Ged Carroll

Category: jargon watch | 術語定義 | 용어의 정의 | 用語の定義

Jargon watch as an idea was something that came from my time reading Wired magazine. I found that in my work terms would quickly spring up and just as quickly disappear. So it made sense to capture them in the moment.

The best way of illustrating jargon watch is by example. I came across the term black technology through mainland Chinese friends. One of the key things that Chinese consumers think about technology products is the idea of ‘black technology’. This makes no sense to your average western reader. It equates to cool and innovative.

The term itself comes from a superior technology featured in a Japanese manga series plot. As an aside the relationship between Chinese and popular Japanese culture is becoming increasingly attenuated due to Chinese nationalism.

What might be black technology this year might be humdrum in six months as the companies quickly catch up. Black technology is a constant moving target, but generally its sophisticated and likely has a cyberpunk feeling to it.

I keep an eye out for jargon like this all the time, hence jargon watch. I find this content in my professional reading and in the sources that I follow online. What makes something worthwhile to appear here is purely subjective based about how I feel about it and how much I think it resonates with my ideas or grabs my attention. A lot of British youth culture doesn’t make it because it doesn’t have that much of an impact any more beyond the UK.

  • Workampers

    The Wall Street Journal had an article that introduced me to the idea of workampers. The article was on the seasonal workers that Amazon.com uses in the US to help it with the surge in demand in the run up to Christmas.

    Who were these elves to Amazon’s Santa Claus?

    The article describes them as workampers. Older retired people who live a transient lifestyle by choice in an RV (recreational vehicle) for at least part of the year.
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    Their motivations were diverse in nature. Some of the workers are similar to their ancestors during the Great Depression, who moved across the country following work were it was available.

    For others the reasons are diverse, from money to help with expenses to camaraderie with similarly nomadic peers or proving to themselves that they could still hack a task. A mix of forced earlier retirement and improvements in health mean that many seniors still have decades of potential work still in them that they want to take advantage of.

    A mix of ageism and globalisation have meant that there is a growing body of workampers. Future workampers might be in a worse financial state due to less generous pensions and health insurance, higher personal debt and automation. The move to a lower carbon economy will also impact the ability of a workampers to live out of an RV and transverse large distances at a reasonable cost.

    Workamper futures

    With an aging population and the decimation of working class communities due to the opioid epidemic we are likely to see more demographics like workampers as companies adapt to tap into an older work pool. With Amazon in particular, one has to wonder if more of their warehouse and logistics work can be automated and how it will be affected by a low carbon future.

    More explanations of of jargon terms can be found here.

    More information

    Seasonal Amazon ‘Workampers’ Flock to Remote Towns for Temporary Gigs – WSJ.com (paywall)

  • Systeme D

    According to Foreign Policy, the D in Systeme D comes from the French word débrouillard which is used to describe people who are ingenious or resourceful. In the Francophone companies being resourceful means operating outside of proscribed government regulation and bootstrap entrepreneurship hence, systeme D. Back in France, this might have been applied to people smuggling in a new fangled personal computer into the workplace.

    Foreign Policy writer Robert Neuwirth argues that this grey economy exists across the developing world and has been driving economic activity from Chinese factories to African bazaars. Back when I was first visiting Hong Kong, there was a stream of west African business people travelling to Hong Kong. They would go to Chungkung Mansion. Buy a suitcase full of electronics (predominantly cellphones)  and then get a flight home. 

    There was then larger scale players based in Shenzhen and Guangzhou buying product. They then either supplied the merchants of Chungkung Mansions or shipped product home by the container load. Who knows what would happen with the customs in their destination country. Systeme D often relies on the kind of manufacturers relying on shanzhai style innovation. 

    Whilst this black economy would be seen as detrimental in developed countries due to it undermining a system that broadly works (look at the Greek government’s problems with non-payment of taxes). In developing countries where governments are less likely to be looking out for their citizens interests – so the black economy can be considered to be having partly a positive impact.

    The latest trend is that a lot of mainland Chinese people who have worked on infrastructure projects in Africa staying behind and becoming merchants, cutting African entrepreneurs out of the Systeme D model. There are well over a million of these Chinese entrepreneurs now doing business across sub Saharan Africa.

    More information

    The Shadow Superpower – By Robert Neuwirth | Foreign Policy

  • Dealer chic

    If the working class and the lower middle class are worried about financial security with trends like extreme couponing; the upper-middle classes are also interested in the thrill of a good deal with the changing economic environment a distant secondary motivator. With this in mind Trendwatching talked about dealer chic; reading their profile its almost as if they are thinking about their lifestyle in business terms. Looking for:

    • Increased efficiency – getting more for less – the buzz of a bargain
    • Value add – provided primarily through an improved experience

    Dealer chic is supposed to be caused by a move towards perfect markets – the use of reviews and comparative pricing facilitated by the web parallels the kind of techniques that procurement professionals would use. It also echoes the promise of disintermediation that web 1.0 was supposed to bring use with the first generation of shopping comparison sites in the late 1990s

    A more worrying by-product of the dealer chic trend is that brands are increasingly commoditised and access to mobile devices have accelerated the consumer buying process by providing them with the necessary research and the opportunity for instant gratification – potentially having a micro-chunking time effect on the timings and tweaking of pricing strategies.

    It means that luxury goods are seen as an asset class. This will mean an acceleration in price appreciation, but in order for luxury brands to benefit they will need to get involved in running pre-owned platforms. They can add value in validating each and every item, for a commission. 

    The space won’t be uncontested. You have established players from eBay and Yahoo! Auctions to Japanese retail brands like Brand-Off are already in this space. The Japanese have built up a formidable opportunity

    More information

    Trendwatching | dealer chic – find out more about dealer chic and sign up for Trendwatching’s free email newsletters

  • Extreme couponing

    Extreme couponing – is a phrase that I came across in the Knowledge@Wharton newsletter to describe the way hard-pressed value conscious consumers in North America are using offline vouchers and online resources including comparison shopping and coupon websites to make their grocery spend to go further. Having worked on FMCG programs rolled out in North America, the continued power of local newspaper and electronic coupons are famous.

    Coupons and extreme couponing were historically associated with thrifty older consumers who carried on family traditions developed during and post the great depression.

    Some US supermarket retailers built up a reputation for being ‘coupon friendly’ stores. But that might present its own problems. The average basket value might be much lower. Also the productivity of cashiers might be lower as they have to process all the coupons submitted. If the coupons aren’t valid for that supermarket that might result in a customer stand-off that needs to be resolved with the help of store management.

    The more astute of you may remember seeing coupon clipping and usage in historic episodes of Roseanne (what then become The Conners).

    Which begs the question what’s new that’s driving extreme couponing now? The answer seems to be a combination of food price inflation, low-to-no wage growth and an uncertain economy with high unemployment has led consumers to change their shopping. Pharmacy chains like Walgreens have benefited from business previously done as a one-stop shop in the supermarket since they will accept coupons for personal hygiene and cleaning products. The big issue is for the major brand companies like General Mills, Unilever and Procter & Gamble who are seeing brand loyalty eroded.

    Alongside an increase in coupon adoptions you are seeing bulk buying to hedge against inflation, rather than consumers trying to save the money itself in bank account. More retailing related content can be found here.

    More information

    Brand Disloyalty: Recession-weary Consumers Take Discounts to the Extreme

  • Omake + more news

    Omake

    Omake trends: Elle Japon x American Apparel – gives away headband with magazines. Omake pronounced ‘O-ma-ke’ means incentive. They have become a monthly magazine giveaway, particularly for fashion publications like Elle Japon. There is also a second series of magazines called eMook. An e-Mook is a brand lookbook for a season. People often bought them for the product give-away, A Bathing Ape popularised this idea outside Japan and their e-Mooks are sought after. People buy e-Mooks for the giveaway item rather than the content. Increasingly that seems to be the case with Omake as well.

    China

    FT.com / Comment / Analysis – China: Futuristic yet fruitful – interesting overview of the Shanghai expo

    Consumer behaviour

    Retailers Look to Profit From Last Century’s Styles – NYTimes.com – when you can’t trust the banks, the government, businesses and authority figures what can you trust? The past.

    Culture

    YouTube – chelskifl’s Channel – the seminal Pump up the Volume documentary which has interviews with the heroes I looked up to as a house DJ. Check out part three for the HotMix5 stuff. The WBMX sets of HotMix5 blew me away and fired me up to want to DJ house music

    Design

    Innovative Mayor Sam Adams Builds a Cleaner Portland | Fast Company – interesting use of mobile so that the public an report rubbish etc

    Nokia’s designs on Apple | FT.com – interview with Marko Ahtisaari. On privacy: “The industrial logic of every single social network is that those terms of service will be renegotiated very quickly.” On interface design “All the touchscreen interfaces are very immersive. You have to put your head down. What Nokia is very good at is designing for mobile use: one-handed, in the pocket. Giving people the ability to have their head up again is critical to how we evolve user interfaces.” No comments on why the N900 and N97 are the worst of both worlds – bring back the Communicator form factor

    Ethics

    Did Microsoft Hire Consumer Watchdog to Attack Google? | Techrights – really really stupid, surprised Frank X Shaw wouldn’t stomp on this practice if it turns out to be true

    Anti-piracy enforcers claiming to represent Microsoft used to shut down dissident media in former USSR – Boing Boing – quick denials in place otherwise this could have been a Yahoo! moment for Microsoft’s corporate reputation

    FMCG

    FDA Calls Marlboro Out on Creative Marketing of “Light” Cigarettes | Fast Company – I think the FDA is a bit out of whack here, although I can see where they are coming from in terms of trying to flatten the light message, for regular smokers the cigarette will be the same, same length, taste the same.

    Japan

    Big in Japan: Millions ‘Mumble’ on Twitter – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com – more unique users than Mixi

    Tokyo fishermen update seafood e-commerce site from their boats – Boing Boing – not surprising given that the Japanese invented JIT and lean manufacturing processes that they would extend it when the technology came available to their fishing industry

    Wired 9.09: My Own Private Tokyo – William Gibson on Tokyo

    Is it a good idea to kick those Downfall spoofs off YouTube? Perhaps not | Technology | guardian.co.uk – ironically exposes rights owners to legal issues

    Media

    France, the U.K. Take Steps Against Digital Piracy – WSJ.com

    Luxury

    Luxury market starts to evolve in China – hyperinflation for luxury lifestyles

    Online

    Yahoo wants to do what Facebook did, only slower – as the FT said: sounds familiar and unambitious

    Retailing

    FT.com / Companies / Retail – Gome reappoints ousted Bain directors – its like a tele-novella

    Security

    UK MPs call for ID cards and surveillance, but demand privacy for themselves – Boing Boing – looks like the Digital Economy Act has brought a whole pile of tech politics out of the bag