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May 24, 2010
There’s A Word For It
(#6 in my 110 in 2010 book review series)
You may know that I’m a recovering English major, always fighting my addiction to anything literary.
That’s why this new book—There’s A Word For It by Sol Steinmetz—had immediate appeal. The subtitle, “The Explosion of the American Language Since 1900” had me at hello.
Mr. Steinmetz, well-known in English language circles as an accomplished lexicographer, has published more than 35 dictionaries and reference books. In this one, he chronicles the development of new words and phrases in the English language from 1900 to 2000.
How many words? At the end of the 19th Century, the English language contained about 90,000 words. One hundred years later, there were nearly 500,000.
Words are formed in many ways. Most are “native coinages, words created by well-established processes like back-formation (baby-sit from baby-sitter), clipping or shortening (condo from condominium, nuke from nuclear), contraction (helluva from hell of a), blending (smog from smoke and fog), derivation (televiewer, telecast, telegenic) and compounding (barfly, busywork).” In addition, many new words—like garage, limousine and daiquiri—are borrowed from foreign languages.
Mr. Steinmetz highlights the most important words coined in each decade of the 20th Century. As a result, For example, the 1920s brought us words like bitchy and mass media, the 1950s spawned academia and teleprompter and the 1990s generated spam and smackdown.
I find this fascinating, but if you’re not a word geek, this review may be all you need.
Posted by Alison Davis at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2010
“We don’t talk anymore”
I’m constantly on the lookout for trends in how people use technology and media. Why? Because understanding these behaviors can help you make design communication that meets employees’ needs.
Take the article in Thursday’s New York Times on cellphone usage.
The article makes the case for the fact that increasingly, cellphones are becoming data tools rather than a way to speak voice to voice.
“Instead of talking on their cellphones,” writes the article’s author Jenna Wortham, “people are making use of all the extras that iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones were also designed to do — browse the Web, listen to music, watch television, play games and send e-mail and text messages.”
Consider these statistics:
- The number of text messages sent per user increased by nearly 50 percent last year, according to the CTIA, the wireless industry association.
- Last year the amount of data surpassed the amount of voice data sent. In fact, less than half the traffic on mobile networks is talking.
- Cellphone conversations are getting shorter: The average length of a local call was 1.81 minutes in 2009, compared with 2.27 minutes the previous year, according to CTIA.
What does this mean? Your employees are getting more and more comfortable using their mobile devices to browse the Web, listen to music, watch television, play games and send e-mail and text messages.
Should you consider a mobile (not voice, data) strategy as part of your communication program?
Posted by Alison Davis at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2010
Loose lips
Is it possible to be too transparent? In an era where candor is revered and people expect 24/7 access to every type of information, the answer, perhaps surprisingly, is: Yes.
Take the case of a company where senior leaders at a subsidiary have been shooting their mouths off. Employees have been nervous that their site may close. So, naturally, the grapevine has grown out of control. In response, leaders have been spending a lot of time talking to their teams.
So far, so good, right? Not really, no. The problem is that key decisions are still being made. And these leaders have incomplete or even incorrect information. So all their “transparency” is just fueling the fire of anxiety, not putting it out.
It would be better for those leaders to just zip it. Please understand: I’m not advocating that they disappear into their offices and shut their doors. I applaud their eagerness to spend time with their employees. But, at this stage, leaders need to listen, not talk. They need to say, “I don’t know” or “It hasn’t been decided yet.” They need to step up and act like leaders, which means exercising tact, discretion and good judgment.
"Loose lips sink ships" was the slogan the U.S. military used in World War II to advise servicemen not to disclose information that might help the enemy.
The slogan still applies. Sometimes when the situation is uncertain, transparency is the easy way out. The difficult, and right thing to do, is to say nothing.
Posted by Alison Davis at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)