Using a common language

In 2015 - 2016, the global team begun the work to formalize the language we use to describe our organization both internally and externally. By building upon their efforts, we have established a common language to improve our ability to communicate clearly and consistently about World IA Day.

Our language is defined using English terms but, to be clear, we are not mandating that you use English to communicate with people in your region. Rather, we encourage you to use the appropriate translation of these terms when communicating in your native language.

If you feel up to it, we welcome you to help us with the translation of these terms by adding to our lexicon.

Frequently used terms

Below are terms used frequently when we communicate about World IA Day, whether through content or conversation.

WIAD

Acronym for World IA Day. We prefer this term to be used when there are limitations in content length (Twitter) or when speaking informally about our celebration.

Event

Describes our WIAD events. We decided to use the term event instead of conference to communicate our openness to gatherings of any size.

Location

Describes places around the world holding a celebration. We use the term location instead of city realizing that not all celebrations are held in a city:

• Rhein-Neckar, Germany - a region that includes two major cities: Mannheim and Heidelberg.

• San Gabriel Valley. CA. United States - a region part of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area

• Singapore - the world’s only island city-state.

• Tampa Bay, FL, United States - a metropolitan statistical area on the west coast of Florida that encompasses Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Brandon, and Spring Hill

Program Schedule

Describes the timeline and content of your celebration. We looked at how people in previous years referred to the organization of their day. Many locations used the terms Program or Schedule so we decided to adopt the phrase as part of our language.

Local Organizer

Describes the people who are selected to bring World IA Day to their community. In past years, people in this role were described as producers or leaders. We feel the terms organizer or local organizer are better descriptors.

Local Team

Describes the people who make a long term commitment to assist location organizers in the planning and implementation of a celebration.

Volunteer

Describes a person who is interested in donating time to help a local celebration. This term is used as a call to action on our website to give local organizers a way to recruit people to their team.

Presenter / Speaker

Describes a person that contributes time and content for a presentation, workshop or panel discussion at a celebration. Both terms are used in a heading on our website to denote where information will be displayed about these people.

Region

Describes an area of the world where locations are hosting celebrations. On our website, participating locations are grouped into regions to help improve the findability of a location. Research conducted by the 2015 - 2016 team, concluded that people preferred locations to be grouped by regions instead of alphabetically.

• Asia-Pacific

• Europe and Africa

• Latin America

• Middle East

• North America