Jargon Watch
Bitraking
(alternative to muckraking) - A new form of Net-based investigative journalism. Becoming very popular as journalists from major magazines and dailies troll the Net fishing for breaking stories.
Friday Night Pizza Maker
(from Japan) - A drunken salaryman who leaves a puddle of vomit on the subway platform.
Full-on Honkey Handshake
Used to describe a standard handshake protocol that allows peripherals to connect "without a lot of street jive" (no complicated configuring).
Lick Your Lips
In television and advertising, phrase for "Okay, here we go, performance level everybody." Typically said immediately before the camera rolls.
Life Support
To describe the condition of a business or product fighting for its life in the marketplace. "No, they're still in business, but definitely on full life support."
Net Spider
Someone who spends a lot of time scrambling from one computer net to another. A ubiquitous Net personality.
Pickling
Archiving a working model of a computer to read data stored in that computer's format. Apple Computer has pickled a shrink-wrapped Apple II in a vault so that it can read Apple II software, perhaps in the not-to- distant future.
Sociomedia
Computer media used for social purposes, as a means of exchange, collaboration, and the social construction of knowledge. Computer conferencing would be a perfect example of sociomedia. Suggested by hypermedia theorist Edward Barrett in his book of the same name.
Web Jam
A multitasking rave or tribal gathering where self-selected performance artists, musicians, and dancers perform simultaneously.
Compiled by Gareth Branwyn; tip of the hat to Sean Carton,
Mark Frauenfelder, Alberto Gaitan, Kevin Kelly, Brock N. Meeks, Peter Sugarman.
