Today we are only one month from the start of the biggest single-sport event in the world this year: The 2010 FIFA World Cup taking place in South Africa.
Now, shouldn’t the name be The Football World Cup?
Well, the problem is that football is a different game in some parts of the world like football is considered what is American Football in Northern America and Australian Football down under. The football we now in most other parts of the world is known as soccer in these areas. Association Football is the technically correct name, which is also why the acronym FIFA is an abbreviation of Fédération Internationale de Football Association which is French for International Federation of Association Football.
So, to avoid confusion the FIFA World Cup is the common – and official – name of the event.
Such naming difficulties are a very common source of information quality issues. In my work with global party master data I meet the naming issue daily – or on a daily basis as some might put it. Examples:
- The first name is the family name in some parts of the world – so given name is a better term
- ZIP code is technically only the US system – so postal code is a better term
- SSN (Social Security Number) is only used in some countries. National identification number is used on Wikipedia, but I also like Citizen ID as a national identification number also might apply to companies.
The discipline concerning with unique naming of data is called Metadata Management – or Meta Data Management by some.
Liliendahl on Data Quality 