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@ingridlotze in a panel discussion with @art2gee and @MichBranco on Media Matters on SABC 3, Saturday, 4 December 2010

I’m fortunate enough to be involved in the industry so many of these are known to me, however when my friend asked what RAM was I had an ‘aha’ moment and thought why not spread the word and share what I know. Below are a few TLA’s (three letter acronyms) explained, we have tired to take the confusion out of a few ICT terms.

LCD – liquid crystal display this is simply a thin, flat panel that uses liquid crystal cells that change reflectivity in an applied electric field. It can be used to display text, images, and moving pictures. Its uses include monitors for computers, televisions, and instrument panels to mention just a few.

LED light-emitting diode, this one is a little harder to explain but here goes: – it is a semiconductor light source. WOW – and what is that??? This semiconductor or diode allows current/electricity to travel in one direction only. When a current/electricity is run through the diode it emits photons, “units” of light.

RAM Random-access memory is a type of computer information/data storage that provides much faster access than your Hard Disk Drive. It allows stored information to be accessed in any order (i.e., at random). Which, trust me, makes your life so much easier. You want to be able to access Facebook, your Outlook quickly, check figures in a spreadsheet while you write a letter to your client. RAM allows all of this to happen. So you can retrieve any piece of data constantly regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the previous piece of data.

HDD Hard disk drive, by the book this means a computer device which stores digitally encoded data??? Hmm, ok so in other words, the mother load, the all important hub, and where everything you do on your computer gets translated into 0100011101010101 – computer speak.

GB Gigabyte, a unit of information used. It is important to know how many your computer has, because it will let you know what your computer’s storage capacity is and how fast and powerful your computer is. More GB is better. Remember RAM and HDD are different types of memory; both will have a GB capacity. You need more HDD than RAM.

CPU Central Processing Unit or the processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the computer’s functions. Often in my frustration I blame my computer, when actually it is just following a command – your command. The processor reads the computer speak 0101010100001101001010, and translates into what you see on the screen.

App Application this is a program or group of programs designed for you – the end-user. Applications software (also called end-user programs) includes database programs, word processors, and spreadsheets. They provide many of the functions you use everyday.

Ingrid Lotze speaking to Ashraf Garda on MEDIA @ SAfm on Sunday, 22 November 2009 in response to her opinion piece on “Print media’s decline: what are the consequences for PR? ”

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With the bastion that was printed media struggling to cope with declining advertising spends and the explosion of social media, campaigns that connect companies directly with their customers will distinguish spectacular PR agencies from the average, writes Ingrid Lotze, managing director of puruma business communications.

The announced closure of The Weekender and its subsequent last edition on Saturday is sad news. However, its demise is merely an exclamation point in a much larger tale that is playing itself out locally and abroad.

2009 has not been a gentle mistress for printed publications in South Africa. According to Ibis Media, almost 130 publications have been suspended, closed down or combined as of the end of October 2009. While nearly the same amount of new publications have been launched, presumably to exploit new niches, print media is precariously balanced on its pedestal, with declining advertising spend threatening to knock it off.

Globally, the trend is no different. Paper Cuts — a website that tracks the number of shut-downs and job losses in the American newspaper industry — estimates that over 130 US newspapers have closed so far in 2009.

The evidence seems to suggest that print media is struggling to remain relevant to audiences who are increasingly turning to the internet for their news and relying on niche communities of their peers for information, advice and guidance.

Two-way conversations

While print media remains a valid channel for specific messages clients may wish to promote, the power to define a clients’ brands, services and products has long since shifted out of these traditional mainstays and into the hands of the public.

Blogs, social networks, collaborative online information portals, such as Wikipedia, and easily accessible multimedia sites are helping individuals define and dictate how they interact with companies and brands.

More importantly, this shift has highlighted the importance of creating two-way ‘conversations’ with customers, whether it is through digital social media or more commonplace avenues.

A toppled wall

As audiences and communication channels have multiplied and fragmented, controlling the flow of information has become almost impossible. The mentality that divides public relations, the media and the public is the debris of a toppled wall that cannot be rebuilt. Nevertheless, this destruction is also beneficial and an invitation to PR agencies and companies to talk, directly and honestly, with the communities only understood via proxy for so long.

One only needs to look at the example of Frank Eliason, a Comcast service manager who suggested managing Comcast’s customer queries through Twitter. The move has allowed Comcast, with very little capital outlay, to see what people are ‘tweeting’ about their service and engage with these individuals one-on-one on a public platform where everyone is watching. Comcast and Frank’s success is not the result of leveraging a technological service, but through recognising that it is the people that matter, not the technological medium.

Printed media continues to offer certain benefits: the credibility readers attach to the publication and writers associated with it, a mature channel of communication and a platform for focused advertising campaigns. But PR agencies have always wished for an undiluted, efficient means of communicating with their client’s customers. As the saying warns, be careful what you wish for because you may receive it.

Also to be seen @: http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/18/41924.html