What 'ecosystem' really means.

Singaporean bureaucrats just seem to love the kinds of buzzwords and jargon that the spin doctors and the marketing/advertising world try to foist on everyone else. Apparently, the civil service buzzword that's in fashion is "ecosystem" (see yesterday's blog entry). By extension, the media seem to uncritically and happily go along -- with nary an effort to explain to the layman what the heck "ecosystem", as used, means. This example appeared today (Oct 25):

For good measure, the really silly phrase "going forward" was thrown in:

Isn't that understood just by having the words "will roll out" in the sentence? Was there a chance the HPB will be "going backwards" as it rolls out its plans?

Elsewhere, Britain's civil service is making an effort to arrest this spiralling decline into semantic spin:

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How then should the term "ecosystem" be used by ordinary people. Here's a really good explanation:

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwepecosystems.htm

And here are examples of how the marketing/advertising world uses this term:

http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2013/10/8_reasons_to_master_customer_e.html

http://www.adotas.com/2013/10/infographic-understanding-the-mobile-advertising-ecosystem/

So, if you are a believer in clear communication, just stick with that first definition above: An ecosystem is a community of living and non-living things that work together.