You bring up a good point, Bill. Managers use the term "metrics" all
the time to mean "a measurement". I think this actually gives us an
opportunity to interject "metric" as an adjective and "metric" as a
concept into their discussions.
Next time your manager asks for the "metrics" from last month, be
sure that you use metric units :)
Scott
On 2008-03 -18, at 18:08 , Bill Potts wrote:
Ernie:
I'm glad to see that my fellow users of this list have provided so
much help and encouragement.
However, unless I've missed it, nobody seems to have addressed the
issue of your use of the term "metrics."
Please regard the following as information, not as criticism.
All our discussions here are related (even if sometimes only
tangentially) to what is correctly known as the Modern Metric
System, or SI metric. Neither the official SI Brochure, nor any
IEEE document, nor any NIST document, nor any other official
document dealing with the metric system uses the word "metrics,"
probably because metric is an adjective (which has no plural form
in English), not a noun.
As far as I can tell, "metrics" (the noun) was coined by the
advertising industry (they certainly use it) in referring to the
means by which they measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.
Other people use it too, in questions and statements like, "Well,
it seems good, but what are the metrics?" The answers are rife with
percentages, head counts, and so on, but usually no metric units.
Bill Potts
Bill Potts
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of ernie edwards
Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 13:01
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:40636] Moving SI along - What I have heard
First, thanks so much for the email responses from my email of
March 15th on the history and issues that continue to hold us back
from having complete conversion to metrics.
My comments and feelings.....
1. It sounds like the movement got pretty close about 10 years ago.
2. Industry support and the political will was not strong enough then.
3. Now and for the future....the need for complete conversion to
metrics continues to grow and the impediments are continuing to
decrease.
4. Metrics will be fully accepted in the future, it's that sooner,
makes a lot more sense.
5. That it is important and right to continue to build on what
people have worked on so hard before.
So in conclusion, I am, and I encourage all of us to contact our
elected officials (Rep. Markey, Sen's Kennedy and Kerry for me)
and to encourage our professional (AIA for me) and industry ties
for continued and increased support.
I very much appreciate this forum for allowing me to express my
feelings and finding kindred souls. I look forward to continued
discussion and ideas from all of you.
Thanks, Ernie Edwards, AIA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
