What is "info-ential"?

Got this e-mail out of the blue today:

"Hi!

You don't know me, but you are almost the only person I've found on Internet who uses this term - info-ential.

My boss asked me to translate it into Russian (I'm from Russia), but I cannot find any definition of this term and have now idea how to translate it...

Please, if you can present me couple of your precious minutes and tell me what it means, I'd be really grateful!

(I won't tell you "thank you beforehand" not to make you feel obliged).

Ciao
Karina"

So I replied:

Karina, priviet!!!*

I'll tell you what it means if you promise to teach me some Russian!! ;-)

I have some questions for you before telling you:

Who is your boss? (Putin?!?!? ;-)

Why is he interested in MY word "info-ential"? (because it is MINE. I came up with it!)

What do he want to do with it? What does he need MY word for?!?

Am I going to get any money?!? ;-) (rubles!! *Ya hachoo dvooshkoo russkayoo and rubles!!! ;-)

I am a linguist and I love playing with words. Do you know what a "neologism" is? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neologism - "A neologism is a word, term, or phrase that has been recently created (or "coined"), often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary.").

I coined, I created the word "info-ential". It doesn't really exist except on my blog (as far as I know! Where else did you see it? hmmmmm... who's using my word without my permission?!?!? ;-). You won't find it anywhere in any dictionary or anywhere else on the internet (well, at least not yet! not until I become famous!! ;-)

I think it should be difficult to translate because what I did was to put two English morphemes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme) together:

"info- " - from information
"-ential" - from influential, essential

So it is really a play on words on both words "information" and "influential ." It is a word I coined to express the influence of information on our lives or, to put it another way, the impact of information on our lives.

Isn't that "horrorshow"?!?!? (horosho! ;-)

Vichiringa horosho! Tosofka horosho! Vodka horosho! Dvooshka russka horosho! Ya hachoo dvooshkoo russkayoo!!

So you want to teach me some Russian? ;-)

Spasibo!!

Ciao,

nando

*Russian Glossary:
-priviet = hi
-rubles = Russian $$$$
-Ya hachoo dvooshkoo russkayoo = I want a Russian girl
-"horrorshow" = horosho = good (from Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange." Burgess loved playing with words, too. "horosho" means "good" in Russian, but he turned it into "horrorshow" in Alex's "nasdat" slang to make fun of it. It also fits in perfectly with Alex's depraved mind. To him, any "horrorshow" was "good"! ;-)
-vichiringa = party (Vichiringa horosho! = party(ing) is good! ;-)
-tosofka = party (Tosofka horosho! = party(ing) is good! ;-)
-vodka = vodka (Vodka horosho! = vodka is good! ;-)
-dvooshka russka = Russian girl
-spasibo = thanks

Note: In Russian there is no verb to be in the present tense, so saying "vodka good" is the same as saying "vodka is good".

A blog "shrine" and "village LinkedIn": truly great blogging, truly great social-networking

A blog "shrine":

A few--or perhaps most--of us may blog about frivolous stuff. But L.A. Times Reporter Jill Leovy blogs about something very real and very serious.

She's trying to cover every single homicide in Los Angeles county in a blog by the L.A. Times: to date, 700 homicides and counting.

The mother of D'Angello Mizell, one of the victims "enshrined" in the blog, says,

"I just don't want him to be forgotten. I don't want anybody to think he didn't matter. Because he did."

So, for many of the victims' families, the blog has taken on the qualities of a "shrine" to their loved ones gunned down on the streets.

This is a Yahoo News article and a video about Leovy's work and her project.

"The Invisible War"

And this is the blog: The Homicide Report

This is truly great blogging, what blogging should be...

"village LinkedIn":

Sean Blagsvedt from Bangalore, India, who once worked for Microsoft in affluent Redmond, WA, has started a social-networking site --Babajob.com-- to match poor job seekers, the poorest of the poor who are anything but computer literate and who can only dream of having access to such high-tech, with the affluent new techies all around them who need their help as chauffeurs, handymen, cooks, maids, day laborers, etc.

When the idea dawned on him, he blurted out, "We need village LinkedIn!'”

Here's a New York Times article about it:

"In India, Poverty Inspires Technology Workers to Altruism"

This is truly great social-networking, what social networking should be...

These two unsung heroes are taking the "Web 2.0" to a whole new level.

Contrast this altruism and concern for others with this: "Age of Riches: After Succeeding, Young Tycoons Try, Try Again"

Perhaps someone should start a blog to list every single serviceman fallen in Iraq...

Or is there one already?

Perhaps someone should start a "village LinkedIn" for every poor country in the world...

Or is there one already?

Working for Google: Sounds like fun...

Is it fun working for Google?

Let me count the ways...

(No, I ain't workin' there --I wish!-- but I can gather a thing or two from the Google blog posts and other sources...)

10. There's the now famous "20 percent time" to work on something that tickles your fancy... ("The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

9. There's the bottom-up management style ("Google works from the bottom up. If you have a great technical idea, you don’t have your V.P. send out a memo telling everybody to use it. Instead, you take it to your fellow engineers and convince them that it’s good." - "The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

8. There's the “grouplet” to work on something to "make a broad change across the whole organization." ("The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

7. There's the “Testing on the Toilet” technique ("the idea of putting up little one-page stories, called episodes, in bathroom stalls discussing new and interesting testing techniques." "The Google Way: Give Engineers Room")

6. There's the "giant scale-model cake of the entire block-long building" in New York to commemorate the first anniversary at the location. ("If you build it, they will eat it")

5. There's the "view of the mountains [from] [...] a lovely city nestled on Lake Washington, with views of the water, the Seattle skyline, and of course Mount Rainier" at the Seattle/Kirkland office. ("Spotlight on Seattle")

4. There's "the furniture tower [...] built after a long session of hacking" at the cube hotel in Savognin, Switzerland during the Zurich hackathon. ("Zurich hackathon")

3. There's the free buffet.

2. There's the free buffet.

And the number one reason it's a whole lotta fun working at Google...

1. The free buffet!!

mmmmmmmmm.....yuuuuuuuuuum!!

Four new international film industry powerhouses you may not have heard about

Kollywood

Not to be confused with "Bollywood," this is the Tamil-language film industry based in Madras, India. It's a happening place. Check it out: "Tamil Nadu film fans vote for Kollywood."

Nollywood

This article claims that the Nigerian film industry is the third largest in the world complete with "some 300 directors churning out an average of 2400 films annually" and the Africa Movie Academy Awards: "Nigerian Film Industry Mixes Digital Tech, Homegrown Scripts."

Abu-Dhabiwood

Oil and war are not the only things coming out of the Middle East these days. Movie financing capital is at the top of the list, too. According to Business Week, "Malek Akkad says he expects to close a $284 million movie fund with wealthy Emirate and other Middle East investors." Hop on the camel caravan of this movie financing bonanza: "Hollywood's Movers and Sheiks."

And last but not least,...

Hugollywood

Venezuelan strong man, Hugo Chavez, wants not only to nationalize the Venezuelan oil industry, he also wants to Hollywoodize the national film industry infusing it with a big dose of cash and national cultural and political interest. If Latin-American history and/or political commentary of the leftist kind is your thing, cash in on this big opportunity south of Miami: "Hugo Chavez funds state-run film studio."

California fires and "citizen journalism"

What'd I tell you? (Lifecasting by Twitter)

--California Fire Followers Set Twitter Ablaze

--Twittering the California wild fires

Two postings on the coverage of the California wild fires by ordinary citizens, not journalists.

For anyone who thought "micro-blogging" or, as it shall soon be probably known, "twittering," was silly or useless, the California wild fires have proven its usefulness and importance.

Has everyone forgotten what happened to Michael Richards?

Cell-phone videos transforming TV news

A cell-phone video practically destroyed his career.

For good or evil, for better or for worse, imagine what Twitter or Justin.tv could do?

As Michael Richards, a public personality in a very public setting, found out, never underestimate the power of nascent technologies...

Just don't take it too far!

Report: 2 arrested over royal blackmail

If what they wanted was money, these two [whatever-you-wanna-call-'em] would have been a lot better off selling the video to the tabloids and letting the pros handle it . It all depends on where and when and how the video was shot. I don't know about you, but I believe that even public figures--yes, even minor royals and Britney Spears--have a right to privacy.

As these two found out after they were arrested and taken to court, there is such a thing as taking citizen journalism too far...

Grammar errors in mainstream media

In "Will Google Crush The iPhone?", Forbes's Brian Caulfield writes,

"BURLINGAME, CALIF. - Take one look at the smart-phone market, and it's easy to see a murderer's row. Apple sold one million iPhones in less than three months this summer. Palm is rejuvenating its lineup with the cheap, pretty Centro. Research in Motion's BlackBerry continues to enslave the corporate class. And Microsoft looms large as well, with its software on 140 phone models available from 160 mobile-phone carriers.

But all those devices are, well, just phones. None truly disrupt the wireless industry."

hmmmmmmmmm... ahem...[cough! cough!]... excuse me but ...ahem ...[cough! cough!]... shouldn't that be

"None truly disruptS the wireless industry"?

Sorry but ...ahem... I'm afraid Mr. Caulfield needs ...ahem... a grammar lesson:

QI Take Out 1- Grammar Lesson

Live video streaming and language learning: Imagine the possibilities!

Here's an interesting article that points to another cool potential use for live video streaming as offered by Justin.tv: Speaking in tongues.

Companies such as FluencyNow are offering live language instruction via webcam.

Imagine the possibilities for live video streaming and language learning.

Suppose you get a group of friends in Paris, Rome, Berlin and Rio to get together at a coffeeshop and set up a cam hooked up to Justin.tv
for anyone learning French, Italian, German or Portuguese to tune in and just listen in as if they were there, as if they were part of the conversation. As a linguist who speaks six languages, I can tell you for a fact that there's nothing better to learn a language than this kind of exposure to the real thing LIVE. If you can't afford to take time off to go to one of these countries and take a course and expose yourself to the language and the culture, live video streaming might be the best alternative.

Sure. You also need interaction with speakers of the language. I can also tell you for a fact that what will take the longest, what will be the hardest is educating, tuning your ear to that new stream of sounds from that foreign language. And to achieve that you need a lot of exposure to the language. Language learners are always misguided into thinking that speaking is what it's all about. Half of language, half of personal interaction, half of conversation is listening. If you don't learn to listen in another language, you will never learn to speak it. Live video streaming could bring that home to you without having to travel overseas!

Imagine the possibilities!

Writers like Randall Stross, who dismiss Justin.tv as boring lifecasting a la Warhol ("Digital Domain: A Site Warhol Would Relish"),
have not even begun to think of the great educational possibilities of live video streaming. The potential for language learning alone is enormous. Since Justin.tv is part of the user-generated media Web 2.0 revolution going on, media generators and media end-users haven't quite figured it out yet and are drifting alone, doing their own thing, trying to attract attention. Language learning may well be one of the interests that brings them together.