The American Dialect Society is recognized—at least by me—as the top voice (so to speak) when it comes to declaring what words are most important to our language. The ADS annually selects the word of the year. In recent years technology has figured in the battle for this honor.

The ADS has shown its appreciation of technology in the past. Its 2010 word of the year was app; in 2009 it was tweet. The word of the decade from 2000 to 2009 was google.

This year, the choice focused more on sociology than technology. The ADS selected occupy as its word of the year.

Not to worry, tech people. The ADS membership also votes on newer words—or older words with newer meanings—and their acceptance level in society. In the category of words most likely to succeed, the winner was cloud.

I'm not going to argue that cloud should be the word of the year—at least in the insurance technology field—but there certainly should be no dispute that cloud belongs near the top of the list of technology changes that are likely to succeed.

Cloud computing is the focus in several areas as both the business side and technologists learn more about its capabilities.

In his blog at NetMagic Collect, Karan Kirpalani writes:

“For many industries, insurance included, the increasing importance of cloud computing derives from its fit with current business priorities: it provides the capabilities businesses need on a flexible basis, helping companies respond quickly and cost-effectively to changing conditions either through a public or a private cloud. By combining virtualization and multi-tenant architectures with a pay-as-you go business model, cloud computing represents a new model that will significantly impact the way IT infrastructure, platform, application and business process capabilities are procured, supported and delivered.”

It's not surprising that consumers are enjoying the benefits of the cloud as well, particularly storage of music and pictures. You didn't think cloud would be recognized by the ADS if it was strictly a word for IT workers or insurance companies, did you?

There's no shortage of tech words that have become mainstream, but as the world increasingly looks to technology for the future, what technologist say will continue to affect the world we live in. It's written in the clouds.

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Most Likely to Succeed

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