The Challenge of Language

Community Topic(s):

I just wrote a blog entry, I said what I mean, did I mean what I said?

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog, Wikis, each one of these, representing a delivery channel of information has created their own language and their own vocabulary. On the Web the audience is self-selecting and therefore willing to learn the necessary lingo to follow. Moving these tools over into the Enterprise without taking this into consideration is not a good idea as the chance for misunderstandings is that much greater. Prepare accordingly, make sure understanding is there before starting.

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User adoption of E20 technology well depend on how much training and guidance they are given. If you just throw employees at twitter or corporate blogs, it probably won't work. Initial and ongoing training can ease the transition.

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You're touching a very old and prominent topic which was once described by the famous
John Locke "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" III. book, chapter IX "Of the Imperfection of Words", §16 :

"I was once in a meeting of very learned and ingenious physicians, where by chance there arose a question, whether any liquor passed through the filaments of the nerves. The debate having been managed a good while, by variety of arguments on both sides, I (who had been used to suspect, that the greatest part of disputes were more about the signification of words than a real difference in the conception of things) desired, that, before they went any further on in this dispute, they would first examine and establish amongst them, what the word liquor signified. They at first were a little surprised at the proposal; and had they been persons less ingenious, they might perhaps have taken it for a very frivolous or extravagant one: since there was no one there that thought not himself to understand very perfectly what the word liquor stood for; which I think, too, none of the most perplexed names of substances. However, they were pleased to comply with my motion; and upon examination found that the signification of that word was not so settled or certain as they had all imagined; but that each of them made it a sign of a different complex idea. This made them perceive that the main of their dispute was about the signification of that term; and that they differed very little in their opinions concerning some fluid and subtle matter, passing through the conduits of the nerves; though it was not so easy to agree whether it was to be called liquor or no, a thing, which, when considered, they thought it not worth the contending about. "

Bottom line: Even if we use the same words, we don't speak the same language... and this will NEVER change. In a technology environment where the industry tends to develop (useless) acronyms, this is a fight against windmills .. but we can still try. That's why I like the AIIM Glossary and why we should try to make it as consistent and integer as possible.

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Establishing the common language is crucial when implementing any project where a diverse group of users is engaged. Many of these terms will be new for them, and the first step to setting expectations is making sure everyone has the same baseline understanding of the subject matter.

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