Virtual World: An online environment, where you can create a character (called an avatar), and use that avatar to interact with other people and things. Virtual worlds are often 3-dimensional, and support buying and selling of virtual goods such as clothing, houses, and land. Virtual worlds also offer virtual services, such as banking.

MMORPG: Stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It is a virtual world, where your avatar can interact with other people from around the world, but typically you can also fight, improve your skills in various attributes, form groups, and complete various objectives given to you by the game developers.

SecondLife(aka SL): One of the most popular 3D virtual worlds. SecondLife is like a MMORPG except there is no role playing aspect. There are no objectives to complete, no attributes to improve. The main point of SL is socializing. Although 9 million people have signed up for accounts, its estimate that 500,000 people actively play this game.

World of Warcraft (aka WoW): The most popular MMORPG. Its estimated 40 million people worldwide play this game actively.

Social Networking Websites: Web sites that typically allow you to create a profile for yourself, and link yourself to others that you know (either real life friends, or not).

LinkedIn: A social networking site, aimed at professionals. Allows you to input your work and education history (like a resume) and link yourself to coworkers and others. You can recommend people you’ve worked with.

MySpace: One of the first, and currently largest, social networking sites. Now owned by News Corp.

FaceBook: One of the fastest growing of the big social networking sites. Started out allowing only college students, but has grown to accept anyone.

FaceBook Poke: The original intention of the “poke” feature in FaceBook is to say hello to someone without needing to actually talk to them. It’s equivalent to passing someone in the hallway, and nodding your head. For younger or single FaceBook users, the poke has evolved to mean, “I have a bit of a crush on you. Do you feel the same?”. That’s the polite way to say it, so don’t write in. So if someone keeps poking you, well you better be getting the hint. Don’t poke back unless it’s mutual.

Blogging: Well, you’re reading a blog right now. It’s a web site that arranges content by date, and often allows users to subscribe (using RSS feeds) to get the latest content delivered to them without having to come back every day.

Podcasting: Similar to a radio show. Anyone with a computer and a microphone can create a podcast, which are short 30 minutes to 1 hour regular shows about a specific topic. Software such as iTunes allows users to get these shows delivered direct to their iPods every week.

Vidcasting: A video podcast.

Podcasting Network: A single site that hosts many different podcasts. The success of a single show elevates the stature of the entire network. Presumably new shows launched on an already successful network will have an easier time being successful than the same show launched by itself.

Web 1.0: Web sites that provide information, but do not allow much user input. CNN.com is a web 1.0 site.

Web 2.0: Web sites that rely on users to generate the content. Also sometimes refers to a specific site design (look and feel) that uses some of the most modern broweser programming techniques to make a cool and fun interface.  Flickr.com is a web 2.0 site.

Web 3.0: We’re not there yet, but many people think web 3.0 will be the “semantic web”, where web sites cannot only be used by humans but also by machines to gather information on our behalf. Being able to ask your computer “What is the weather like in Miami today?” and have it know to go to weathernetwork.com and check for you, is what some consider to be the ultimate productive use of the Internet.

AJAX: A modern browser programming technique that allows information to be updated without the screen needing to be refreshed.