Overview

The purpose of this book is to provide telecommunications and digital media professionals with a collection of must-know terms and concepts that are likely to pop up in their daily conversations or appear in news articles or informational media that address our increasingly technological world. It is also intended for anyone who simply wants to know more of what makes today s technological world go around. The use of essential in the title is not accidental.

Although there are many high-quality books and web sites that provide an exhaustive collection of every technical term imaginable, this book aspires to whittle those tens of thousands down to a manageable and practical list of Internet, telephony, telecommunications, broadcasting, and computing terms that most professionals actually need to master whether they are just getting started in a new field or are well established in their own area of expertise. And for those whose work responsibilities do not fit neatly into a high-tech category, many of the terms in this book are still important to know as large-scale digitization continues to shape almost every aspect of modern life.

The very first edition of Tech Terms was published by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1996, with a follow-up edition four years later. These earlier editions of Tech Terms focused primarily on terms related to the broadcasting and telecommunications industries, with the second edition incorporating some emerging computer and cyberspace terms. This current edition represents an almost complete reworking of the original material, with...