A rose by any other name might smell better

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet." Shakespeare

New Jersey social studies teacher Steven Maher in his Infinitude blog entry "Say What?" believes the names companies give their Web 2.0 products work against them. You'll find the entire post a worthwhile read. His opening paragraph goes thus:

My interaction with teachers and administrators over the past couple weeks has reinforced a belief I’ve had for some time, the language associated with educational technology is one of the chief impediments to its application in schools.  We’re suffering because the host of Web 2.0 sites are trying to out-weird each other for attention.  What else explains “Diigo”, “Spurl” and “Moodle”?  No one appreciates these services more than me, but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to talk about them with a straight face.  How can you convince someone that these tools are worthwhile when they have such ridiculous names?  Such drastic deviation from common language automatically sparks suspicion, it should be no wonder that teachers and education leaders are not incorporating them into the schools faster.  I’m as much a educational technology advocate as the professional presenters and consultants, but I have a great deal of sympathy for teachers who intrinsically know that technology must be able to help them somehow, but have a tough time accepting that it has the same value as things like the “Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature”, “Chicago Manual of Style” or Library of Congress. 

My nomination for stupidly named application is Twitter.  The very sound of it makes it seem inconsequential (fritter twitter my time away) and something that only a “twit” would do. Steven mentions Spurl - a portmanteau of spew and hurl, perhaps?

Would better naming give these tools more gravitas and therefore greater acceptance among educators?

 Nominations for the most ill-named application?

Comments

[Tom Hoffman]

Here's a good name: SharePoint.

[Tim]

I doubt educators are the target demographic for most of these applications anyway. The marketing people select those web 2.0 names more for their appeal to our students than to our teachers. A slightly edgy sounding title attracts more buzz in the noisy clutter of the web and thus more traffic.

I actually think Twitter is a pretty good name for a service that distributes micro messages. Of course, for some people it really does seem to be a great way to fritter away lots of time. But is Twitter a worse name than their competator Plurk? :-)

[teacherninja]

Actually, I have trouble getting fellow teachers to even try del.icio.us because of the name. They think it's something dirty. And our tech people looked at me blankly last year when I asked if I could set up a wiki for them. They couldn't take it seriously.

[sylvia martinez]

"Would better naming give these tools more gravitas and therefore greater acceptance among educators?"

It's pretty clear that this is NOT a priority for these tools. Gravitas? Who makes money on gravitas? You'd have a better chance convincing Nabisco that Oreos should have spinach flavored cream filling.

[Doug Johnson]

@ Tom,

Yup. As is: Office.

Microsoft isn't too much into the silly side of naming. Since Bob, anyway.

All the best,

Doug

@ Tim,

You mean it isn't always about ME? You sure know how to rain on a guy's parade.

I hadn't thought of that, but you are absolutely right that educators are not the target audience for most of these apps. And even the Moodle name may have been chosen for students, not instructors. Sure beats Blackboard or Desire2Learn!

Oh, Plurk sounds positively degenerate to my ear - Peep + Lurk?

Thanks for the insight,

Doug

@ Jim,

Always a bit of a relief to hear that others may have even a dirtier mind than I do!

Doug

@Hi Sylvia,

Perhaps we need two strains of each of these tools - one with serious names that educators will accept as worthwhile investments in time and energy with serious educational purpose...

and those with fun names for applications that actually get used?

I am trying to get the flavor of spinach filled Oreos out of my imagination!

Doug