Terms to 'Know' (and Discuss) for 2017!

It's 2017.  There are terms we should know (many we do) and discuss for this year.  Many have interesting workplace implications/meanings.  Here are a few of them!  

• Phubbing – phone snubbing; pretending to be listening while scrolling through a newsfeed or Facebook posts. 
• Crowdsourcing – the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people – especially from an on-line community. Example: Betterific.  
  • And - by the way . . . . . . Crowdfunding – the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.  Common examples: political campaigns, startup company funding and invention development. Examples include:  Kickstarter; RocketHub; GoFundMe; Crowdrise

• Micro-subscription – small amount paid for subscribing to a specific item.  Most common examples:  downloading one song or smart-phone application.
• Solopreneur – an entrepreneur who works alone (solo), running their business single-handedly.  (These people are becoming the go-to people for companies interested in project-based execution.)
• Momtrepreneur – a woman who has children/a family and runs a business at the same time. 
• QR Code – literally Quick Response, it is a type of barcode that contain information related to the item.  (History – actually invented in Japan in the auto industry to track vehicles during manufacture.)
• 404  – a  technical term for Not Found 404 (which is an error message seen on a Web page to indicate a requested URL was not found on a server).  It is now slang to say “404” when someone is clueless. 
• BYOD – literally Bring Your Own Device (or BYOT – for Technology); the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, etc.) for use in the workplace where the employee can then access privileged company information and applications. 
• H2H – instead of B2C or B2B, brands are talk H2H – human to human; focus is on creating a feeling of trust and safety from the person ‘selling’; more focus on story-telling.
• Thirsty – refers to someone’s desperation or over-aggressiveness.  (Michael has been trying to reach me all week; he is so thirsty.) 
• Curated Commerce – based on the demand for personalization in everything we do, this term refers to creating unique product lines that provide customers with a distinct collection not offered by other online retailers in the market.  (Think – online shopping in highly personalized boutiques.)
• Wearable Computer – computer-powered devices that can be worn by a user including clothing, watches, glasses or shoes (also known as body-borne computers).  A common example today is for runners – devices provide heart monitoring and pedometer capabilities during your run.
• Targeted Tweets – enhanced twitter messages that enable brands to reach specific people or audiences on Twitter without having to send the tweet to all followers.  (Be careful - there are famous people who have done a bad and/or inappropriate job of this.)
• Bae – technically stands for ‘before anyone else’; it is used to describe someone or something of importance to you.  
• Assortment Intelligence – in ecommerce terminology, this refers to a set of tools and software used to help retailers track a competitor’s inventory. The software, in real-time, uses artificial intelligence, data-mining and image recognition algorithms allowing retailers to view, compare and analyze the differences between inventories.
• Ransom Note – the sting of letters or numbers that appear on some web pages that require you to type the sequence you see in order to gain access to another web page. 
• Phantom Pocket Vibration Syndrome – a vibration you feel in the place you usually carry your phone even when the phone is not with you. 
• DRM – code that keeps content like books, movies, music and generally purchased applications from being pirated. (Literal definition – Digital Rights Management.)
• Mydeation ­– using a group to help an individual solve a challenge specific to them (focus is an entrepreneur that needs help with a specific business challenge). 
• FOMO – fear of missing out; a fear that is you do not go to an event, you are missing out on something great (or that others are doing something significant without you).  
  • An example would be: ·         I have to go to that presentation – I have severe FOMO.  

Enjoy!