[Sigia-l] Buzzwords (was microcontent - a definition?)

[Stew Dean]

At 17:32 16/02/2004, Tanya Rabourn wrote:
>>celebrity blogger and VC. VCs are about as up-to-the-minute on buzzwords as
>>anyone on the web terrain. They chase buzzwords, they help create them and
>>then cash in on them. You do the (rest of the) math. Personally, I don't
>
>This discussion reminded me of an essay I read a few months ago. In his 
>essay for "the biology of business,"[1] Brook Manville gives an 
>interesting take on knowledge management and buzzwords. If I understand 
>him correctly, he claims that he found the traditional means of 
>maintaining an enterprise taxonomy inadequate for knowledge discovery for 
>their intranet since their field relied on inventing buzzwords to market. 
>Using traditional methods seemed to give weight to terms that had been 
>reified. However, it was the loosely defined, poorly understood buzzwords 
>that were their commerce.
>
>On the whole I was pretty disappointed with the description of his 
>solution, but it's an interesting problem to think about.
>
>1. pgs. 89-111 "Complex Adaptive Knowledge Mangagement, A Case from 
>McKinsey & Company"
>
>-Tanya

Sounds interesting. It is very easy to be skeptical about the use of 
loosely defined newly created terms and to classify these as buzzwords to 
be avoided, as I have done.  This cannot deny that these new fresh terms do 
get things done as they are good marketing terms, for the right or wrong 
reasons.

Maybe it's a case of the need for empathy - to not judge our clients but to 
embrace their culture of  enigmatic nomenclature.  Even if I feel that 
there is a strong need to decode language to ease communication and to 
allow ideas to be passed between groups can I really try to subvert an 
existing culture or should I follow 'a prime directive'
and deliberately not interfere

I have worked in the most buzzword of environments, such as consulting for 
the marketing departments of  large technology based companies where Three 
Letter Acronyms are plentifully,  HP and Intel being two very good 
examples.  I have had to adapt to their culture before, but does that mean 
we create an series of terms that are friendly to those who are used to 
opaque terms appearing at a regular frequency?  I'm sure I might have said 
the following with a straight face...   "This is the IA for HP's IPG  TPM 
for SMB in EMEA."   sort of reminds me of when I used to frequent Starbucks 
and hear folks asking for a   "Tall skinny wet double nofun grande with room".



Stew (Dr Strangeterm) Dean

*or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Learn To Love The Jargon"