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Lately I've been running across quite a bit a material on how to talk to your "Web team." These articles claim that there is a particular way to talk to Web folks. Their supposition is that without the proper approach, there can be no meaningful communication.

My immediate reaction to this is to cry "foul" and point out that we - the self-proclaimed geeks of the world – are people too.  Would you not talk to us as you would anyone else?

But then I look around my office. The Web Team space is filled with toys, mementos, strange pictures, childish drawings, magazine clippings, process documents, canned air, music CDs, and more books than many small town libraries. All of this is interspersed throughout our workspace, amongst the high-tech equipment, with all the planning of a 10 year-old interior decorator with a candy fetish.

What this means is that Web developers actually are different. Not only do we see things differently, we have a completely different way of speaking. We use a different language. Our vernacular is self-contained and interconnected. It can be a very confusing thing unless you are up to your armpits in reference books; as most developers are.

So, in the interest of fostering good communication, here are some examples. (Pardon the pronunciations, as they may have a Wisconsin accent.)

ASP (ay-ess-pee) – A programming language used to build Web pages and applications. It is not a poisonous snake – unless you happen to be an Apple computer fanatic.

Cache (kash) – A magical place in your computer where stuff is stored until it is no longer used. It is not the reason most Web developers do their jobs.

Cascading Style Sheets (see-ess-ess) – An external document which defines how a Web page will appear in a browser. They are not fancy bed coverings.

Feeds (feedz) – Feed is a term used to describe different kinds of scheduled transfers of data. Normally, these are RSS feeds (see below) or Podcasts (see further below). It is only occasionally used to describe buffet lines.

Normalize (nore-mal-eyes) – A database term where data is broken into logical chunks so they can be easily used. It is not what most developers have after two decades of strained vision.

Podcast (pawd-kast) – Audio and/or video distributed through the internet via scheduled RSS (see below) feeds (see above). It is not a whale-fishing technique.

RSS (arr-ess-ess) – RSS is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, or more popularly, Really Simple Syndication. It is a schema (see below) for XML (see further below) that makes podcasting (see just above) possible. It is not… easily describable.

SQL (see-kwell) – A coding language that lets applications and Web pages talk to database. It does not describe the next release of The Matrix.

Schema (skee-ma) – The definition of the elements in a database or data document (such as XML – see below). It is not how we order a clear malt beverage after we've had a few.

XML (ecks-em-el) – XML is a language that it used to describe different kinds of data. XML does not stand for extra medium long. Apparently the men's department at Sears doesn't have that size.

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As you can see, while Web developers are certainly on a different mental skew than supposedly normal people. Talk to us as you would anyone else you love and respect. If we say anything you can't understand… see above.
Run across a word you'd like explained? Please feel free to email me at johnm@ovationmarketing.com. I'll try and get it into an upcoming blog.