Pittsburgh: Redefining "Overnight Success"

Bacn, circa early 1900s... Via Apelad
On Saturday, the term bacn was coined at PodCamp Pittsburgh 2.

By today, Thursday, the term is already the 14th most-popular term on Technorati.

It has appeared on Wired, CNet and the Washington Post websites, among others.

It's even been parodied in the buzzword-spawned (and "classic") Laugh Out Loud Cats comic (above).

Today, bacn-related interviews have already been given to the Chicago Tribune and NPR, with more (undoubtedly) to come.

All 5 days after the term was first used.

Sound familiar?

Two weeks ago, Pittsburgh vlogger iJustine created a video about her 300-page iPhone bill. That video resonated with tech-savvy surfers and, within days, iJustine was on the homepage of Yahoo, not to mention interviews on CNN, NPR, Fox News...

Some of you might be asking yourselves: what are the odds that Pittsburgh would be struck by back-to-back social media lightning bolts? As a 10-year PGH resident, I'd be inclined to agree.

However...

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Pittsburgh is the third "bloggiest" city in the country -- behind only Boston and Philadelphia -- which accounts for some of the city's ability to generate a meme wave.

Hmm...

For a city that perpetually seems to have an identity crisis, we sure are getting something right these days...

Ironic side note: Did anyone else notice that Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston, the three "bloggiest" cities, are also having a PodCamp in each of the next 3 months?

The Problem With Hating Bacn

As you've probably heard, a new meme was coined at PodCamp Pittsburgh 2: "bacn", aka, the email you WANT but don't have time for (newsletters, Twitter follower alerts, etc.).

In alarmingly fast fashion, the word has spread from, literally, the mouths of 4 or 5 people sitting near the check-in desk at PCPGH2 to being quoted internationally. It's popped up on Russian and Japanese blogs. It has its own site and its own merchandise.

And, of course, it has detractors. The loudest thus far has been Web Worker Daily, which states, unequivocally:

Color me curmudgeonly, but I’d like to see this one stopped in its tracks right now.

Apart from the irony involved in a site that purports to be a site of the people (notice it's not called "Web Experts Daily" or "Web Employers Daily") telling those same people what words it is and isn't allowed to use, there are two larger issues at play here:

1. What's wrong with more language?

Love it or hate it, "bacn" is a way to differentiate important-but-untimely email from "real" email or spam. It's a descriptive word. It's a classification. It's useful.

Given the fact that so much miscommunication in this world comes from common misunderstandings -- and that folks in Arab nations have dozens of words for the parts of a camel -- I think it's safe to say that we could all benefit from more (and clearer) language.

Which brings us to the more politically charged issue:

2. Who's allowed to create language?

In the WWD blog post, Mike Gunderloy says:

Apparently this is the term the cool kids are using now for stuff that falls in between e-mail and spam...

Notice the snarky use of "cool kids." Implied in that offhanded comment is a deeper observation:

If Scoble, Rubel or MacLeod has coined that phrase, we'd all have accepted it, no questions asked. Naysayers and detractors would still wring their hands, but it would be too late: words from the voice of god(s) automatically enter the lexicon.

Words coined by a few Canadians and Pittsburghers during downtime at a free social media conference? Apparently, not so much.

So, what now, web users? Who will YOU allow to control your vocabularies?