Monday 22 October 2007

Word of the day

Today's word is jamboree. I use this quite often as a synonym for words like conference, seminar, forum, symposium, workshop, colloquium, convention, meeting and round table. More recent additions to the lexicon for meetings and conferences include master class (a clever stroke by the commercial meetings industry). None of them conveys a sense of excitement, however, or even that there is often a significant social dimension. That is why I think we should introduce, without sacrificing meaning, more interesting terms for our conferences, starting with jamboree. Who will have the first library jamboree? Or a nice metadata jamboree, perhaps, or even a repositories jamboree. Initially, it may be best not to worry about credibility.

You won't regret it, unless of course the trade practices people get you for misrepresentation. And the American Werewolf Academy (a band) even has a library jamboree song.

1 comment:

baz said...

Perhaps Jamboree should vest with the scouts, its a earned title