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# The words of things entangle and confuse ...
- URL: https://www.lorcandempsey.net/the-words-of-things-entangle-and-confuse/
- Published: 2005-01-16T18:01:36.000Z
- Updated: 2005-01-16T18:01:36.000Z
- Author: Lorcan Dempsey
- Tags: UX

I was in a meeting during the week where *publishing* was being discussed. After a while it became clear that we would have to qualify what we meant by *publishing* for it to be a usable word in the conversation: people had different views of what was and was not *publishing* in our changing context.  
In digital library conversations, we continually have to qualify the words we mean to avoid confusion. Think of *archive* which is now used in a variety of related but different senses, or of *repository*. Similarly, we may have to qualify *content management* or *asset management* in some conversations. And that is before thinking at all of what a *learning object* is, or a *portal*.  
*Service* is used in a specialized sense (a machine accessible piece of functionality on the network) and a general sense. We fall back on a word like *content* as format lines become blurred.  
This unformed vocabulary is symptomatic of ongoing change …