Logo

From The Socknet

The logo is not the most important part of the Socknet, but it's more important than you think. The Socknet must appeal first to developers and then developers must appeal to users. Branding is necessary to make that happen.

The logo of the Socknet will find its way into a lot of other logos, and probably find a place on every website that uses it, just like OpenID's logo (http://openid.net/images/logo/openid-icon-100x100.png). So it must be:

Recognizable
Scalable (ie, recognizable at 16x16 px)
Generic (doesn't apply too specifically to any one culture)
Not generic (because too many logos are just dull. Cough MSN cough.)

A sock monkey
A sock puppet
A sock monkey holding a sock puppet
Sock, a popular TV character (I believe his image is copyrighted)
arrow, because only you can decide in what direction your data goes
puzzle piece, because the Socknet is assembled from many disparate pieces
www, because the Socknet connects the rest of the web
beer, because the Socknet is free as in speech (irony++)
torch, for liberty
open gates or an open lock: because the Socknet releases you from the walled garden
omega, because the Socknet is the last social network
electrical plug, because the parts plug in together, then magic happens
walkie-talkie
radio tower
Gutenburg press, the beginning of technological social networking
radio tube/vacuum tube, a primitive broadcasting tool, and easier to draw than the Gutenburg press
light bulb
glove, because the parts fit like one
a bird, like a carrier pigeon, and rename to chirper (or something else that isnt already taken)
anchor
bubble wand
metal detector, because why not
bee/bees, because bees have an awesome way to communicate
shark or suckerfish, because they are fun symbiotic creatures (just like the Web and the Socknet).
a sock net eg. http://www.simikoi.com/images/categories/C74.jpg - maybe with binary flying into, out of, or through the net.
^ net could also be shaped like a sock, but that might be sock overload.
bees and suckerfish getting caught in a net because they were playing with puzzles and drinking free beer
"cycle" arrow like http://creativecommons.org/icons/sa/standard.gif (ironically, that one is under a very strict license, http://creativecommons.org/policies, however the concept is simple enough that a similar one will probably be free of copyright claims)
a hexagonal puzzle piece, because I'm digging the bee idea
an egg shaped puzzle piece, because I'm also digging the bird idea
Unfinished idea by Brett :: Sock puppet monkey :: http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php/File:BrettsMonkey.jpg
traffic light set on green
RJ-45 plug http://www.nullmodem.com/images/conn-rj-45m-picture2a.gif
old style phone headset
power symbol http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31YW90PN0CL._AA280_.jpg

These ideas were donated by many people. You should add some. Even bad ones. Especially bad ones.

Credit where credit is due in the article history, http://socknet.net/wiki/index.php?title=Logo&action=history .

Copyright

We plan to release the logo under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license (cc-by-sa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) just like everything else about the Socknet. However, Attribution might not be that important for our purpose.