As regular readers know, one of my busiest websites is BigBlueBall.com, a news and support site for instant messaging, social networks and other online collaboration tools. I registered BigBlueBall back in 1998 because I thought it was about as perfect a name as you could think up. It’s easy to say, to remember and spell. It’s adaptable to a wide range of topics. And it symbolizes our increasingly global community, collaboration and a “one world” view.
Four years ago (man, this blog has been around for a while!) I posted an in-depth explanation of how I came up with the BigBlueBall name and an anecdote about how one of my favorite musicians, Peter Gabriel, had (at the time) registered the .net and .org versions. I was curious to find out what his Real World record company would be doing with those domains, and now it’s clear. After more than 15 years in production, they’ve released (today!) Big Blue Ball
It’s fascinating to learn that Peter Gabriel had the same idea — Big Blue Ball symbolizing the global community and collaboration — with a similar inspiration; the astronaut’s view of Earth from space.
You can listen to some samples or get DRM-free MP3s below:
Enjoy!
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June 24th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I’ve been listening to Peter Gabriel’s music for ages. Some of the “world music” stuff is not my cup o’ tea, but I like most of Big Blue Ball.
It would be cool if you could adopt that title track as the theme song for BigBlueBall.com!
June 24th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Four years now? Wow!
I am a Genesis fan, but I didn’t know about this new work of Peter Gabriel. Sounds good!
June 25th, 2008 at 7:55 am
[...] Other Big Blue Ball Attention BigBlueBall fans — you MUST read this: jeffhester.net ? Blog Archive ? Peter Gabriel and the “other” Big Blue Ball What is the [...]
June 25th, 2008 at 8:12 am
As of June 25th, 11:12 AM EST, It’s sales rank is #18 in MP3 Albums!
Looks like I’ma get this album!
Thanks for sharing Jeff.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:41 am
[...] just blogged about that yesterday! jeffhester.net ? Blog Archive ? Peter Gabriel and the “other” Big Blue Ball I’ve been a big Peter Gabriel fan for years. Of course I bought the album. They even have a song [...]
June 25th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Great minds think alike :0)
June 25th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Xerraire: Yep, at least four years. Without checking, I think the archives might even go back further!
MrOats: Yeah, I got it right away. It’s got a very eclectic mix of music, but you can definitely hear Peter Gabriel’s “touch” on the entire album.
Sarah: I thought so, too. It’s funny, actually. Lynn and I were joking around about it last night, and she suggested that may Peter Gabriel was a big Jeff Hester fan… reading my blog, checking my Flickr photos, etc. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at that thought!
June 27th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Hey Jeff, I am sure he did nick your idea! Everyone is a Hester fan hehe it’s just a damn shame you never had a copyright … ;0)