I can't tell if I was influential or just ahead of the market. Regular Net-Savvy Executive readers saw What's your word for people? here last month, when I mused about using words like user and consumer (among others) to describe people. This week, Forrester VP Josh Bernoff kicked off a full-blown meme with I'm sick of users, in which he gives a fuller explanation of why he prefers people to users. Max Kalehoff adds The “user” is dead, but what about the consumer?
Naturally, I enjoyed both posts.
Tags: Tag you're it
Comments (3)
I first heard this debate a year ago between Joseph Jaffe and Jackie Huba on The Across the Sound podcast. It keeps getting picked up on again and off again. I can't decide if it's just semantics or if it really matters all that much.
Posted by Tac Anderson | July 27, 2007 11:16 PM
Hi Nathan,
I probably skimmed your piece some time ago, though I didn't consciously acknowledge it when I wrote mine. For stated reasons, I've been annoyed with the term UGC, and have been encountering more usage of it lately. That growing annoyance coupled with my deadline to submit a story for the next day was my conscious driver. Net: you were a leading indicator, technically, and may have influenced me, though I can't say for sure.
Cheers,
Max
Posted by Max Kalehoff | July 28, 2007 8:57 AM
Tac, I think it's mostly semantics. The fact is, these labels are useful. I'd just like people to consider the person beyond the role from time to time. Too much exposure to customer-hostile business practices, I guess.
Max, thanks.
Posted by Nathan Gilliatt
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July 30, 2007 11:31 AM