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Superlativising information technology

Superlativising information technology Dear Editor, Although about nine months have elapsed since Peter Brophy's 1990 article about workstations1 was published, re-reading it has prompted this comment. Specifically it is Brophy's remark that "the word work-stations has been in common usage for many years, but every time you take your eye off it, it changes meaning" which interests me. IT arrived a little after Humpty-Dumpty's time, otherwise he might have said:- "When I use an IT word today it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less". Dealing with a field where items are not re-labelled when the old label has been overtaken by advances is a nuisance, but there is a worse problem. When a new, trendy, word is coined it is often bestowed on an old technology for the purpose (to use the vernacular) of hyping it up. Robert Fairthorne acutely observed that:- "Names or descriptions cannot be discovered by examining the things named or described. They are not discovered; they are bestowed". In IT, bestowal has become an established marketing technique. For instance, quite ordinary software is re-labelled "expert system". A network incorporating re-configuring facilities is an "intelligent network". The latest is "an intelligent home" - a house containing some kind of usually simple control system. Sometimes the marketing people superlativise too early. When graphics were included with text it was called "multimedia". When sound was added it was superlativised to "hypermedia" (or was it the other way round?) Having reached the ultimate superlative they could think of nothing better when animation and motion video were added (to be followed, no doubt, by smell). No new term has arrived to differentiate between a text with graphics system, and a text, graphics, colour, animation, and motion video with CD-ROM and videotape peripherals system. The gap between a graphics with text system and a "real multimedia system" is immense. They are used for totally different purposes. It's time a double superlative such as "ultrahypermedia" was invented. Unlike Peter Brophy who "does not want to bore you with definitions", I believe them to be essential. When I write about IT, for example about multimedia, I find it advisable to start with a phrase like "for the purposes of this article multimedia is....". Yours faithfully, A. E. Cawkell REFERENCE 1. Brophy, Peter. Introduction to the use of workstations for library and information management. Aslib Proceedings 42(10), October 1990, pp 245-250. Aslib Proceedings, 43(11/12), November/December 1991, p . 361. Printed in Great Britain http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives Emerald Publishing

Superlativising information technology

Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives , Volume 43 (11/12): 1 – Nov 1, 1991
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References (1)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0001-253X
DOI
10.1108/eb051236
Publisher site
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Abstract

Dear Editor, Although about nine months have elapsed since Peter Brophy's 1990 article about workstations1 was published, re-reading it has prompted this comment. Specifically it is Brophy's remark that "the word work-stations has been in common usage for many years, but every time you take your eye off it, it changes meaning" which interests me. IT arrived a little after Humpty-Dumpty's time, otherwise he might have said:- "When I use an IT word today it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less". Dealing with a field where items are not re-labelled when the old label has been overtaken by advances is a nuisance, but there is a worse problem. When a new, trendy, word is coined it is often bestowed on an old technology for the purpose (to use the vernacular) of hyping it up. Robert Fairthorne acutely observed that:- "Names or descriptions cannot be discovered by examining the things named or described. They are not discovered; they are bestowed". In IT, bestowal has become an established marketing technique. For instance, quite ordinary software is re-labelled "expert system". A network incorporating re-configuring facilities is an "intelligent network". The latest is "an intelligent home" - a house containing some kind of usually simple control system. Sometimes the marketing people superlativise too early. When graphics were included with text it was called "multimedia". When sound was added it was superlativised to "hypermedia" (or was it the other way round?) Having reached the ultimate superlative they could think of nothing better when animation and motion video were added (to be followed, no doubt, by smell). No new term has arrived to differentiate between a text with graphics system, and a text, graphics, colour, animation, and motion video with CD-ROM and videotape peripherals system. The gap between a graphics with text system and a "real multimedia system" is immense. They are used for totally different purposes. It's time a double superlative such as "ultrahypermedia" was invented. Unlike Peter Brophy who "does not want to bore you with definitions", I believe them to be essential. When I write about IT, for example about multimedia, I find it advisable to start with a phrase like "for the purposes of this article multimedia is....". Yours faithfully, A. E. Cawkell REFERENCE 1. Brophy, Peter. Introduction to the use of workstations for library and information management. Aslib Proceedings 42(10), October 1990, pp 245-250. Aslib Proceedings, 43(11/12), November/December 1991, p . 361. Printed in Great Britain

Journal

Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives – Emerald Publishing

Published: Nov 1, 1991

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