Last spring, after a few weeks of immersing myself into the throws of transmedia experiences, at the Tribeca Film Festival’s  “Future of” series and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Innovation week I had a whole host of buzzwords swirling around my head (with lots of other stuff of no less significance but no relevance here)…   for a visual clue think of word clouds from blog tags that have found their way into a 3D setting and are floating around (which in effect is how the documentary Clouds looked through the vision googles at Tribeca’s Storyscapes – very cool stuff.)  So, I figured I’d start a (random) list of buzzwords of all things internet, social media, trans media, and etc.

Some have been around for a while, some are new and some just  keep regurgitating:

  • Net Neutrality – network neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.
  • Democratization of media  – aka internet 2.0
  • Democratization and internet being an equalizer – internet 2.0 made content interactable and allowed of an Arab Spring to happen, or a Wikipedia to be built (or any wiki for that matter) and in the process it allowed for a voice for all (who have internet access, a data plan and the hard cold cash to pay for it).
  • Wiki – is a web application which allows people to add, modify, or delete content in collaboration with others. While a wiki is a type of content management system, it differs from a blog or most other such systems in that the content is created without any defined owner or leader, and wikis have little implicit structure, allowing structure to emerge according to the needs of the users.
  • Open Source – it’s a word I perfectly well understand in its abstraction, but if an “open source code” hit me between the eyes I’d be dumb folded.  This one to be filed in the same category as all the previous buzzwords here.
  • Interactive and Immersive – as far as I can tell: if you can click on it it’s interactive.  If you’re IN IT (whatever “ in” and “it” are) it’s immersive. If you miss dinner it’s immersive. If you lost your original article because you “drilled down to deep” you’re being interactive or just an idiot, hold it – maybe you were being so immersive you forgot you were supposed to be only interactive…
  • Drilling Down Content I would set that synonymous with links – a concept that allows you to ‘dig deeper’ into content thanks to hyperlinks.  It’s also the downfall of linear storytelling and very befitting for an ADD crowd.
  • Collaborative and The Conversation – so in order to immerse yourself you need to join the conversation and be interactive.   And we all know what collaboration looks like – on paper or in zeroes and ones.
  • The Cloud – bear with me. In the old days (really old days – think 2,000 years ago), when humans had no explanation for something they came up with a god for it – god of wrath, sun, rain, love, war, etc.  Today when humans are not sure where their non-tangible goods are – they’re in the cloud. Same principal. The unexplainable, untouchable.
  • Disruption – I’ve blogged on disruption.  Changing “the way it used to be” – see Netflix and Zipcar (Mobility in Europe).
  • Curation – it’s a never dying buzzword that keeps being necessary as we are being slammed, inundated, washed-over, suffocated, bombarded and…. You get the picture with more and more CONTENT.  How about better stories?
  • Conceding control – an IP lawyer’s nightmare or paycheck – depends on who’s doing it.  This was probably the biggest take home message for me.  Letting go of your content and letting it be remixed, repurposed and mashed up.  Creative commons anybody? If you don’t know what that is read this.
  • Mashup and Remix – remix is the very nature of digital as order is no longer linear (see drilling down, interactive and conceding control).  Mashup – as far as I’m concerned – is the remix’ cooler cousin.
  • Transmedia and Cross-Platform – when stories go on a trip.
  • Story World – when a story line goes on a trip and it gets complicated.
  • GIFs are short looping image files.
  • MEME – an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.
  • The Plurals are the generation born after the Millennials, and are also known as Digital Natives or Generation Z . Check out my blog post, the Culture Code from September 2013.
  • Niche markets and audiences – the sub-cultures we market our wares too since the “big masses” have vanished with the democratization sprung forth by the internet.

My favorite job titles are:

  • Story Architect – @Lance Weiler, @michaelreilhac
  • Professional Internet Enthusiast – @kenyatta

Above all be AUTHENTIC – because all those interactively immersed Plurals aka Digital Natives will smell a phony a mile of “0” and “1” away.  And maybe from now on, I will be a Professional Authentic Story Architect with enthusiastic tendencies.

What totally floors me that the most important buzzword of all was missing completely: monetize.  How the hell are we all going to make a living being story architects and internet enthusiasts…

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