Do You Know These Newtech Words?

New words are invented constantly. Some survive, and some vanish. "NewTech" itself is a new word and describes technology related words and phrases, which are cutting-edge, yet to become mainstream.

Do you know what these NewTech words mean?

• Carbon Footprint
• Crowdsourcing
• E-Democracy
• Geek Syndrome
• Nascar Dad
• Netizen
• Radical Transparency
• Technolust
• The Long Boom
• The New Economy
• Wetware

Carbon Footprint:

Describes the effect of one person's daily activities on the environment. It calculates individual activities, such as washing clothes or driving to work. It also includes industrial activities, like the resources it takes to create a product and distribute it to consumers. Carbon footprint measures the effect all these have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced. You can measure your personal carbon footprint here.

Crowdsourcing:

Refers to a task typically performed by a paid employee or a subcontractor being purposely left to a large group of people, usually from the user group. In this model, users may be asked to carry out a design task, refine an algorithm, or help collect, systematize, or analyze data aimed at improving a computer programme or solution.

E-Democracy:

Originates from the combination of the words "electronic" and "democracy". It usually means the usage of electronic facilities such as the Internet for implementing democratic processes like voting in a republic or representative democracy. Electronic voting has been successfully used in countries like Estonia, Brazil, India, Ireland, and the United States.

Geek Syndrome:

A very controversial term. Asperger's syndrome is sometimes referred to as "geek syndrome". Geekiness, or being geek is considered a symptom of a physiological difference in the brain compared to the brains of non-geeks. "Geek" is an old word dating back to 1876 and is defined as “A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.” The word "geek" originates in the English dialect geek, geck meaning fool, freak; from Low German geck. The root geck, still survives in the Alsatian word Gickeleshut: geek's hat, used in carnivals.

Nascar Dad:

NASCAR dad is a term in US political, social, and cultural studies to refer to a group of white, usually middle-aged, working-class or lower-middle-class men, who are believed to typically enjoy watching sports entertainment like NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) racing and who put more emphasis on values than on party labels. Though this is not exactly a new technology, the term is new and the dads like to consider themselves highly technical.

Netizen:

A person actively involved with other people in social groups on the Internet. Michael Hauben coined this term by combining the words Internet and Citizen to denote a person who engaged in online activities of social groups.

Radical Transparency:

Radical transparency is a management method, where most of the decision-making is carried out publicly. Radical transparency differs from accountability, as it requires decision making to be transparent right from the beginning, while accountability is a system of verifying the quality and nature of decisions and measures taken afterwards.

Technolust:

Endless craving for new gadgets or technology.

The Long Boom:

This usually refers to the technology-fuelled boom of the late 1990s. Many historians also used the term the Long Boom to refer to the period from approximately 1947 to the slowdown of 1972, in which period nearly all OECD economies grew consistently.

The New Economy:

The term usually refers to the IT-driven service based economy resulting from globalization and socio-economic liberalization, to which the US and other developed countries moved from an industrial/manufacturing based economy.

Wetware:

Wetware is your brain, defined alternatively as "that aspect of any living system that can be treated as an information system or the human brain or a human being considered especially with respect to human logical and computational capabilities." Technical support staff uses the term humorously. "Wetware-related error" refers to an error by the user.