First: a definition. I’m using “jargon” as a term of art to mean the set of concepts and languages by which an artifact-building community reasons about what they do.

     A cross-jargon interface is an interface, not between artifacts, but between artifact-building communities that don’t understand each others’ jargons. It enables them to combine their artifacts into new joint artifacts without understanding each other’s jargons.

     In the next two slides I’ll suggest how a cross-jargon interface can be a powerful enabler of innovation. The first example shows how it helped to create a software industry.