Word of the Year
The 2008 Word of the Year is - Hypermiling - according to the Oxford University Press (USA).
Do you keep the tyres on your car properly inflated to maximise your petrol consumption? Have you removed the roof-rack from your vehicle to streamline the car and reduce drag? Do you turn your engine off rather than idle in traffic queues? If you said yes to any of these questions you just might be a hypermiler.
Many of the methods followed by hypermilers are basic common sense - stick to the speed limit, avoid hills and stop-go traffic, maintain proper tyre pressure, don't let your car idle, get rid of excess weight - but others practiced by some devotees may seem slightly eccentric:
driving without shoes (to increase the foot's sensitivity on the pedals)
parking so that you don't have to reverse to exit the space
‘ridge-riding' or driving with your tyres lined up with the white line at the edge of the road to avoid driving through water-filled ruts in the road when it's raining.
Speaking from near personal experience, they drive me balmy but I applaud what they're doing for the planet.
An equally worthy word and one of the finalists for Word of the Year was ‘moofer', coined by the moof.mobi blog, which describes itself as follows:
"moof.mobi is an interactive website (blog) dedicated to discussion and debate around the concept of mobile working and the issues/opportunities it presents. ‘Moof' stands for ‘mobile out of office'. The term ‘moofing' is designed to describe where you are/what you're doing when you're not at your desk or even in the office, but are at the same time fully contactable and able to work as normal. Technological advances in mobile computing mean we no longer have to be tied to our desks. From a technical/connectivity standpoint, we can work very effectively - indeed, some argue more productively - without being in the office, at a desktop PC.
The purpose of the blog - the first commercial blog optimised for mobile devices that we are aware of - is to provide an environment within which the concept/ideology of ‘moofing' can be discussed. Although enabled by Microsoft Windows Mobile, the intention is for the blog to represent multiple points of view, to provide an authentic, credible and platform for passionate debate around the issues mobile working throws up. Issues such as flexible working, employer/employee trust and so on."
It's also very interesting!
Related posts: Technology tips for improving your work-life balance