IT Vocabulary Builder
What does Hyberlocal mean?
Apr 21st
Sometime words just start repeating themselves all around you. Over the past two weeks, I have heard the term “hyperlocal” used about a dozen times in tech podcasts and magazines, I figured that it was time to explicitly discuss its meaning.
The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.
So, what exactly does hyperlocal mean?
This is how Wikipedia defines it:
“The term hyperlocal can be used as a noun in isolation or as a modifier of some other term (e.g. news). When used in isolation it refers to the emergent ecology of data (including textual content), aggregators, publication mechanism and user interactions and behaviors which centre on a resident of a location and the business of being a resident.
A new term used to refer to someone or something that is the best at connecting people, locally.”
Basically, it is the concept of focusing on the world within the span of your personal space. Targeting marketing to a single person, for example. Or you searching and caring about only things that impact of influence just you. If local interests are a subset of regional ones, then hyperlocal interests are a further subdivision. Negatively, it is the concentration of your concern to just you with little regard for the space outside your arm swing.
So what is the connection to the Information Age and Information Technology? Before our current tech age, focusing on a personal space this small was impossible. It is only through the massive data sets that are freely available on the web combined with the processing power locally and that is mobile that one can even consider this sort of laser focus. You can’t get hyperlocal news from a newspaper, it has to appeal to too many readers over too large an area. You can’t get it from TV that has an even larger span with even less ability to target an ad campaign. No, you can only get this from one person, access to the Internet, and the ability to search and cull.
The implications to society, individuals, marketing, news delivery, and content generation are huge. IT Professionals need to understand, employ, and relate to this paradigm change in information processing.
Here are some other great sites that discuss this issue:
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New York Times – ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers
I hope that helps you. Enjoy the new word!
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 21, 2010 ©Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: The Florida Project Learning Tree
What are Zero Day Attacks?
Mar 16th
Yesterday, I heard four different people use the term “Zero Day Attack”. Strangely, only two were in the information technology business. I figured that it was time to explicitly discuss its meaning.
The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.
So, what exactly is a “Zero Day Attack”?
This is how Wikipedia defines it:
“A zero-day (or zero-hour or day zero) attack or threat is a computer threat that tries to exploit computer application vulnerabilities that are unknown to others, undisclosed to the software developer, or for which no security fix is available. Zero-day exploits (actual code that can use a security hole to carry out an attack) are used or shared by attackers before the software developer knows about the vulnerability.
The term derives from the age of the exploit. When a developer becomes aware of a security hole, there is a race to close it before attackers discover it or the vulnerability becomes public. A "zero day" attack occurs on or before the first or "zeroth" day of developer awareness, meaning the developer has not had any opportunity to distribute a security fix to users of the software.”
Please understand that I am not condoning, approving, or commenting on the morality of this issue, just pointing out a popular word that should be understood by all Information Technology Professionals.
Here are some other great sites that discuss this issue:
I hope that helps you. Enjoy the new word!
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for March 16, 2010 ©Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: The Toilette Paper Entrepreneur
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IT Vocabulary Builder: Scareware
May 28th
Posted by Scott Coughlin in Business of IT
No comments
The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals. It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.
The place where I saw the reference is here:
The UK Register – 3 men charged in $100m scareware scam:
You can learn more about our new term at Wikipedia. Here is how they define it:
A couple of other web resources are available:
I guess IT Professionals can learn something new every day!
So how do you think that this relates to Information Technology? How do you think that it could be important to Information Technology Professionals?
Do you know of any other new IT terms that should be discussed?
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 28, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image credit: DHS