Use the Terminology

(Notes from Training Tech Solutions Conference & Expo 2007)

Much of today’s technology is used in bottom-up information exchange, where large groups of people collaborate to produce organized content (think blog, wiki). Types of content organization can be divided into the following categories and examples.

• Discovery – www.boingboing.net is one of the world’s most popular blog authored by a five people on random, strange, and unusual topics.
• Prioritizing – www.digg.com is a blog where people collectively determine the value of the content on the web to be shared.
• Collaborating – www.wikipedia.org
• Flocking – www.flashmob.com and www.meetup.com are sites where people can schedule and create meetings with people that share similar interests.
• Mapping – www.outside.in maps local points of interest, stories, and stories from people for their community.

Terminology

Here are some terms used throughout the conference that may be new to some of us.

• Mobile Web – Refers to the World Wide Web as accessed from mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs, and other portable gadgets connected to a public network. Access does not require a desktop computer. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Web
• Mashups – A web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashups
• Web 2.0 – Refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
• Web 3D – What SecondLife likes to consider their technology to be (it’s not quite an ‘official’ term yet since I can’t find it in wikipedia…).
• MMOG – Massively multiplayer online games such as SecondLife (related to MMORPG massively multiplayer role-playing games)

Other Terms you may want to know

• RSS and RSS Reader
• Ajax
• Moblog and MoVlog
• Folksonomy (tag clouds)