Web Seminars

Dear Readers,

One of the things I look forward to each day is receiving my "word of the day" emails from my favorite online dictionaries - yes, dictionaries, plural. I enjoy learning or perhaps simply reviewing the definitions and etymology of various words and phrases - some are applicable to daily vernacular and some may be obscure, but all are interesting to me. Of course, that wordsmith interest maps well to my role and job duties as editor.

As information professionals, it is important to also have solid understanding of definitions of the concepts you deal with on a daily basis. For instance, when was the last time you considered the definition of "information management"? It is a term we use regularly, but when did you study its definition? Greg Todd not only provides a definition in his column on page 21, but also states in no uncertain terms the necessity of determining a long-term strategy for your information management initiatives. How could you be fully effective in these endeavors without truly grasping the fundamental pieces within the definition of information management? The understanding of and commitment to the strategy will ensure your programs stay on track as the business world continually changes.

As the business and IT worlds evolve, some terms fall by the wayside and become obscure - or perhaps they were obscure to begin with - as Malcolm Chisholm lightheartedly points out in his column on page 8. Additionally, innovative technologies create newly defined concepts that may find application in the workplace. Erica Driver introduces one such area, the immersive Internet, as a new topic of coverage for DM Review and shares the potential impact of "in-world work" on the way organizations conduct business in her article on page 30.

If you'd like to review industry definitions, our glossary on DMReview.com can help. Are there terms within the information management realm that you would like more clearly defined? Email the term or suggest a definition to me at julie.langenkamp@sourcemedia.com.

Enjoy the issue,

Julie Langenkamp

Julie Langenkamp is editor-in-chief of Information Management. She can be reached at julie.langenkamp@sourcemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JulieLangenkamp.