Co-funded by the European Commission
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Glossary

PROMISLingua has a very innovative approach which requires a common understanding and a common nomenclature. The following section presents a list of specialist words and their definitions

Linux
What do you do if you're not happy with any of the current operating systems? You build your own, of course. That's exactly what Linus Torvalds did. His freely distributed, Intel-processor-based alternative to Unix, Linux (pronounced lih-nucks), is currently used by hundreds of thousands - and possibly millions - of people around the world.
While Linux began life primarily as a hobby for supergeeks, the operating system has made some inroads into corporate life, particularly as an inexpensive substitute for high-priced Unix Web servers.
Linux is available from a number of vendors for several hardware platforms, including Intel x86, DEC Alpha, Sun Sparc, and Motorola PowerPC.
LISTSERV
Email list management software developed by L-Soft International. See also email list.

Source: Learning Circuits

LMS (learning management system)
Software that automates the administration of training. The LMS registers users, tracks courses in a catalog, records data from learners; and provides reports to management. An LMS is typically designed to handle courses by multiple publishers and providers. It usually does not include its own authoring capabilities; instead, it focuses on managing courses created by a variety of other sources.

Source: Learning Circuits

Local Management Assistant (LMA)
Local Management Assistants (LoMAs) are people that, after training, can assist the SMEs in applying myPROMIS® (e.g. with data entry) and support the work of the PROMIS Qualified Consultants. They are employed and paid by the SME generally on a part-time basis.

Source: PROMIS@Service Sarl

Localization
The tailoring of an offering to meet the specific needs of a geographic area, product, or target audience.

Source: Learning Circuits

Log in/Log on
To establish a connection over a network or modem with a remote computer to retrieve or exchange information.

Source: Learning Circuits

Log off
To terminate a connection to a computer or network.

Source: Learning Circuits

Login
The process entering in information related to an account name and its password in order to access a time-sharing computer.
LRN
Microsoft s Learning Resource Interchange, a format that gives content creators a standard way to identify, share, update, and create online content and courseware. LRN is the first commercial application of the IMS Content Packaging Specification.

Source: Learning Circuits

LSP (learning service provider)
A specialized ASP offering learning management and training delivery software on a hosted or rental basis.

Source: Learning Circuits

Lurking
Reading the postings in a discussion forum or on a listserv but not contributing to the discussion.

Source: Learning Circuits

M-learning (mobile learning)
Learning that takes place via such wireless devices as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or laptop computers.

Source: Learning Circuits

M-work
The main concept in M-work is anything, anytime, anywhere – i.e. the access to relevant information independent of time and space. This concept enables flexibility in the work process and is a driver for productivity improvements.
M-work will change the user behaviour like Internet technology changed the working day for most of us. Specific user communities with special needs will lead to develop good M-work concepts.
Mailing list
An e-mail system that includes multiple recipients as part of its address. See e-mail.
Management philosophy statements
Formal enunciations of the company or CEO s way of doing business.

Source: http://www-old.itcilo.org

Management System
A management system is the collection of policy, rules and guidance that control and guide processes to achieve the organisation’s objectives. The nature of a Management System is structural and acts on processes which are dynamic in nature.
The Management System may be written down within formal controlled Documents (A6) or may be defined within other myPROMIS Elements e.g. software structure can define part of the Management System.

Source: PROMIS@Service Sarl

Marketing
Marketing is "the process of planning and executing the pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, ideas, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals."

Source: The American Marketing Association

Markup
Text or codes added to a document to convey information about it. Usually used to formulate a document s layout or create links to other documents or information servers. HTML is a common form of markup.

Source: Learning Circuits

Material (structure) A5
Product, materials, substances, energy, forming part of or produced by the business process. May be biological, radioactive etc. Note these may be desired or undesired (e.g. waste is also ‘material’).

Source: PROMIS@Service Sarl

Mbps (megabits per second)
A measurement of data transmission speed in a communication system; the number of megabits transmitted or received each second.

Source: Learning Circuits

Megabyte
Although mega is Greek for a million, a megabyte actually contains 1,048,576 bytes (1,024 x 1,024 bytes). In other words, a million bytes is actually less than a megabyte. Remember that the next time you buy a hard disk or try to fit files onto a floppy disk. Abbreviated as MB.
Member
Member, means a legal entity, an international organisation, or the JRC, other than a beneficiary, which has concluded a membership agreement signed with a beneficiary in agreement with the Community and in accordance with this grant agreement and having, by virtue of that membership agreement, the same rights and obligations as the beneficiary unless the former stipulates otherwise.

Source: European Commission

Membership agreement
Means the agreement concluded between the participants for the specific needs of the project in accordance with the conditions of this grant agreement.

Source: European Commission

Mentoring
A career development process in which less experienced workers are matched with more experienced colleagues for guidance. Mentoring can occur either through formal programs or informally as required and may be delivered in-person or by using various media.

Source: Learning Circuits

Metadata
Information about content that enables it to be stored in and retrieved from a database.

Source: Learning Circuits

Metatag
An HTML tag identifying the contents of a Website. Information commonly found in the metatag includes copyright info, key words for search engines, and formatting descriptions of the page.

Source: Learning Circuits

Microwave
Electromagnetic waves that travel in a straight line and are used to and from satellites and for short distances up to 30 miles.

Source: Learning Circuits

Mirror site
Because the Internet population has exploded in recent years, a lot of archive servers can't cope with the load. One solution is to create an exact copy of a server – a process called mirroring.
Mirror sites divert some of the traffic from the original site. It's not unusual to find a dozen or more mirrors of busy ftp sites.
Modem
A modem is an external box or internal circuitry that converts computer data into sound that can be transmitted over phone lines. First used to send telegrams, early modems alternated between two different tones.
This is called modulation, and the process of modulating (and demodulating at the receiving end) gave the modem its name. These days modems transmit data with lots of different tones, signals, and complex mathematical processing, so modem is a bit of a misnomer.
Mozilla
The original name for Netscape's Navigator browser through version 1.1. Netscape "hacker" Jamie Zawinski claims credit for the name, while artist Dave Titus turned Mozilla into Netscape's original mascot. Mo has since been replaced by Netscape's familiar nautical imagery.
MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)
1) A high-quality video file format that uses compression to keep file sizes relatively small. 2) The subgroup of the International Organization for Standardization responsible for setting the standards for this format.

Source: Learning Circuits

MUD (multi-user dimension or multi-user domain)
A simulated virtual world in which users interact with each other, often by taking on character identities called avatars. Originally created for game-playing, MUDs are growing in popularity for online learning and virtual community-building.

Source: Learning Circuits

Multicasting
The transmission of information to more than one recipient. For example, sending an email message to a list of people. Teleconferencing and videoconferencing can also use multicasting. See also broadcasting and unicasting.

Source: Learning Circuits

Multimedia
Encompasses interactive text, images, sound, and color. Multimedia can be anything from a simple PowerPoint slide slow to a complex interactive simulation.

Source: Learning Circuits

MySQL

A true multi-user, multi-threaded SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. SQL is the most popular database language in the world. MySQL is a client/server implementation that consists of a server daemon mysqld and many different client programs/libraries.

Narrowband
1) In data transmission, a limited range of frequencies.
2) More specifically, a network in which data transmission speeds range from 50 Bps to 64 Kbps. See also broadband.

Source: Learning Circuits

Navigation
1) Moving from Webpage to Webpage on the World Wide Web.
2) Moving through the pages of an online site that may not be part of the WWW, including an intranet site or an online course.

Source: Learning Circuits

Nesting
Placing documents within other documents. Allows a user to access material in a nonlinear fashion, the primary requirement for developing hypertext.

Source: Learning Circuits

Net
Common nickname for the Internet.

Source: Learning Circuits

Netiquette
Online manners. The rules of conduct for online or Internet users.

Source: Learning Circuits

Netscape Navigator
Browser software that enables users to view Webpages.

Source: Learning Circuits

Network
A set of computers that all use the same protocol in order to exchange information among themselves.
Newbie or Newby
A newcomer to the nets, who reveals his or her inexperience by lack of knowledge of net conventions, netiquette, vocabulary, and know-how.
Newsgroup
An online discussion hosted on the Usenet network. Sometimes also called a forum.

Source: Learning Circuits

nslookup
A common Internet utility like ping and traceroute. Given an IP address or a DNS address, it will look up and show the corresponding DNS or IP address.
There are nslookup utility programs available for every operating system, which you can use with a PPP or networked or shell account. The commonly used FTP program WS_FTP Pro includes a number of utilities including nslookup.
Object
An Object is an element that is not capable of containing further elements within a container tree.A typical object would be document or a piece of infrastructure whose components would be material (A5).

Source: PROMIS@Service Sarl

Object-oriented
A method of software-development that groups related functions and data into reusable chunks. Properly handled, object-oriented programming can reduce development time on new projects.

Source: PROMIS@Service Sarl

OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
When your computer gets a fax or scans in text, all it sees are graphical bits on a virtual page. That text is not usable, searchable, or editable. If you pass the page through an OCR program, the software converts the shapes on it into a text document.
However, few documents are perfectly recognized and the errors are frequent if the type is small or the scan unclear. But the conversion is often faster than typing text manually.
ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)
An application program interface to access information from numerous types of databases, including Access, dbase, DB2, and so forth.

Source: Learning Circuits

Online
The state in which a computer is connected to another computer or server via a network. A computer communicating with another computer.

Source: Learning Circuits