The Great Term Robbery

Holmes, WN (2001) The Great Term Robbery. Computer, 34 (5). pp. 94-96. ISSN 0018-9162

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/2.920619

Abstract

This essay reviews the bad treatment the computing industry and profession give to ordinary English, their mauling of grammar, and their distortion of vocabulry. Attention is drawn to the old standard vocabulary put together by the profession and largely ignored by the profession at present, in particular by confusing the terms "data" and "information", terms that were used in the standard to allow a contrast to be made between people and machines, a contrast that is ethically and morally very significant.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This essay has been more formally published as essay 1.3 in the author's book "Computers and People" (Wiley, 2006). This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. Copyright 2001 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
Keywords:	data, information, standard vocabulary, grammar, sort, sequence ethics, professionalism
ID Code:	1957
Deposited By:	Mr Neville Holmes
Deposited On:	20 Sep 2007
Last Modified:	18 Jul 2008 20:10
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