Comments on: How about an order of slimehead?

By: x28’s new Blog » Blog Archive » Selling blogs to the non-believers?

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:58:51 +0000

[...] There is an interesting discussion going on about whether we need a new term for blogs in order to “sell” them to non-believers. I think the main problem is not that the word has too bad connotations but that it has yet too many meanings and has not yet sufficiently differentiated into narrower hyponyms. Too many different things are labeled with the young emergent word, and there are always some of them that frighten some of the non-believers. [...]

By: Harold Jarche » Communities of Practice - Patented

Harold Jarche » Communities of Practice - Patented — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 22:05:10 +0000

[...] CoP are too important to be stuck with a label that takes time to understand. Let’s not permit semantic conservatism to block progress. This is not the first time this has come up nor will it be the last. See “How about an Order of Slimehead?” at http://internettime.com/?p=693 [...]

By: Collaborate and Learn » Blog Archive » Wikis instead of ranked lists of information

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:56:53 +0000

[...] Tony Karrer wrote today about wikis for specific industry in response to an inquiry about eLearning specific wikis. Tony brings up an issue of using wikis at work. Jay Cross, from Internet Time discussed rebranding blogs for business use as well. I commented on Jay’s blog about the ease of use, the ability to gather someone’s experience versus keyword searching and reviewing ranked files. [...]

By: Idearios.com.br » links for 2006-08-29

Idearios.com.br » links for 2006-08-29 — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:18:50 +0000

[...] How about an order of slimehead? Como lidar com quem tem medo de tecnologia? (tags: gestao) [...]

By: Harold Jarche

Harold Jarche — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 12:15:48 +0000

I had a client recently who did not not like the term blog. Few people in the organisation knew about blogs and many were new to using IT in their work. However, blogs were an integral component of the new community of practice for training. We therefore changed some labels in the software and voila – we had “Professional Journals”.

Bottom line – it doesn’t matter what we prefer; the client decides.

By: My Purpose « Weaving Conversations

My Purpose « Weaving Conversations — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:58:12 +0000

[...] This knowledge log (fondly referred to as my k-log) tracks resources, ideas and learning in the Technology, Learning and Teaching knowledge area that I am completing as part of my doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change at Fielding Graduate University. [...]

By: Thinking about vocabulary OR How ’bout an order of slimehead? « Weaving Conversations

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 03:53:02 +0000

[...] Okay, so after I wrote the topic below I was reading through several blogs and this article appeared in several… So… How about an order of slimehead? THERE MUST BE A WAY!! Today as I was reading any number of educational technology blogs I realized I wasn’t understanding the significance of many submissions as they were so full of acronyms and insider phrasing that it made me realize how intimidating the adoption process is to newbies… particularly students who are attempting to develop their own comfort with technology supported learning (minus a mentor or faculty member directing them). [...]

By: Mike Berta

Mike Berta — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 16:44:01 +0000

I agree that using new languag sometimes clouds the understanding of a topic. However, in order to gain more usuage in a sector we must align our language with their language. Calling a blog soemthing else, only promotes the use of it in the specific sector. Like Jay writes, it is the business environment, not the consumer, renaming things. Language controls the relationship and the relationship controls the acceptance of a product or service.

Essentially, if someone buys it under the blog label, great; if someone buys it under a different label, great. The point is they are using a tool that will boost performance.

By: eLearning Skinny » Blog Archive » Blog or Project Log: Selling disruptive tools on the inside

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 15:15:39 +0000

[...] Jay Cross has a great post this AM about the need to find compelling language that can drive experimentation and adoption of blog, podcast, and wiki types of tools inside of organizations –– [...]

By: Administrator

Administrator — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:16:23 +0000

Lindy, my hope is to accelerate progress, and sometimes that’s accomplished by tagging something new with a familiar name until it becomes established.

To your examples of drugs stores and cars, it’s not the consumers who’d do the renaming; it’s the sellers. Anyway, renaming drug stores and cars isn’t the same deal, for these are accepted products. (They once were pharmacies and horseless carriages.)

How about Jägermeister, the herbal liqueur from Germany that tastes like cough syrup? How can you sell Jägermeister to American youth? You might offer the guys shots so cold (4 degrees F) that it has no taste whatsoever. You invent mixed drinks for women like the Sexy Alligator, Red-headed Sister, and California Surfer.

Wikipedia notes that a “Bundesliga” is 1 part Jägermeister and 3 parts Mountain Dew. A “Marion Barry” is equal parts Jägermeister, Kahlúa, bourbon and Coke. A “Meaning of Life” is one part Jägermeister and two parts Dr. Pepper.

The point is that the distiller is selling Jägermeister by not selling Jägermeister, just I’m proposing selling blogs by not calling them blogs. Not always. Not most of the time. But when you want your date to toss down several ounces of 70-proof stomach bitters, it helps not to tell it like it is. And if you want your CIO to install open software, it might help to mix it with project management and collaboration.

jay