In a recent post, blogger Thomas Wailgum offered five ways to ruin a PowerPoint presentation. One in particular resonated with me: “Ignore your body language and vocal delivery.”

It brought to mind the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy presidential debate. Although I didn’t see it live, I learned about it in college as an example of how your image can negate your message. Here’s the clip from YouTube: JFK vs. Nixon, 1960 debate. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Computer Literacy, How To, PowerPoint CIO, JFK, Nixon, oversoftwaring

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