This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by James Robertson.
Original Post: Consumers to electronics industry - huh??
Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants
Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml
Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general.
The technical jargon problem goes beyond the IT industry. Just as non-tech management and workers often have no idea what we are talking about, consumers have an even dimmer idea of what the industry is talking about. Here's a story outlining the problem. You can see the problem in any ad for PC products or new electronics - while many of us in the tech sector understand the terminology, most non-tech consumers are baffled:
Terms such as MP3 and Bluetooth are only understood by a small number of people, a report by a consumer research group found. The findings are bad news for the industry, as it suggests that the baffling terms are putting people off buying the latest gadget. "The technology industry must simplify its vocabulary so that consumers around the world can better understand the benefits technology can bring to their lives," said Patrick Moorhead, chairman of AMD's Global Consumer Advisory Board, which commissioned the study.
In the IT shop, this kind of thing causes grief - but in the consumer space, it costs money - it's hard to sell gadgets when the potential customer has no idea what the heck they are. If you have a ReplayTV or a Tivo, you've probably already seen this in action - when I first describe the device to friends and acquaintences, the common reaction is huh??. Then I show them the device. In a quick demo, people tend to ooh and ahh appropriately. This is looks like a problem throughout the tech sector.
It's also an issue in development. The blogging community seems to have no idea just how isolated from reality it is right now. while we argue and fuss over RSS and necho, go ask some line developer about blogs and RSS. you'll likely be surprised when you find out how much they don't know. What the entire tech sector needs is the Star Trek Universal Translator, so that we can communicate with the rest of humanity....
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