Roots
Web words
Deepti

NEWLY minted words act as signposts of trends. The internet is responsible for many new concepts and the proliferation of languages as well, especially English. The following question, often asked in jest, speaks volumes on the spread of English through the worldwide web: ‘What if Bill Gates were Chinese?’ Today’s words have been created by cyber space; time will tell whether they reach the dictionary soon or peter away into oblivion.

When a large group of people is persuaded to finance a project by using a website or other online tool, they are participating in ‘crowd funding’. Similarly, when a large group of customers or amateurs works for little or no pay to provide labour, products or content, the practice is called ‘crowd sourcing’. A ‘folksonomy’ is an ad hoc classification scheme in which web users apply their own keywords to site content to categorise the data they find online, to improve its content. Folksonomy tries to harness the collective intelligence of its users.

The word was created along the lines of the word ‘taxonomy’ that was earlier coined in French from the Greek words ‘taxis’ or ‘arrangement’ and ‘nomia’ or ‘distribution’. This etymology makes sense because taxonomy refers to the branch of science concerned with the classification of organisms, chiefly. The ‘collabulary’ is the common vocabulary with which web users categorise the data they find online, particularly one created in collaboration with classification experts to ensure relevance and consistency. This word is a blend of ‘collaborative’ and ‘vocabulary’.

A sharp and often overwhelming increase in the number of users attempting to access a website simultaneously, usually in response to some event or announcement is termed a ‘flash crowd’. The science fiction writer Larry Niven in his story titled Flash Crowd coined this expression. In this story, flash crowds occur when thousands of people teleport to the same place to witness a current social or political event. In the same vein, a ‘flash campaign’ refers to a lobbying effort that uses the internet and other technologies to quickly establish an agenda and build support.