DO WE SOUND LIKE WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT
If you ever end up talking to people that surf the net or design websites they
invariable use a language which is completely foreign to most people. If I opened a
conversation by saying something like "I just used the CSS in my IMS GUI WYSIWYG drag
and drop DHTML editor to create a JavaScript interactive drop-menu that links to the URL
on my ISP host that I got from my latest download". Would you understand what it was
that I just said and would you really care?
I would like to suggest that people that use the Internet regularly must
remember to continue to communicate with "normal" people. I believe one reason
that I’m fairly successful when approaching potential clients who require a website
to be built is that I don’t use too much techno - jargon. This may be because
I’ve only been building websites for a couple of years.
However, as New Zealanders, we are become more and more a "wired
country" and it may be a good idea to at least come to grips with the basics of the
language currently being used by those that surf. Only last week when I was chatting to my
ISP’s Webmaster I found myself standing there looking pretty dumb with something he
said to me that I didn’t understand. I realised that we need to be able to
communicate on all levels to be in a position to carry out active and effective roles in a
society that has both users and those that are going to become web initiates.
We have to remember the computer industry is full of techno-jargon. Its quite
easy to throw out a statement full of techno-speak and confuse all and sundry – but
is that the point?. Any of us that have been in the computer industry for some time can
coin new terms as fast as the next techie. What’s really needed is some effect
marketing to bring these new terms into our everyday language, that way when an Internet
user opens their mouth they may at least understood by a few more members of society and
may not be ostracised.
What I have prepared below is a brief list of common abbreviations (plus what
they mean), that are used within the Internet & computer industry, which you can print
out and give to those people that don’t know "what you’re talking
about". However as a warning – Remember – by the time you’ve read this
some more would have been invented and we will all have to learn those as well.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language. The code that is used to define a web page. Don't ask us
whose idea this term was.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets. The expanded term is probably worse than the abbreviation. It
refers to the ability to assign styles to elements on a web page (HTML document). Examples
include position, size, colour etc.
DHTML
Dynamic HTML. Incorporates the ability to change the CSS values in an HTML document
after it has been loaded. The results are Animated and Interactive web pages.
WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get. A computer program that displays a reasonably good
example of the finished result as it is being constructed.
GUI
Graphical User Interface. A program that uses a visual interface instead of a command
line interface. DOS uses commands whereas Windows uses a GUI.
Drag and Drop
A GUI that allows you to use your mouse to drag elements from one location to another.
IMS
Interactive Multimedia System. I told you we are quite capable of creating our own
anachronisms.
Anachronisms
Big words made up by VIP's (Very Important People) and LITOM's (Legends In Their Own
Mind).
ISP
Internet Service Provider. A company that provides Internet services such as web page
hosting.
Dialup Service Provider.
An ISP that provides telephone connection services so that you can connect to the
Internet with your modem.
Access Service Provider.
An ISP that provides any kind of access to the Internet such as Cablemodem.
Modem
MOdulator, DEModulator. A device connected to your computer that goes Brrrr... Beee.
Baaa. whenever you try to use it. If you have not figured out the purpose of this one yet
you are probably not reading this.
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