The tech world’s knickers have been in a bunch these past few weeks. While Mozilla (makers of the Firefox browser) and Google (makers of everything else) are sniping at each other over Google’s new Chrome plug-in, the anti-Microsoft camp is warning of the dangers of the Ribbon. There is an upside: Out of all that griping we have two new tech terms (new to us, at least). Read and enjoy.

One reader asked Baker if she was “jealous much?” Another comment accused her organization of hypocrisy.

Ribbonize: (verb, derogatory) To remove universally familiar software menus and put in newfangled, Microsofty ribbons.

On Sept. 22, Computerworld magazine ran a piece titled “Mozilla plans to ‘ribbonize’ Firefox.” A week later, the magazine ran another piece, this one with the headline “Mozilla denies it will ‘ribbonize’ Firefox.”

What gives? Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Tech Babble computerworld, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, the Ribbon

Computerworld.com reported that during a Windows 7 web conference on Tuesday, Charles Songhurst, GM of Microsoft’s corporate strategy, described the Vista operating system as a “less good” product.

Either that’s genius doublespeak, or a disturbingly chipper view of the world.

“Less good”?

Either that’s genius doublespeak, or a disturbingly chipper view of the world. We suspect it’s the former.

Doublespeak is everywhere (although it’s hardly a new concept), and it’s not just Microsoft that’s doling it out. Here are two more examples that warrant mention:

1. “Doing More with Less”: This is a phrase that has been used in business almost daily for the past year (I know I’m guilty of having thrown it around a bit). Its cousin, “Getting Back to Basics,” deserves a mention as well. Is this a softer way of saying you must work harder for the same pay, or just a way of fooling workers into thinking they are contributing to some greater purpose?

2. The latest iPhone update and its enterprise implications: A handful of industry mags wrote about a security flaw in iPhone software that was revealed when the 3.1 release came out last week. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Tech Babble doublespeak, iPhone, Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7

This week’s terms are all about employees: how to nurture and grow their skills, and how to recognize the value that results. Throw out your crusty old business 101 biases, put on your 2009 hat, and read on.

As if keeping technical skills up-to-date wasn’t enough of a challenge for corporate employees and their managers, along comes a whole new soft skill: virtual competence.

According to researchers at the University of Western Ontario, virtual competence is made up of three parts: a person’s ability to build online social relationships (virtual social skills), his proficiency using technology (virtual media skills), and self-confidence (virtual self-efficacy).

According to an article by CIO.com’s Jennifer Kavur, virtual competence is necessary in workplaces where teams are separated not by cubicle walls, but by entire oceans or continents. (Read Kavur’s article here.)

With ROII, it’s a little murkier. It deals with what you cannot see.

And although it sounds like yet another item to embellish on a resume, researchers emphasize that the onus for ensuring employees develop such skills should be on managers, rather than on the workers themselves.

An excerpt from Kavur’s piece captures the essence:

“The more a firm needs its people to collaborate online and work with remote locations and make use of mobile devices like laptops and PDAs, the more they need to look at this ensemble of skills and how they can help their employees develop it.”

The second entry in today’s tech jargon roundup, ROII, goes hand-in-hand with the first. Not to be confused with old-fashioned ROI (return on investment), today’s ROII is modern, new-fangled. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Tech Babble Chief Learning Officer, CIO.com, ROI, ROII, tech jargon roundup, virtual competence

With all the press this week about Apple’s newest toys, I thought I’d focus this entry of IT Buzzwords on phrases related to mobile devices.

We know you’ve been nodding your head in agreement when your colleagues (or underlings) discuss the pros and cons of the 3GS, even though you have no clue why the world is so miffed about tethering and MMS. Here’s a chance to school yourself, so you know what your employees will be griping about in the near future. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney BlackBerry, iPhone, Mobile Devices, Tech Babble 3GS, Apple, AT&T, BlackBerry, dumb phones, iPhone, Palm Pre, smart phones, tethering

You can weather the economic downturn lamenting the halcyon days of boundless IT spending and grand tech projects, or you can treat it as a challenge, as a time for reflection and behavior modification. At least that was the sentiment at the recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, where CIOs and their ilk met to discuss – what else? – the recession and its effect on the role of the CIO. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Outsourcing, ROI, Tech Babble CIO.com, MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, Outsourcing, Satyam, SearchCIO.com, Wall Street Journal

The pace at which language evolves today is a bit dizzying. New words are created every day, and are disseminated rapidly via the media, e-mail, regular conversation (oh my!), and social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. Whether esteemed linguists find them worthy of a dictionary is irrelevant. When the Twitter-obsessed, tech-crazy masses get their mitts on them, they’re only a hashtag away from officially entering the Lingua Twitta.

Here are a handful of recent IT industry buzzwords, which can be filed alongside other, more established terms like “cloud computing,” “virtualization,” even “SaaS.” This lot seems to have been inspired by a hodgepodge of influences, from early American history to the speed-dating fad of the late 1990s. Be sure to right-click and add them to your dictionary: Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Tech Babble, The Lingua Twitta buzzwords, CIO, hashtags, IT populism, Lingua Twitta, oversoftwaring, speed dating, speed sourcing