Did you get all of that?

Come on, it’s all written right there, plain as day.

216 years ago this week the worlds of history, language, art, and anthropology were turned on their collective ears, as a single discovery reanimated a language that had died some two millennia prior.

Pierre Bouchard, a French soldier serving under Napoleon, discovered the four foot long basalt tablet that would soon become renown as the Rosetta Stone. While Rosetta has today earned a reputation as the ultimate decoder ring, that wasn’t likely it’s original intent — more likely it was a cross-cultural announcement of royal standing.

Whatever it’s intention, however, the Rosetta Stone’s contribution to human understanding of our collective history has been incredible. Physically, the stone is merely a carving of passages written in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and another more modern (although still ancient) Egyptian alphabet. What made Rosetta so important was a small note included in the Greek text, announcing that all three passages had the exact same meaning.

With that bit of knowledge, French anthropologist Jean-Francois Champollion used his knowledge of ancient Greek to crack the code, enabling humans to read Egyptian hieroglyphics for the first time in more than two thousand years.

Of course, languages to this day are constantly changing. Technical jargon has become lingua franca in most offices. Acronyms too have become words of their own. Even alphabets are getting a makeover — emoji, anyone?

So perhaps it’s time to consider creating our own Rosetta Stones — explainers that can clue in newbies and others as to exactly what we’re trying to say. Many organizations have made first attempts at documenting their in-house vocabularies in wikis and other references, but for the most part, these documents have all the appeal of reading a glossary.

A better solution? Keep language human — and social. Asking team members to record a quick video presentation sharing the in-house-only terms that are most important or interesting helps give words context (and makes them more pronounceable for others). Sharing those videos on internal social networks like Jive or Salesforce Chatter then helps to socialize the language and ensure team members understand it — as well as encourages others to share new words and ideas as well.

This week we saw more and more people taking advantage of the power of video to share ideas, present information, and show how the world works. And in the spirit of passing it on, these are just a few of the ideas shared this week with Panopto’s video presentation software.

The 2015 Florida Tech Department of Marine and Environmental Systems Symposium — Engineering Presentations
The Florida Institute of Technology’s Department of Marine and Environmental Systems (DMES) integrates oceanography, ocean engineering, environmental science, meteorology, environmental resource management, coastal zone management, and earth remote sensing into knowledge-based solutions to vital contemporary issues through education, research, and service. Join the DMES students and faculty for this year’s annual symposium, highlighting the latest information and applications in the field. In this session, students delve into a variety of potential engineering solutions made possible thanks to the latest research, including recorded presentations on fluidizers, marine current turbines, and solar powered boats.

Henry Ford Medical Group K16 Nikon Microscope Review
Every profession has its own specialized equipment, and understanding the details of how it works is essential to ensuring everyone can do their best work. It in with the staff at the Henry Ford Medical Group for this in-depth review of the K16 Nikon Microscope. Dr Jian Li provides a comprehensive rundown of the details, helping to ensure team members know how to configure the tool in order to best utilize variety of lenses, switches, focus options, and other features depending on their specific needs.

Crane Accident Studies and Statistics
For professional rigging engineers, old or imperfectly maintained cranes present a serious threat to on the job safety. Hear from Jim Wiethorn of HAAG Engineering in this recorded presentation about the latest data in crane safety, as well as how engineers should use this data to improve safety measures and practices in the future.

How Our Eyes Turn Light Waves Into Sight
Sit in with the class at BYU Idaho for this flipped classroom lecture illustrating how the human eye converts simple light into a complex image our minds interpret as sight. Brightly designed, this class digs into the science and the anatomy, showing how the retina functions as well as how the rods and cones that process everything from color to depth connect via the nervous system to the brain.

Abnormal Psychology: Clinical Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment
The study of psychology exerts tremendous energy to identify and name a whole host of behavioral activities and anomalies. In this excellent example of a flipped classroom, join the students at California State University Long Beach to learn about the process of clinical assessment, and what psychologists look for in making, confirming, and communicating diagnoses.

Differences Between Passive and Active Voice
If you’ve ever had your writing critiqued for relying too much on passive sentence structures and wondered exactly what on Earth that meant, Professor Richard Badenhausen of Westminster College has your answer. Badenhausen details with examples the difference between active and passive voice, how to convert passive sentences to active ones, and a variety of reasons why passive structures may be preferable to active in certain instances.

Try It For Yourself!

Panopto makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to record online video presentations and share them, both as live streaming webcasts and recorded on-demand video. To see how Panopto can help you share your ideas, contact our team for a free trial today.