Terms of art don’t make business easier. They can be misused and lead to confusion, or wielded for intimidation and deceit. Plus they annoy me sometimes. So I was glad to learn that NYU’s Governance Lab (@TheGovLab) created the Tech-Policy Dictionary, a project to “break down the barriers between tech and policy so we can all better understand each other.”

It crowdsources shared knowledge to build consensus on technical terms and jargon. Words like “RFP” and “solicitation.”

I loved the idea so much, I posted a companion Cloud Acquisition Dictionary. Anyone may contribute definitions for cloud-related terms to this worksheet I put on Google Drive. If we get enough interest, we can move this from a Drive document to a real product. In fact, the Gov Lab put their code on GitHub and are encouraging that others use it to build-out the Tech-Policy Dictionary.

If you are a CLP-earner, I’ll award half a CLP for every 5 contributions you make.