Glossary of Terms

Accessibility

Accessibility can be thought of as "providing access regardless of the situation or circumstances." In the context of the World Wide Web, accessibility is a measure of how easy it is to access, read, and understand the content of a Website.

Attachment

Normally a file that is attached to an e-mail. Some attachments are executable programs that can harm your computer by infecting it with a virus or worm. If you are not sure what the attachment is, it is safer to not open it.

B2B

Business to Business. Products and services designed to be sold to other businesses.

B2C

Business To Consumer. Products and services designed to be sold to the general public.

Benchmarking

The practice of comparing the performance of your organisation, department or function against the performance of &#39the best&#39 - whether they be other organisations, industry standards or internal departments. The aim is to look at how well you are doing compared to others in the same field or industry, and to learn from their best practices as a basis for improving your own.

Best Practice

A process or methodology that has been proven to work well and produce good results, and is therefore recommended as a model. Some people prefer to use the term &#39good practice&#39 as in reality it is debateable whether there is a single &#39best&#39 approach.

Breadcrumb

A breadcrumb is a navigation trail that leads from the user?s current location in your web site, back to the home page. This is useful for larger web sites that have deeply nested pages or sections in their site.

Example: Home > All Categories > Pre Sales Questions

Browser

Software that translates digital information into pictures and text so that you can view them on your computer. Some commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, Opera and Netscape.

Capacity Building

A term sometimes used in knowledge management to describe the process of enhancing an organisation&#39s ability to implement knowledge management principles and practices.

CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA (an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart", trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human. The term was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper of Carnegie Mellon University, and John Langford of IBM. A common type of CAPTCHA requires that the user type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen.

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

A senior position with strategic responsibility for information management and information technology.

Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)

A senior position with strategic responsibility for knowledge management.

CMS

In computing, a content management system (CMS) is a document centric collaborative application for managing documents and other content. A CMS is often a web application and often it is used as a method of managing web sites and web content. The market for content management systems remains fragmented, with many open source and proprietary solutions available.

Codification

The process of getting people&#39s knowledge into a form by which it can be communicated independently of those people. The most common method is writing things down and putting them into documents and databases. Other methods include pictures, and sound and video recordings.

Contact Center

A contact center (also referred to as a customer interaction center or e-contact center) is a central point in an enterprise from which all customer contacts are managed. A contact center would typically be provided with special software that would allow contact information to be routed to appropriate people, contacts to be tracked, and data to be gathered.

Content Management

Content Management, also known as CM, is a set of processes and technologies supporting the evolutionary life cycle of digital information. This digital information is often referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content.

Customer Service and Support

Customer service and support (CSS) is the part of a company&#39s customer relationship management (CRM) department that interacts with a customer for their immediate benefit, including components such as the contact center, the help desk, and the call management system.

Data

A set of facts, concepts or statistics that can be analysed to produce information.

DNS - Domain Name System

The Domain Name System (DNS) helps users to find their way around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address - just like a telephone number - which is a rather complicated string of numbers. It is called its "IP address" (IP stands for "Internet Protocol"). IP Addresses are hard to remember. The DNS makes using the Internet easier by allowing a familiar string of letters (the "domain name") to be used instead of the arcane IP address. So instead of typing an IP address, you can type the website URL. It is a "mnemonic" device that makes addresses easier to remember.

Document

A record of an event or knowledge, taken so that the information will not be lost. Documents are usually written, but they can also be made up of images or sound. Documents can also be put into electronic or digital form and stored in a computer.

Dynamic Content

A page that is generated just as the user views it. The content delivered to the user is often updated on-the-spot out of a database or based upon the users browser. It used to be easy to spot one of these pages, but with most systems now allowing dynamic content from any page at any time, you just never know. Search engines no longer penalize for dynamic content as long as the URL does not include submitted data (a ? question mark in the url).

E-Business

The use of electronic information systems (especially internet technologies) in business processes.

E-Learning

The use of electronic information systems (especially internet technologies) to deliver learning and training.

Expert System

An expert system is a computer program that simulates the judgement and behavior of a human or an organization that has expert knowledge and experience in a particular field. Typically, such a system contains a knowledge base containing accumulated experience and a set of rules for applying the knowledge base to each particular situation that is described to the program. Sophisticated expert systems can be enhanced with additions to the knowledge base or to the set of rules.

Explicit Knowledge

Knowledge that can be easily expressed in words or numbers, and can be shared through discussion or by writing it down and putting it into documents, manuals or databases. Examples might include a telephone directory, an instruction manual, or a report of research findings.

Firewall

Software that protects an organisation&#39s computer systems from problems such as viruses that can be carried by internet technologies or hackers seeking to gain unauthorised access.

Flash

Software from Macromedia (Now Adobe) that is popular for animations used on websites. It requires the Flash plug-in which most modern browsers include.

Help Desk

In a business enterprise, a help desk is a place that a user of information technology can call to get help with a problem. In many companies, a help desk is simply one person with a phone number and a more or less organized idea of how to handle the problems that come in. In larger companies, a help desk may consist of a group of experts using software to help track the status of problems and other special software to help analyze problems. Some common names for a help desk include: Computer Support Center, IT Response Center, Customer Support Center, IT Solutions Center, Resource Center, Information Center, and Technical Support Center.

Human Capital

The knowledge, skills and competencies of the people in an organisation.

ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. Originally, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and other entities performed these services under U.S. Government contract. ICANN now performs the IANA function. As a private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes. The DNS translates the domain name you type into the corresponding IP address, and connects you to your desired website. The DNS also enables email to function properly, so the email you send will reach the intended recipient.

Information management

The management of an organisation&#39s information resources in order to improve the performance of the organisation. Information management underpins knowledge management, as people derive knowledge from information.

Information technology (IT)

A term that encompasses the physical elements of computing including servers, networks and desktop computing which enable digital information to be created, stored, used and shared.

Intellectual Assets Management

The management of an organisation&#39s intellectual assets in order to improve the performance of the organisation. In practice, intellectual assets management tends to focus on issues relating to intellectual property such as organising and exploiting patents, copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights.

ISP - Internet Service Provider

An ISP is a company, which provides access to the Internet to organizations and/or individuals. Access services provided by ISPs may include web hosting, email, VoIP (voice over IP), and support for many other applications.

Know-how

Skill or capability derived from knowledge and experience.

Knowledge

In information technology, knowledge is, to an enterprise or an individual, the possession of information or the ability to quickly locate it. This is essentially what Samuel Johnson, compiler of the first comprehensive English dictionary, said when he wrote that "Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."

Knowledge Assets (or: Intellectual Assets)

Those parts of an organisation&#39s intangible assets that relate specifically to knowledge, such as know-how, best practices, intellectual property and the like. Knowledge assets are often divided into human (people, teams, networks and communities), structural (the codified knowledge that can be found in processes and procedures) and technological (the technologies that support knowledge sharing such as databases and intranets). By understanding the knowledge assets an organisation possesses, the organisation can improve its ability to use them to best effect and also to spot any gaps that may exist.

Knowledge Base

A knowledge base is defined as a Searchable Database with Answers to the Questions. An integral component of knowledge management systems, a knowledge base is used to optimize information collection, organization, and retrieval for an organization, or for the general public. Read More

Knowledge Broker

A person who facilitates the creation, sharing and use of knowledge in an organisation. Many organisations have created knowledge broker roles such as &#39Knowledge Co-ordinator&#39. The term knowledge broker is also sometimes used to describe companies or individuals that operate commercially as knowledge traders or provide knowledge-related services.

Knowledge Centre

A place where knowledge is gathered and stored and can be accessed and used by other people. It may be a physical place like a library, a &#39virtual&#39 place like an interactive website or an online discussion board, or a place where people gather such as a caf? or an informal meeting room or discussion area created to encourage knowledge sharing.

Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is the name of a concept in which an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills. Read More

Knowledge Management Solution

Strictly speaking, a solution to a knowledge management problem, or the use of knowledge management techniques to solve an organisational problem. However, in practice a &#39knowledge management solution&#39 more often refers to a piece of knowledge management technology or software.

Knowledge Management Strategy

A detailed plan outlining how an organisation intends to implement knowledge management principles and practices in order to achieve organisational objectives.

Knowledge Repository

A place to store and retrieve explicit knowledge. A low-tech knowledge repository could be a set of file folders. A high-tech knowledge repository might be based on a database platform.

Knowledge Worker

An employee whose role relies on his or her ability to find and use knowledge.

LAMP

LAMP is an open source Web development platform based on Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, a programming language for which Perl or Python is sometimes substituted. The term was coined in Europe, where these programs are commonly used together and have become something of a standard development environment. The name derives from the first letters of each of the programs. Each program is an open source standard in its own right: Linux is the operating system; Apache is the most commonly-used Web server; MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) with add-on tools for Web-based administration; and PHP is a popular object-oriented scripting language that encompasses the best features of many other programming languages to make it efficient for Web development. Developers that use these tools with a version of a Windows operating system instead of Linux are said to be using WAMP.

Link Popularity

The number of links (inbound) from other sites to your site. Some search engines take this into account when ranking a page. Not all inbound links are weighed the same. Links from "link farms" may not count for anything. Sites with irrelevant content may also be less valuable.

MySQL

The MySQL? database has become the world&#39s most popular open source database because of its consistent fast performance, high reliability and ease of use. It&#39s used in more than 8 million installations ranging from large corporations to specialized embedded applications on every continent in the world.

Not only is MySQL the world&#39s most popular open source database, it&#39s also become the database of choice for a new generation of applications built on the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python.) MySQL runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, OS/X, HP-UX, AIX, Netware, giving you the kind of flexibility that puts you in control.

Whether you&#39re new to database technology or an experienced developer or DBA, MySQL offers a comprehensive range of certified software, support, training and consulting to make you successful.

Phishing

Phishing - a play on the word "fishing" - is an attempt to steal your password and private account info. Phishers can set up fake web sites that look like those of trusted companies to trick you into disclosing your user name and password.

Related Links:

• Phishing - a Whatis.com definition
• Phishing - Glossary

PHP

PHP is a script language and interpreter that is freely available and used primarily on Linux Web servers. PHP, originally derived from Personal Home Page Tools, now stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, which the PHP FAQ describes as a "recursive acronym."

PHPKB

PHPKB is a Knowledge Base Management System that allows easy creation and management of a complete FAQ system, Article Directory or a Customer Support Knowledge Base System. With Hundreds of options and Powerful Features, PHPKB is easy to install and customize.

Portal

A special web page that organises access to all of the online resources about a topic, providing a one-stop shop of sorts.

Reciprocal Linking

Placing an outbound link from your website to another website in return for that site doing the same for you. This is done in hopes of increasing link popularity and thus, a higher ranking in the search engine results.

Return on Investment (ROI)

An estimate of the financial benefit (the return) on money spent (the investment) on a particular initiative.

RSS

RSS (RDF Site Summary - formerly called Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a method of describing news or other Web content that is available for "feeding" (distribution or syndication) from an online publisher to Web users. RSS is an application of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) that adheres to the World Wide Web Consortium&#39s Resource Description Framework (RDF). Originally developed by Netscape for its browser&#39s Netcenter channels, the RSS specification is now available for anyone to use.

Script

In computer programming, a script is a program or sequence of instructions that is interpreted or carried out by another program rather than by the computer processor.

Search Engine

On the Internet, a search engine is a coordinated set of programs that includes:

• A spider (also called a "crawler" or a "bot") that goes to every page or representative pages on every Web site that wants to be searchable and reads it, using hypertext links on each page to discover and read a site&#39s other pages.
• A program that creates a huge index (sometimes called a "catalog") from the pages that have been read.
• A program that receives your search request, compares it to the entries in the index, and returns results to you.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

These solutions are the cumulative effort of marketing a web site using search engines. It includes the process of improving organic and/or paid listings, rapid inclusion and more to increase a web site&#39s visibility, also known as SEO marketing.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of manipulating aspects of a Web site to improve its ranking in search engines. Various approaches are taken to achieve that goal, such as submitting the Web site to directory services, and addressing Web site architecture and content.

Search Query

Search Query is referred to as the way of interaction between search engine & the user. The user types in words or topics to search for, and the search engine returns results that are matches from its database. The action of searching is called Querying the database. A single search in any database is called a Query.

Search Rank

How well a page is doing on a search engine. The higher your rank, the more visible your page is to search engine users.

SERP

Search engine result page. Simply the pages that are returned from as a result of a search on a search engine.

Site Map

A page on a web site that lists and links to the main pages of the web site in a logical order. It is recommended for medium to large sites. It helps both human visitors as well as search engine spiders find your website content.

Site Submission

The SEO marketing process of registering a site with a search engine. It does not guarantee inclusion, but will usually lead to it being reviewed or crawled by the web site. It offers no guarantee of ranking. It can be done manually, or using some commercial software packages that are available.

Spider

A term for a search engine robot that scans web sites for indexing them into their search results.

Sponsored Link

A link that someone paid to be listed.

Thesaurus

An organised language, used for inputting and searching information systems, which predefines the relationships between terms and concepts used in its vocabulary.

Title Tag

Also referred to as Website Title, It is a form of Meta data used by search engines to describe the titles of web pages. Search engine ranking algorithms place value in the use of title tags in determining what a site is about and the relevancy of its content.

TLD - Top-level Domain

TLDs are the names at the top of the DNS naming hierarchy. They appear in domain names as the string of letters following the last (rightmost) ".", such as "net" in "www.example.net". The administrator for a TLD controls what second-level names are recognized in that TLD. The administrators of the "root domain" or "root zone" control what TLDs are recognized by the DNS. Commonly used TLDs include .com, .net, .edu, .org, .in, .jp, .de, etc.

Toolbar

An addon program for a browser that creates a bar across the browser - most often under the menu line. These often provide search query boxes and other features. Most of the major search engines have Toolbars. They are also referred as "Custom Toolbar" or "Search Toolbar".

Traffic (Web Traffic)

Web Traffic refers to the amount of visitors accessing your website. These are often refered to as either &#39impressions&#39 or unique hits&#39. Unique hits signifies a unique person or individual visiting your website. If one person visits your site, they are considered 1 unique hit. Impressions refer to one person visiting multiple pages on your site. If one person visits your site, but clicks on 10 different pages, you would have 10 impressions from that person.

W3C

World Wide Web Consortium, an international consortium of companies involved with the Internet and the Web. The W3C was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the original architect of the World Wide Web. The organization&#39s purpose is to develop open standards so that the Web evolves in a single direction rather than being splintered among competing factions. The W3C is the chief standards body for HTTP and HTML.

Web Pages

Documents that contain text, graphics, sound, and/or video and have built-in connections called hyperlinks. A Web page or webpage is a "page" of the World Wide Web, usually in HTML/XHTML format (the file extensions are typically htm or html) and with hypertext links to enable navigation from one page or section to another. Web pages often use associated graphics files to provide illustration, and these too can be clickable links. Web pages can be static or dynamic. Dynamic web pages contain server side programming code along with content of the page while static pages contain no server side programming code.

Web self-service

Web self-service is a new approach to customer relationship management (CRM) and employee relationship management (ERM), a version of electronic support (e-support) that allows customers and employees to access information and perform routine tasks over the Internet, without requiring any interaction with a representative of an enterprise.

Web Server

A computer, including software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. More specifically, a server is a computer that manages and shares web based applications accessible anytime from any computer connected to the Internet.

A specialized computer inside a network which sends out web content (pages, etc.) when a request is made by a web browser client. A website itself is hosted on the web server. Popular server platforms include Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, and MAC OSX Server

White Pages

In knowledge management terms a white pages is a structured directory of people within an organisation, usually in electronic form.

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get--A term, pronounced "Wissy wig" which is usually used to describe an HTML editor that allows you to visually design a web page.

XML

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. XML is "extensible" because, unlike HTML, the markup symbols are unlimited and self-defining.

Yahoo!

Yahoo is another big search engine. Yahoo still commands a large user base, but not as big as Google. Yahoo offers many different marketing tools for both sending and recieving traffic. It is a complete portal that offers almost all types of the internet related services.