Welcome the The Shaker ‘Explainer’ – your guide to the latest jargon that will keep you 'on-fleek' and 'lit'. While you’re busy focusing on the challenges of the day ahead, we’re here to keep you up-to-date on the discussions at the coffee queue.

 

 

The Fog

At first, this team appears as shapeless and ephemeral as the weather phenomenon, but the first hint as to the meaning of this new term is its parent – cloud computing.

The cloud works nicely as it simplifies the the highly complex concept of storing data in a remote server. Where is your document? It’s somewhere ‘up there’ in the cloud which paints a ubiquitous picture of the ability to access that data anywhere, anytime.

 

 

The Fog takes this idea and applies it to The Internet of Things (IoT). Rather than data and processing occurring elsewhere, the IoT brings that activity all around you to solve problems within your immediate vicinity.

Imagine your home ten years from now: on a hot summer day, an external light sensor notes the sun rising and talks to the thermometer. The thermometer, noting that the temperature is rapidly increasing, talks to the automated curtains and blinds, which close off the house to keep the internal temperature as low as possible. Following that, the air conditioner, noting a slight bump in temperature, clicks on the bring house down to 21 degrees, etc… etc…

 

 

This is ‘The Fog’. A collection of small devices using the internet to communicate and solve problems that surround you. The same thinking can be applied to the workplace, where computer work together to constantly deliver desired outcomes without the need for human intervention.

Interesting…

… but that’s much more contentious (and highly disruptive) concept that deserves better analysis that right here right now.

 

 

Reactions

If you’re reading this on the morning of Thursday 25 February, then this might be a new term. You can be sure that over the next 48 hours, approximately 1.5 billion people will engage with this new product.

 

 

Reactions are Facebook’s long-mooted move into allowing users to provide multiple responses to posts from their friends. If someone is having a whinge about a new dent in their car, a ‘like’ doesn’t really convey a message of sympathy and support.

On the desktop, hover over the ‘Like’ button see further options including Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry. On mobile, press and hold the Like button to do the same.

 

 

Apparently, Love is already a frontrunner for most-used. Who said social media was all snark and bitterness?