I'm trying to track down whether I can claim credit for the meme that maven “downloads the Internet”. After an admittedly short search, I couldn't find any reference on the public web prior to my December 2007 blog post. If you have a link to anything earlier—web page, mailing-list post, commit message—let me know in the comments. Otherwise I'm claiming it as my contribution to society.
(Sorry, published references only. I am also aware that "download the Internet" has a pedigree that predates maven.)
I think Labnotes was curing its Maven blues before that:
http://blog.labnotes.org/2007/04/18/introducing-buildr-or-how-we-cured-our-maven-blues/
*whispers*did you check EAC?*whispers*
Is it related to this? http://blogs.exist.com/bporter/2008/09/01/the-secret-behind-google-chrome/
@Antoine: I know I'm not the first to criticise Maven by any means. I'm just interested in the one phrase.
@James: Yes, I checked EAC. Four hits, all post-dating my public blogging. The phrase was in frequent use at Atlassian before that, but I'm reasonably sure I introduced it.
@Miller: That was the catalyst to me posting, yes, but I've been wondering for a week or two. I'm not trying to assert ownership or anything, I'm just curious because I've never had anything I've said enter the lexicon before. :)
Charles, sorry to rain on your meme-coining parade, but a quick google found the phrase used in an IRC chat in Sept 2007:
* pberry watches maven download the internet
http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/UPC/uPortal+IRC+Logs-2007-09-20