Alphabet's Jigsaw wants to explain tech jargon to you - CNET

Later in the article: "For the Sideways Dictionary, Jigsaw even enlisted the help of Schmidt himself, as well as Vint Cerf, who is considered one of the "fathers of the internet" and now works at Google as chief internet evangelist, to write some of the analogies." Also see Jigsaw’s Sideways Dictionary explains complex tech, security terms with everyday analogies (9to5Google). The site launches today (and doesn't appear to have a public home page, as I type this, although searches such as https://sidewaysdictionary.com/#/term/encryption work; the Chrome extension is available and live now).

Update: start at https://sidewaysdictionary.com/#/

"It might sound obvious, but the thing about tech is that sometimes it can get really, well, technical.

So Alphabet wants to help make nitty-gritty tech jargon simpler to explain to the masses. On Tuesday, Jigsaw, a tech incubator owned by Google's parent company, launched a website called the Sideways Dictionary that takes jargon and puts it into terms normal people would understand. Jigsaw partnered with the Washington Post to build the tool.

Here's how it works. Type in a term and the site gives you analogies that would make sense to laypeople.

For example, type in "encryption" and here's one of the analogies you'll get: "It's like sending a sealed letter instead of a postcard. To ban encryption would be like requiring all mail to be sent as postcards, including bank statements, medical letters and holiday photos. Your postman, neighbors and postal service would soon know you pretty well.""

Alphabet's Jigsaw wants to explain tech jargon to you - CNET