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.

  • Harris’ Law

    I came across Harris’ Law due to Jason Calacanis. Jason Calacanis has touched on the issue of overconnectivity in a recent editon of his email newsletter. It dealt  with more certainty about the adverse social effects that connectivity brings which I first heard raised by Eric Benhamou of 3Com when he spoke about a decade ago in a keynote at Networld+InterOp in Paris.

    Key to the mail was a concept that Calacanis called Harris’ Law (after his friend Josh Harris):

    At some point, all humanity in an online community is lost, and the goal becomes to inflict as much psychological suffering as possible on another person.

    That sounds excessively harsh in most circumstances, since most social networks mirror life and society. Yes 4Chan and 8Chan can have lots of repulsive content on them. This is less about inflicting pain but more about the kind camaraderie that disgusting jokes brought in the school yard. Yes there are too many incidents involving bullying or hate speech on online communities, but it only makes up part of the content on these communities.

    Political groups aren’t motivated by ‘inflicting damage on the opponents, but by their concerns of things going on around them’. Their tribal ‘wars’ are reinforcing the community and manifesting those concerns rather than being purely about inflicting suffering.

    Even communities like Anonymous that seem to be full of pranking rally around some moral causes such as opposing Scientology or the Iranian government’s oppression of protestors.

    I wanted to end this post on a timely reminder which I have taken from Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void fame’s twitter feed:

    “People matter, Objects don’t”. That’s all you need to know about social media.

    Harris’ Law is also a good reminder to think about mental resilience and good hygiene practices with regards online interactions.

    You can subscribe to Jason’s email list here. More related content can be found here.

  • Child farming & purpose based marketing

    Child farming

    Child farming is not some cynical way of getting indentured slaves, fresh organ donors or creating human batteries to power The Matrix. Instead it was used by Karen Crouse in her article Koreans learn to speak LPGA’s language (International Herald Tribune, November 2, 2008) to describe ‘cultivating successful sons and daughters confers great prestige on the parents.’ Whilst there is balance needed in everything, I think that child farming is healthier than having parents that don’t care, or don’t take an active part in the upbringing of their child.

    The article discusses the way LPGA management, in particular commissioner Carolyn Bivens tried to impose American culture and values: assimilate the South Korean players into a culture starkly different from their own and to emancipate them from what she characterized as overbearing fathers.  It sounds to me like a particularly distasteful form of hubris, cultural fascism and possibly racism. It reminded me of the way indigenous children were taken from the ir parents and put in boarding schools to break them from their culture.

    It would make more sense to work with the parents instead, something that Bivens seems to have an aversion to do. What’s next? US high school-type show-and-tell practice for Europeans unused to public speaking compared to their US counterparts?

    Purpose based marketing

    Purpose based marketing – in the words of former P&G marketer Jim Stengel purpose-based marketing is ‘defining what a company does – beyond making money – and how it can makes its customers’ lives better.’ This isn’t a new concept, P&G’s Pampers higher purpose is helping Mums bring up ‘happy, healthy babies’ rather than keeping them dry and clean. Unilever brand Surf washing powder conversely is about helping Mums having clean happy families.

    That doesn’t necessarily mean that purpose based marketing will neatly align with corporate and social responsibility goals. Although I could see that these two things will get conflated at some point into a primordial soup of everything ‘doing good’.

    It’s about alligning your brand with customers emotions, values and needs. Apple is a really good example of this. Kudos to The Wall Street Journal Europe – P&G Marketer sets up own shop by Suzanne Vranica (Monday November 3 2008).

    More similar content can be found here.

  • Akiba-kei

    Akiba-kei – A Japanese word meaning related to Akihabara. Akihabara or ‘Electric Town’ was the place in Tokyo where you could go to get everything from electronic components to new and vintage devices. The electronic component shops inspired generations of budding engineers that went on to work for the likes of Sony and Panasonic. Think of it as Shenzhen’s SEG electronics market (in the SEG Plaza building located in the Huaqiangbei neighbourhood of Futian district, Shenzhen). 

    akihabara
    Akiba-kei or Akihabara in December 2006

    Vintage gadgets were available from high end hi-fi to games consoles. All are very Akiba-kei.

    In more recent times it has also evolved to cater for fans of Japanese technology with a raft of computer stores and service providers.

    It is also becoming known for catering to other geek consumer tastes including anime, manga and cosplay – think a cuter version of a Star Trek convention. Whether you like anime, manga or dressing up as your favourite character Akiba-kei has something to offer.

    Finally there is the maid culture, which is kind of like a fancy dress tea house, often with a specific theme related to anime or manga related culture.

    Akiba-kei transcends geography. It now represents a mindset, a culture that has gone around the world, but whose spiritual home in Akiba-kei continues to evolve over time. The exportation of Akiba-kei culture started in the 1960s and70s when Japanese manufacturers products were seen to be technological wonders, from hi-fis and watches to cameras. 

    Sailors, servicemen and ex-pat business people took (often superior) Japan-only models of the latest hifi home together with a step up transformer if needed. With TV syndication and video recorders interest in anime rose as well. The 1980s brought long term interest in games consoles. These cultural provided a bridge over time for the wholesale export of Japanese popular culture through and influenced by Akiba-kei. 

    Thanks to Peter Payne and the J-Box newsletter. More Japan related topics here.

  • Sausage casing girls

    Sausage casing girls – A phrase that is insensitive yet garishly visual phrase used to describe young women and girls who are overweight and wear clothes that are far too small for them. The clothes emphasise giant love handles and letting it all hang out in an ‘unsightly’ manner. You may have heard the phrase ‘muffin tops’ used as well for the overhang of fat between a cropped top and the trouser waistline. 

    Both phrases are uncharitable in nature. However they are at the centre of a number of debates:

    • The debate rages on whether they are fashion victims needing to wear the latest slinky tops and hipsters. If so why aren’t clothes manufacturers providing them with clothes that actually fit? I think that there is a wider debate to be had about making fashion work for consumers rather than designers. Fashion assumes that the people who wear their clothes are tall and rake thin. So the fashion industry is partly responsible for the sausage casing girls fashionistas look down on
    • Are they in denial about their size or showing body pride?  Which brings back into focus how media, social media and advertising messages affect women’s self image and diet? 

    There is one great line from Letting it all hang out (July 5, 2006) by Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times: “Fat or skinny, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “The guys in there will look at you if you’re wearing a little skirt and hoochie tank top.”

    I think this quote is interesting because it says a lot about prevailing beauty standards, where perceived sexual availability trumps the beauty conventions that the media and society dictate. We’ve known this for decades, film star Mae West was far from being a conventional beauty. Its also interesting that Unilever brand Dove has explored this territory for a number of years now.

    More jargon related terms here.

  • Hallyu, Mociology & Microchunk

    Hallyu – The rise of Korea as a cultural hotbed (what’s called the Korean wave in some quarters) in Asia: from the sexiest mobile phones, or well written and produced cinema to K-pop (the Korean equivalent of J-pop: sugar-coated Japanese pop music that carries well in other Asian markets and performed by young performers so physically perfect, you wonder if Sony hasn’t a secret laboratory protected by ninjas inside of Mount Fuji to manufacture J-pop artists).
    Interestingly the Korean wave has not yet impacted on Japan in the same way as its neighbours, which was an interesting aside that came out of Richard Edelman’s keynote at the London presentation of his agency’s global trust barometer survey. Kudos to the New York Times Online (registration required).
    Expect to see more of hallyu: the mix of professional product perfection and the conservative nature of Korean culture produces a product that travels better around the world than much US culture.

    Mociology – The study of how mobile technology impacts with sociology from purchasing concert tickets to organising political rallies, raves and flash mobs. (Derived from mobile and sociology).

    Microchunk – A product or service sold traditionally as a package broken down into its constituent parts so buyers can purchase a la carte for consumer electronics to news feeds. Think sachet marketing for the digital world. People like 37signals have successfully built ‘microchunk’ applications and services (like Backpack) that do one thing extremely well and compete against other much larger software companies that take a bundled approach leveraging an effective desktop monopoly (mentioning no names). Kudos for mociology and microchunk to Wired Magazine. More related content here.