Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Technomad

from VfD:

Neologism created by User:Glogger, who is making a habit of creating articles about terms he has invented, so he can go around the Internet to point to these Wikipedia articles as confirmation of the existence of these terms. RickK 22:48, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)

• Delete. Neologism. --Improv 23:02, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Keep!. This particular logism is not so neo! [1] I've heard 'technomad' used (in this sense) for at least ten years. --LeeHunter 23:33, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The word has been in use for approximately 16 years. --Viriditas 03:53, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

• Weak Keep if it can be verified It does seem that that Steve Roberts really did originate the term and that it really is in fairly wide use, as Lee Hunter says. Oddly enough, I was trying to remember the name of Steve Roberts just the other day. I bumped into him briefly—exchanged about ten sentences—on CompuServe. This was before the days of the Internet. CompuServe had a feature they called the "CB simulator" (essentially what we now call "chat rooms"). He would show up occasonally under the handle "Wordy." He was touring the U. S. on a recumbent bicycle, with a Radio Shack TRS-80 model 100 portable computer, writing about his experiences. At that time, the Whole Earth Catalog and its magazine, Coevolution Quarterly had a regular section called "Nomadics" and I believe there was an article or two about him. P. S. Googling on "Technomad Wordy" turns up a ton of stuff, he seems to be very active and there seems to be quite a number of self-described [technomads] around. Change that to a just-plain "keep." [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 23:55, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC) P. P. S. That CompuServe encounter would have taken place during the mid 1980s. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 20:35, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. The word is a portmanteau for "High-Tech Nomad". Steven K. Roberts coined the term in his 1988 book, Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad. The concept of the "technomad" is very notable, but the article needs work. --Viriditas 03:54, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Delete. A word does not stop being a neologism merely through the passage of time. It must come into common usage. I have no evidence that this has done so. (Continued promotion of the term by the original coiner is not sufficient.) Regardless, the current contents are a definition which would be better covered in Wiktionary. Rossami 04:15, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The Museum of Computer History acknowledges Roberts' contributions to early wireless moblile networking, and they have his Behemoth bike on loan as a registered artifact in their collection (Accession #: L2003.2001). According to the museum, Roberts gave hundreds of radio, television, and print interviews during the years he was on the road, so it is easy to see how the word Technomad may have entered mainstream usage. It was a topic of discussion during the 90s on USENET; it's been featured as a column name in Wired (Adventure Tech Nomad), as well as Roberts himself (Wired 8.10: Scripting on the Lido Deck); it was used in Time magazine; it's been the subject of numerous blog entries, articles and discussions; technomads have been profiled as an alternative culture in The Wave Magazine; the word is used by Bruce Damer and it has it's own HOW TO guide; and even a documentary film. The references to technomad in popular computing culture are many, from Geek Times to UCSB research topics, and lists of people who call themselves technomads. The term is ubiquitous as a social and countercultural phenomenon. It is not a mere definition. --Viriditas 10:41, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

• Keep. I put this on cleanup because I wasn't sure about it and it needed improvement anyway. I can't say I'm surprised it got kicked over to VfD. Viriditas provides quite a few citations, however. I am still slighly concerned about the fact that there's also apparently a company that manufactures speakers named "Technomad" - depending on their notability, a disambig page may be needed. - RedWordSmith 06:57, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
• Delete. This is not a dictionary for non-words. 80.255 17:50, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • There can be articles about notable or interesting groups of people. The group of people who call themselves "Technomads" might or might not be notable enough to deserve an article. If they deserve an article, then "Technomad" or "Technomads" would seem to be the appropriate title for the article whether it is a real word or not. Based on Viriditas observations, I think there is a very good case to be made for an article about Steve Roberts and/or Technomads [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 20:35, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
  • One possibility might be to have Technomad redirect to Steve Roberts and discuss the technomad phenomenon within the context of Steve Roberts' work. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 20:37, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The word has progressed beyond the intended cultural context initially described by Roberts: One who travels the Earth propelled by human power using technology to render physical location irrelevant. The word, Technomad, now describes a subculture of mobile computing enthusiasts (without the added human power), and according to Richard Barbrook of The Hypermedia Centre, techno-nomadism is a subculture which has parallels to the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari; it's been a topic of a dissertation and a new forthcoming book. The word has been featured in the popular media for years, from the high tech nomad (Washington Post, Home Is Where the Phone Is), to the techno-nomad (New York Times, Techno-nomads Use Web and E-Mail to Stay Connected), the digital nomad (Los Angeles Times, Community and Place in the Mobile Information Society), and the cybernomad. --Viriditas 11:08, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

• Merge/Redirect to a new article about Steve Roberts —siroχo 22:09, Oct 10, 2004 (UTC)
• Keep if it can be expanded properly, without using Steve Roberts' name every paragraph or so. Otherwise merge and redirect to Steve Roberts. --Aponar Kestrel (talk) 22:10, 2004 Oct 11 (UTC)

• I say it should be moved to the Wiktionary. It would make things much easier. WhiteRhino 02:40, August 17, 2005 (UTC)

end moved discussion

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--CopyToWiktionaryBot 10:19, 9 February 2007 (UTC)