To get some answers on the following questions I first send an e-mail to the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it mailinglist. This delivered some answers and arised new questions, which I'm tried to answer, too.

1. How did the process start?
   The process was started by Michael Phipps (OpenBeOS Founder), to avoid trademark infringement with Palm. “Palm had bought the BeOS intellectual property including trademarks” ([2]). The search for a new name began than with a contest for names.
2. How many names were proposed?
   During the name search contest nearly 7000 names were proposed. After weeding out unacceptable names by Michael Phipps and Stuart McCoy (Creative Design Team Lead) there were still nearly 100 names left.
   Those “cleaned” proposals were then “batted [...] around in an Admin meeting on IRC” ([1]) to drill the count further down to 15 ([6]) names.
3. Which names were proposed?
   

   Auros Begin Dysis Firebox Firefly

   Forge Haiku Indigo Infinity Jaffa

   Mantis Menlo Nemo Nova Terra

   [6]

   Meaning of those names were discussed after their proposal, too ([14]).
4. Who is Walter?
   There was some discussion about using this name for the new project title. This name arose during the IRC name battling (see: How many names were proposed?), when Bruno G. Albuquerque (OpenBeOS Admin Team member) wrote: “We should just call it Walter” ([2]).
   At the end “Walter” became part of the title of the “North American (Open) BeOS conference” ([11]) “WalterCon” ([8]).
5. Where did Walter come from?
   Explained by Bruno G. Albuquerque: “[...] It all started when I was watching Cartoon Network [...] and there was this Garfield cartoon going on. In this specific episode Garfield was attending a show called "What is the name of the fish?". [...] a panel was presented to Garfield with several fish names, like "tuna", "sardine", "mullet" and so on. Garfield picked "tuna". Then the guy hosting the show got the card with the correct name of the fish. When he showed the card, the name was... Walter.
   From that moment on, all the time I had to pick a name for anything, it would be Walter. [...] It ended up becoming the biggest BeOS-related practical joke ever. :) [...]” ([3, 9]).
6. How was the vote held?
   After sorting out the last 15 names (see: How many names were proposed?) the search process became much more public. A web page was made, where the community could vote for their favorite name. “The admin team voted separately” ([2]). Every voter then had to rank his five favorites.
7. Why distinguish between community and admin team votes?
   There was an agreement, that the “[...] admin team (which was really the core developers) deserved more say than the community” ([13]).
8. How long did the vote take?
   The vote started on Wednesday, 23 October 2002 ([10]) and was finished on 2003/06/09 at least ([12]).
   TODO (did it really take nearly 8 month to complete the vote? I guess there was some delay between end of the vote and the announcment that a name was chosen so the finish date above is incorrect in principle.)
9. How was the allocation of votes to the different name-proposals?
   TODO (Michael Phipps looks into it. Thx)
10. When was the new name chosen?
    On 2002/10/29 the name was internally chosen "during the admin meeting when [...] the final decision on things" ([16]) were made. By the way, the domain haiku-os.org was registered on that same day ([16]).
    
11. What happened in-between chosing and publishing the name?
    After the new name was chosen, a lot of work had to be done. A “web site design themed around the new name, the founding of an non-profit organization [Haiku Inc., the author] [...], the design of a new logo, etc” ([12, 15]).
12. When was the new name published?
    The new name was published on 2004/04/19 ([17]) during the first incarnation of the WalterCon ([5]) (see: Who is Walter?).
    The first WalterCon lasted from 2004/06/19 to 2004/06/20 ([7]).
13. What happend to the content of openbeos.net?
    Don't know where the original content is stored nowadays. But there exist several copies of this site at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
    Each copy was stored on different dates. The freshest copy I could access was made on 2003/12/13. However not every content was stored.
    TODO (was openbeos.net or it's compagnion sites www.openbeos.org, open-beos.sourgeforge.net officially backed-up anywhere?)

References

[1] Haiku (operating system). Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org. Online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_(operating_system). Access date: 2009/04/16.

[2] Re: From OpenBeOS to Haiku. Michael Phipps. Mailinglist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Posted on: 2009/04/15. Online at http://www.freelists.org/post/haiku/From-OpenBeOS-to-Haiku,7. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[3] The Binky Show. Garfield and Friends. Season 1, Show 9. First showed: 1988/11/12. [4]

[4] List of Garfield and Friends episodes. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org. Online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Garfield_and_Friends_episodes. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[5] Re: From OpenBeOS to Haiku. DarkWyrm. Mailinglist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Posted on: 2009/04/15. Online at http://www.freelists.org/post/haiku/From-OpenBeOS-to-Haiku,1. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[6] OpenBeOS name Voting Begins. Posted by Ryan. www.begroovy.com. Posted on: 2002/10/25. Online at http://www.begroovy.com/wordpress/?p=343. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[7] WalterCon 2004 Announced. Posted by Jon. www.begroovy.com. Posted on: 2004/03/22. Online at http://www.begroovy.com/wordpress/?p=450. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[8] References Re: From OpenBeOS to Haiku. Bruno G. Albuquerque. Mailinglist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Posted on: 2009/04/15. Online at http://www.freelists.org/post/haiku/From-OpenBeOS-to-Haiku,2. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[9] Where did Walter come from?. Bruno G. Albuquerque. open-beos.sourceforge.net. Posted on: 2002/11/11. Online at http://web.archive.org/web/20030316065519/open-beos.sourceforge.net/news.php?mode=display&id=250. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[10] Project Namevote!. Kurtis Kopf. open-beos.sourceforge.net. Posted on: 2002/10/23. Online at http://web.archive.org/web/20040918224420/open-beos.sourceforge.net/news.php?mode=display&id=240. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[11] Announcement: WalterCon. Tyler Dauwalder. open-beos.sourceforge.net. Posted on: 2003/10/25. Online at http://web.archive.org/web/20040112023258/open-beos.sourceforge.net/news.php?mode=display&id=328. Access date: 2009/04/16.

[12] Name, website and other statuses. Michael Phipps. open-beos.sourceforge.net. Posted on: 2003/06/09. Online at http://web.archive.org/web/20030804114006/open-beos.sourceforge.net/print/print_news_html.php?id=306. Access date: 2009/04/17.

[13] Re: From OpenBeOS to Haiku. Michael Phipps. Mailinglist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Posted on: 2009/04/16. Online at http://www.freelists.org/post/haiku/From-OpenBeOS-to-Haiku,20. Access date: 2009/04/17.

[14] OBOS new name. Mahmoud Al Gammal et. al. Mailinglist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Posted on: 2002/10/25 - 2002/11/04. Online at http://www.freelists.org/post/haiku/OBOS-new-name. Access date: 2009/04/17.

[15] Re: orca. Michael Phipps. Mailinglist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Posted on: 2003/02/11. Online at http://www.freelists.org/post/haiku/orca,9. Access date: 2009/04/17.

[16] Re: From OpenBeOS to Haiku. Tyler Akidau. Mailinglist This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Posted on: 2009/04/20. Online at http://www.freelists.org/post/haiku/From-OpenBeOS-to-Haiku,24. Access date: 2009/04/21.

[17] BeOS. Operating System Documentation Project. www.operating-system.org. Online at http://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-beos.htm. Access date: 2009/04/21.