Drama 2.0’s Dictionary of Web 2.0 Doublespeak

Posted on May 29, 2008
Filed Under Culture & Technology |

I’ve always been amused, and at the same time disturbed, by the way the Web 2.0 “community” degrades language. In my opinion, some of the words and phrases it often uses have been degraded to the point where they are essentially meaningless.

I finally decided to jot down a quick list of some of the words and phrases that have become little more than doublespeak in the world of Web 2.0.

In the list below, you will find English words or phrases and what they mean/become in the Web 2.0 community.

This is by no means a comprehensive list so if you have additions, post them in the comments and I’ll add them where appropriate.

English Word/Phrase Web 2.0 Translation
Advertising Conversation
Alpha Beta
Anarchistic Open
Acquaintance Friend
Assumption Fact
Average Person Late Adopter
Babble Conversation
Blog Network Media Empire
Blogger Journalist
Bootstrapped Angel-Funded
Bubble Boom, Uptrend



Business Model No Translation Circle Jerk Blogosphere Clusterfucked Crowdsourced Control Privacy Copied New Copyright Injustice Corporation Evil Crap User-Generated Distribution Sharing Egomaniac A-List Blogger Evolutionary Revolutionary Expert Fool Filtering Discovery Free Labor Crowdsourcing Freedom Data Portability Friend Connection, Node Friends Social Graph Geek Early Adopter Guesstimate Measurement Informed Elitist Intellectual Property Public Property Isolated Social Mob Community Narcissism Self-Expression Niche Mainstream Noise Data, Information Openly Biased Transparent Opinion Analysis, Insight Paid Expensive, Overpriced Personal Publishing Voyeurism Persuasive Authentic Power User Consultant, Expert Profitable Antiquated Projection Certainty Proprietary Closed Publicity TechCrunch Purchase Recommendation Realistic Cynical, Skeptical Revenues Pageviews Riot Keynote Interview Rumor News Sausage Fest Party Scarcity Abundance Slightly Different Original Social Network Operating System, Platform Socialism Democracy Spammy Viral Stalker Follower Stolen Free Subjective Objective Theft Disintermediation Trite Innovative Underemployed, Unemployed Entrepreneur, Founder Unprofitable Valuable Useless Cool User Influencer I We



Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Netvouz
  • ThisNext
  • Reddit
  • SphereIt
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
Print This Post Print This Post

Comments

19 Responses to “Drama 2.0’s Dictionary of Web 2.0 Doublespeak”

  1. Stephen Davies on May 29th, 2008 1:46 pm

    Very funny. :-)

  2. STL Social Media Guy » Blog Archive » How ‘rumor’ equals ‘news,’ ’stalking’ equals ‘following’ on May 29th, 2008 5:11 pm

    […] glossary here on the Drama 2.0 site translating “common speak” into “Web 2.0 speak.” […]

  3. jay on May 29th, 2008 5:54 pm

    lol too funny!!!!! Everyone is an entrepreneur who is underemployed

  4. Paco on May 29th, 2008 8:54 pm

    Dude, this is brilliant.

  5. Cyndy Aleo-Carreira on May 30th, 2008 12:04 am

    Can’t… breathe… OMG. I think I broke something on this one.

  6. Leslie Poston on May 30th, 2008 12:14 am

    *laughing*

  7. Grendel on May 30th, 2008 1:18 pm

    first time it builds = alpha
    alpha = beta
    beta = 2.0
    QA = no translation
    Staging environment = no translation
    Scalabilty = no translation

  8. Michael Camilleri on May 30th, 2008 1:32 pm

    Careless/Fearless
    Crap/User Generated

  9. For You Wordophiles: Translations of Currrent Web 2.0 Words » B2B MarCom Writer Blog on May 31st, 2008 5:19 pm

    […] new favorite snarky blog, Drama Show 2.0, has a list of current Web 2.0 words and their “English” […]

  10. Moksh Juneja on June 2nd, 2008 2:37 am

    This is pretty interesting!! :-) more than that ery true!!

    loved specially
    Crap - User Generated

  11. Sachendra Yadav on June 2nd, 2008 3:04 am

    I’m surprised at how close to reality this is.

  12. Introducing Blogger Entitlement : The Drama 2.0 Show on June 3rd, 2008 8:07 pm

    […] level of arrogance in the egosphere, a sense of entitlement on the part of egomaniacs (sorry, A-list bloggers) certainly couldn’t have been far […]

  13. Video: Meetup Demo  »TechAddress on June 4th, 2008 10:23 am

    […] soon be available in Italian and that they will be crowdsourcing the other language translations. As we know, "crowdsourced" really means "free […]

  14. Video: TheLadders - Jobs Over 100k  »TechAddress on June 4th, 2008 11:05 am

    […] soon be available in Italian and that they will be crowdsourcing the other language translations. As we know, "crowdsourced" really means "free […]

  15. Dude, You Must Think I’m Stupid : The Drama 2.0 Show on June 6th, 2008 12:08 am

    […] The conflicts are in plain sight. As they should be. After all, when you’re openly-biased, you’re […]

  16. Facebook Seeking Free Labor to Translate and Localize Facebook Into 55 More Languages  »TechAddress on June 23rd, 2008 7:34 pm

    […] application inside of Facebook is a "crowdsourced" application. Using this nifty Web 2.0 dictionary, we’ve learned that crowdsourced = free […]

  17. ReadBurner Expands to Support NewsGator Products  »TechAddress on June 23rd, 2008 7:52 pm

    […] application inside of Facebook is a "crowdsourced" application. Using this nifty Web 2.0 dictionary, we’ve learned that crowdsourced = free […]

  18. Startup Meme » Blog Archive » Facebook is releasing its versions in 55 more languages on June 24th, 2008 2:48 am

    […] as Translations app of Facebook is “crowdsourced” that means free labour (according to the dramatic Web 2ish dictionary) or are they really trying to picked out some genuine translated versions as this app enables users […]

  19. Flickr Founder Butterfield’s Resignation Letter Proves Money Can’t Buy Class : The Drama 2.0 Show on June 24th, 2008 10:54 am

    […] world of Silicon Valley, it is yet another example that behind all of the Web 2.0 hyperbole and euphamisms, egotism, self-centeredness and outright narcissism reign […]

Leave a Reply




Sponsors

About

Drama 2.0 spikes the Web 2.0 kool aid by providing critical analyses of Web 2.0, its people, its startups and its impact on the world of media. Other topics are explored when Drama 2.0 has been drinking too much 1975 Dom Perignon. Read more about the Internet's version of Keyser Söze and find out what people are saying.

Ads


Subscribe