On Managing Terminology

Not to go on a rant here, but lately I've become increasingly tired of the hiflautin language of my trade. Its a profession which is infested with poly-word-rendered[1] monstrosities of terminology: "content management system", "constituent relationship management system", "hierarchical taxonomy"... One sometimes gets the sense that such terminology wasn't chosen on the basis of being the most accurate way of describing the given object, but rather because it happened to be the most impressive sounding to the layman.

Occassionally, I'm asked "so... what exactly is a CRM? [also known as "Constituent(or sometimes, Contact or Customer...) relationship management"] usually reply, "its this thingy... (I will not bore the audience with the rest of this answer...).

Now, the word "thingy"... I love it. I also love the words, "thingamajig", and "gizmo". Really, when once thinks about how hard it is to put web 2.0 into regular, understandable nouns, one realizes the true value of words like "thingy".

I have no answers on this question. I'm not sure I really have any coherent thoughts. Nevertheless, coming up with clearer language to describe the thingys we work with, and the field which we claim to be experts is a question worth pondering.

Notes

1. One must admit, using that word did make me sound awfully important.