Technology acronyms, while always annoying, nonetheless have served a purpose of abbreviating tongue-twister technology names. It’s always easier to say ODBC than Open Database Connectivity, or say RISC rather than Reduced Instruction Set Computing.Lately, though, the march of acronyms has gotten out of hand. Either the officials celebrating the acronymed technology don’t even know what the acronym stands for, or, worse, the same letter combos are being used for multiple technologies or concepts. For example, what’s IP stand for? It used to just stand for Internet Protocol. Now, when you see IP in a headline, it’s more likely to mean Intellectual Property. Maybe before too long there will be a third meaning for IP, such as Information Protection or something like that. There might even be a third definition out there that I’m not yet aware of. IP is not the only multi-definitioned acronym. This morning, I met with a vendor who talked about SCM. In this instance, the official was talking about Software Configuration Management and not Supply Chain Management. Borland recently unveiled a strategy it calls SDO, for Software Delivery Optimization. Don’t confuse it with the other SDO definitions – Service Data Objects or Server Data Objects. I also run into instances where technically minded executives hail an acronym and clearly are masters in detailing the intricacies of what the technology does. But then they are stumped when asked what the acronym stands for. This happened the other day with the acronym, JVMTI. Afterward, I looked it up, and it’s Java Virtual Machine Tool Interface. Maybe JVMTI also has a second definition somewhere; who can know for sure? Perhaps it’s time to stop immediately taking the acronym path to labeling a technology or concept. The clarity of acronyms has clearly become the confusion of acronyms. Technology Industry