I don't know if it was because I came from a technology-oriented program that was housed in the English department where it wasn't very hard to have comparatively impressive tech skills (sorry, lit majors), or if I just happen to have a sense of arrogance all on my own, but I always thought I was pretty damn smart as far as technology goes. I thought of myself as a entry-level programmer because I knew HTML and CSS, and I could FTP files to a server. Now that I work in an office of real web programmers, though, I know where my strengths lie and where they definitely don't. And, as it turns out, I'm not a programmer! But I'm learning... and here are a few of the technical terms I've come to better understand.
Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is a tool used to build websites. There are huge variety of CMSs out there, but the basic gist of all of them is that people don't have to know HTML or any programming languages to publish web content. As a tech writer, I love working within a CMS. Since I don't have to worry about maintaining the design or figuring out how to code the functionality, I can focus on creating meaningful, well-written web content. There are limitations, of course. In most CMSs, the user has little control over the functions and features available. Also, depending on the CMS and how it's set up, the user may not be able to edit the template (or design) of the website. Overall, though, sometimes it's nice to give up a little flexibility in exchange for stability.
Web server
A web server is just a computer whose sole purpose is to serve files to people who are browsing the internet. I think of it like a waiter at a restaurant. Your computer is like the kitchen, where things are actually created, and the internet is like a massive series of tubes... wait, no... that's another analogy. In this scenario, we'll say the internet is the dining room. The waiter takes the tasty food (your fabulous website) to the people in the dining room that are ready to partake of it's greatness. My techie friends will now roll their eyes at my simplicity, but this works for me. Keep in mind, there is more to servers than this... just like there is more than, say, Wingers in the world of restaurants. Thank goodness.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A protocol describes how you want to interact with a web server. There are multiple kinds of protocols, like HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). When you connect to a web server with that protocol, you're saying, "Hey, I have web browser, and I want to open this HTML file (aka a web page)." With FTP, you're saying, "Hey, I have an FTP client (like FileZilla), and I want to access the files I have on this server and perhaps move them around." FTP also allows you to upload files and download them again to edit them on your local computer.
Terminology can be weird, especially with programming, but there's almost always an easy way to explain it. A a few words of advice, though: don't ever tell a real web programmer that you are one of them because you know HTML... they'll laugh at you. But it's fun to mess around with, huh?
Vocab words for the semi-techie
Professional {Blank} and why it's here
I went through my undergraduate career without a clue as to what I wanted to do when I graduated. As such, I've ended up in a job that's a bit of everything; I do some web stuff, some design stuff, some teaching stuff, some writing stuff... really, I have a very diverse day. And I wouldn't have it any other way. But with my 20/20 hind-sight, there are definitely things I wish I knew before I graduated. Professional {Blank} is meant to be a guide to expose undergrads to various tools, career paths, and general items of interest to those in the technical communication field.