All industries have their own jargon and liberally splatter their communications with acronyms and initials. My own industry, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has a reputation for being amongst the worst but having spoken to some of my colleagues in finance I’m not convinced that this is fair. Acronyms do trip off the tongue very easily though.
I always think that there are a variety of reasons why acronyms are used and firstly it is because it is more efficient and easier to replace a long string of incomprehensible words with a sharp or pithy set of initials. In this way Universal Serial Bus becomes USB and Multi-Protocol Label Switching becomes MPLS. The second reason though is that by using acronyms you become a member of a club, you are in the know and by talking a common language your membership is reinforced. Be careful though, you need to be sure of your ground as there will always be someone to test out your knowledge, someone who will try to out tech you and out acronym you. The converse to this is that if you are not in the club then you are excluded, marked out as an inferior being without the intelligence or mental acuity to keep up with an industry that is so fast paced we haven’t got time to say the words in full.
The use of acronyms in the ICT industry has recently reached a new high, or low depending upon your viewpoint, with the arrival of the Government backed Public Services Network or PSN, a plan to create a network of networks that allow central and local government to trade online services in a secure manner. PSN got off to a good start by starting out as the Public Sector Network and so the same acronym is in circulation twice for something similar but different. To make use of the PSN you need to have some network services providers and these are referred to as Direct Network Services Providers (DNSP) for the local networks.
These are all connected together across the country through the Government Conveyance Network (GCN) which will join all the local networks into a mesh. I assume that you have to be a GCNP (provider) to be able to deliver these network connections officially. Online services are going to be provided across these networks and this will be done by properly accredited organizations known as Public Services Network Service Providers (PSNSP). They will be accredited to a set of security standards which are commonplace throughout the public sector known as the Government Code of Connection (CoCo), covering both clients and providers, but for the network organizations they will have to meet a more exacting Code of Inter-connection (CoICo). This is of course on top of the already in place International and British standards of ISO9001 and BS270001. To cap this all off there is a single organization that provides an overview of what is going on and acts as an overlord in all things to do with the PSN called the Public Services Network Authority (PSNA).
In summary then it’s all quite simple: The PSN is a network of networks whereby CoICo accredited DNSPs are connected to the GCN to allow CoCo accredited PSNSPs to provide services under the watchful eye of the PSNA. And we wonder why our industry gets a bad name.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 