DSF’s New Industry Glossary Strangely Familiar
January 6, 2012 by Dave Haynes
I’ve got waaaay better things to do than forensic investigations, but I was mildly curious when the Digital Signage Federation issued word this morning that it now has an industry glossary up on its website. Didn’t the evil arch-enemy Digital Screenmedia Association already have a glossary, I recalled.
So I looked at the top of the DSF list and saw:
Activation: refers to a buying decision motivated at the point-of-purchase by such factors as buying convenience, price, promotion, impulse selection, etc.
Then I looked at the DSA list and saw:
Activation – buying decision motivated at the point-of-purchase by such factors as buying convenience, price, promotion, impulse selection, etc.
My probably safe guess is because these two organizations have all kinds of people who are members of both, somebody dug up an old list and fired in his or her stuff … and nobody checked.
Oops.
That may be the only one like that. I’ll leave that to someone else to sort out.
One of the reasons I’ve not joined either group (apart from the silliness of their being two) is the mortal fear of being stuck on a committee working on …. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz … a glossary.
The DSF’s Glossary is the product of an aggregated exercise that relied on input from many of our members and borrowed entries from other industry organizations with whom our members are affiliated, such as the DPAA, DSEG, DSE and InfoComm. The introductory paragraph on the DSF’s website initially declared the compilation to be “aggregated,” but now, to allay any confusion, that wording has been updated to be more specific about exactly where the content came from. (Please see http://www.digitalsignagefederation.org/glossary)
Otherwise, any coincidence between the DSF’s presentation of the glossary and the verbiage contained in any other organization’s glossary is actually a happy accident, as would naturally occur between products issued by Random House, Merriam-Webster, the OED, et al, because the whole point of a glossary is to make the usage throughout the industry consistent. To that point, we are happy to be on the “same page.”
However, please note that the biggest difference between the DSF glossary and other more traditional linguistic resources, is that ours is an “open-source” reference that recognizes that as the Digital Signage industry continues to grow, our language will need to expand and change with it. That’s why the DSF welcomes input and updating from our members going forward, to ensure that the DSF Glossary is always a current reference.
Thank you for the opportunity to address this issue and clear up any confusion.
Geri