking care of you and make sure you are safe and sound while asleep at the wheel. In regards to your question about there being a connection to SAFE marketing; perhaps the term “driverless network” would be appropriate?
However, both the SAFE and MAID acronyms are awesome. I wouldn’t mess with them. In particular the SAFE acronym makes average folks feel warm and cozy and helps dispel the criticism that the tech could be abused and run amok with criminality of the dark web. For the technical folks MAID feels like we’ve finally entered the future and gone beyond RAID.
Driverless sounds a bit rudderless to me! Agree about acronyms though.
It very much depends on who the target audience is, but I’d wager that you’ll be reckoning on an audience much wider than the tech savvy hacker news readers.
Taking that into consideration when choosing which moniker to push, you realise that terms such as “crypto, “decentralised”, and “autonomous” all fall down for the same reason: they fail to encapsulate the benefit of the technology to the end user.
This is where descriptors such as ‘Private’, ‘Secure’, ‘Anonymous’ and of course ’Safe’, really work.
Autonomous is obviously a core feature, but requires a significant amount of explanation or assumed knowledge. You can see a symptom of this on the Maidsafe site, it has been afforded “what do we mean by autonomous” button with a link through to a lengthy blog. This is a sign that it won’t quite have enough of a hook to really fly in the same way, say, “digital currency” might in the mainstream.
I would front-load with benefit, rather than feature. Then have some pithy, hard working copy, to back up with core features as an elevator pitch.