I’ve yet to congratulate you on your move to the BCC, so a belated kudos. And further congrats on your good press.

There is also someone I would like to introduce you to, I will write you.

cheers,
Chris

Personally I’ve not found the BBC half as bad as IBM, a place so full of acronyms they have an IM bot that tells you what they mean…

I really liked the BBC Internet Blog post last year about about Barley and Barlesque which explained a Birtspeak quote, especially for the explanation that it’s named after Nathan Barley.

Good job its a forum not a group as it would then be SMEG.

I envy you. I’ve never been in Private Eye.

But I didn’t think there was much Birtspeak in the article – not compared to other articles in Ariel anyway.

The jargon at the BBC is very different to that at IBM, and I’m building a list of examples. I actually think I did a reasonable job in the Ariel article of avoiding some of the nonsense I’m likely to spout (or, perhaps, the writer was careful to leave out my worst excesses. I certainly remember waffling a lot during the interview).

I loathe the crap-speak that is throughout the organisation: it’s impenetrable to a newcomer. I never use three-letter-acronyms, and try to use simple, sensible language. I’m sadly in the minority.

Birt-Speak can, however, come over as Private Eye appearing deliberately luddite, in the “humorous” but ultimately embarrassing “Oh, I don’t understand this new techie stuff” type way much beloved of radio presenters.

Walking past Private Eye, as I do from time to time, a look through the window would leave you with the idea that the magazine’s edited together with typewriters and spray-glue. And, as a subscriber, it’s none the worse for that.