Weakend Special: Techie jargon and early-adopter buzzwords turn off normal folk. The headlines from this year’s CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, Germany, tell the tale:
Tech Fair Hawkers Woo the Geek-Wary (A/P, The Porterville Recorder, CA, 03-20-04)
“Firms Dropping Jargon in selling gadgets” (A/P, The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY, 03-20-03, at C2)
Tech fair hawks wares to nongeeks (A/P, Louisville Courier Journal, 03-20-04)
Gadget fair offerings go beyond geekdom (A/P, Allentown [PA] Morning Call, 03-20-04)
Savvy companies who want a broader appeal have figured it out. As the A/P article reports:
” Sharp design and simplicity are in. Acronyms are out, along with data transfer speeds, kilobytes and megabytes as marketing tools.”
” At this year’s CeBIT technology fair, computer and telecoms companies are trying to muffle the jargon — aiming their pitches at people indifferent or even hostile to geektalk who still love the gadgets.”
“‘The consumer is not buying these acronyms, the consumer is buying solutions’,” Rudi Lamprecht, head of Siemens’ mobile phone division, said as he introduced his company’s new phones.
Hey, I just developed this web application called CONNECTS! it was an idea I came up with a couple years ago about community based browsing of the web. Anyway, why am I bothering you with this? well, part of the deal is that this focuses on blogging. I’m looking for some opinions from bloggers and webmasters.
If you have the time please look at this site and tell me what I can do to improve it in your eyes. Think of this as an AOL sort of experience, you may want to bring someone as it’s best with two or more people. (remember to use the LOAD button)
Much thanks,
Brent
CONNECTS!
http://brentswan.com/chat
Comment by somus — March 20, 2004 @ 2:06 pm
Hey, I just developed this web application called CONNECTS! it was an idea I came up with a couple years ago about community based browsing of the web. Anyway, why am I bothering you with this? well, part of the deal is that this focuses on blogging. I’m looking for some opinions from bloggers and webmasters.
If you have the time please look at this site and tell me what I can do to improve it in your eyes. Think of this as an AOL sort of experience, you may want to bring someone as it’s best with two or more people. (remember to use the LOAD button)
Much thanks,
Brent
CONNECTS!
http://brentswan.com/chat
Comment by somus — March 20, 2004 @ 2:06 pm
Sorry, somus. You lost my interest as soon as you said “blogging” and “bloggers” instead of weblogging and webloggers. You got to tune your sales pitch to your audience (and read the entire posting, too). Snarky Saturday for me here in Schenectdy.
Comment by David Giacalone — March 20, 2004 @ 2:32 pm
Sorry, somus. You lost my interest as soon as you said “blogging” and “bloggers” instead of weblogging and webloggers. You got to tune your sales pitch to your audience (and read the entire posting, too). Snarky Saturday for me here in Schenectdy.
Comment by David Giacalone — March 20, 2004 @ 2:32 pm
David, don’t look now, but you just got comment-spammed.
Comment by Dave — March 20, 2004 @ 2:39 pm
David, don’t look now, but you just got comment-spammed.
Comment by Dave — March 20, 2004 @ 2:39 pm
Jargon is teh sUxx0r!
Mamet was right when he wrote, “Jargon is a conspiracy against the laity.” Nowhere is this more true than in the law.
Comment by Scipio — March 22, 2004 @ 10:48 am
Jargon is teh sUxx0r!
Mamet was right when he wrote, “Jargon is a conspiracy against the laity.” Nowhere is this more true than in the law.
Comment by Scipio — March 22, 2004 @ 10:48 am
Jargon is teh sUxx0r!
Mamet was right when he wrote, “Jargon is a conspiracy against the laity.” Nowhere is this more true than in the law.
Comment by Scipio — March 22, 2004 @ 10:48 am
Jargon is teh sUxx0r!
Mamet was right when he wrote, “Jargon is a conspiracy against the laity.” Nowhere is this more true than in the law.
Comment by Scipio — March 22, 2004 @ 10:48 am
Sorry for the double post.
Comment by Scipio — March 22, 2004 @ 10:48 am
Sorry for the double post.
Comment by Scipio — March 22, 2004 @ 10:48 am
I’m not in-crowdy enough to understand your first sentence. Please translate into Plain English.
Having spent decades trying to get jargon out of lawyer speak, it is really annoying to find it among the Emergent Ones. One reason I have always liked the PBS News Hour is that the moderator always stops Acronymizers and Jargoneers and makes them explain what the heck they are talking about.
Comment by David Giacalone — March 22, 2004 @ 10:59 am
I’m not in-crowdy enough to understand your first sentence. Please translate into Plain English.
Having spent decades trying to get jargon out of lawyer speak, it is really annoying to find it among the Emergent Ones. One reason I have always liked the PBS News Hour is that the moderator always stops Acronymizers and Jargoneers and makes them explain what the heck they are talking about.
Comment by David Giacalone — March 22, 2004 @ 10:59 am
My first sentence was leet-speak for “Jargon sucks.”
Leet-speak (short for “elite-speak”) is the revolting technophilic habit of replacing letters with various symbols (including numbers).
Comment by Scipio — March 23, 2004 @ 9:39 am
My first sentence was leet-speak for “Jargon sucks.”
Leet-speak (short for “elite-speak”) is the revolting technophilic habit of replacing letters with various symbols (including numbers).
Comment by Scipio — March 23, 2004 @ 9:39 am
If this is how the [self-annointed] elite speak, call me plebian, please. Thanks for the translation.
Comment by David Giacalone — March 23, 2004 @ 10:04 am
If this is how the [self-annointed] elite speak, call me plebian, please. Thanks for the translation.
Comment by David Giacalone — March 23, 2004 @ 10:04 am