Tech Notes

Mar 8 2007 By Lewis Harrison, The Journal

Despite living in one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world, we're baffled by hi-tech jargon. More technology firms are being created in the North-East than anywhere outside of London right now but we're still more likely to know our stotties from our `Wikis' (answer at the bottom of the page).

So what are the technological terms we really should know? And how can they help our businesses thrive in the digital age?

Here's a quick guide:

VoIP: Stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, and enables you to make phone calls using the internet rather than a traditional phone line.

It's far a cheaper option, which is obviously a big bonus for businesses Many VoIP packages also come with an instant messaging (IM - another acronym!) - great for asking quick questions of remote teams.

Open source software: Software that's free to download and can be copied, modified and redistributed by anyone with the know-how to do it.

Why should you care? Simple: money. There's a vast number of enterprise-ready applications available to download for free or on the cheap - everything from office software and website content managers to web browsers and film editing suites.

Blogs: Blogs (web-logs) are basically online journals where you can publish information about your company, usually for free. It's an efficient way of raising your profile on the internet, provided, of course, you actively promote it to relevant audiences.

Web 2.0: a buzzword for the latest stage of the internet's development, where user interaction and user-generated content (UGC) is courted by websites such as YouTube and MySpace. Building in the ability for your customers to genuinely interact and get involved with your company can be a useful way of making customers feel `closer' to your company.

At-a-glance:

Wikis: Collaborative technology for editing websites.

Podcasts: Broadcasts available over the internet for playback on MP3 players.

3G: The latest, third generation of mobile phone technology which enables the use of video telephony and music playback.

RSS: Really simple syndication - way to get news articles sent to your desktop or web browser.

IPTV: Internet Protocol television - television over the internet, which enables you to create channels of your favourite shows.

Triple-play - Internet, TV and phone in one subscription.

The technology industry has always joked about its acronyms and jargon, and it's something that's often joked about. But there's a serious side to all this. If businesses and consumers don't know what a product is because they're bamboozled by acronyms and jargon, they're unlikely to be able to understand why they should buy it.

* Lewis Harrison is web manager at Codeworks.