Terminology

Ever since i started my byod research project back in August 2010, I've seen an increasing use of the many (somewhat confusing) acronyms that relate to the bring your own device concept. Let's go through some of the shortforms, what they mean and where they came from:

· Bring your own computer (BYOC) is probably what started the whole hype. This term was first used by Citrix, back in early 2008. They ran a pilot for a small group of employees, giving them a stipend to buy their own laptop, instead of using the corporate standard.

· Bring your laptop to work was Microsoft's version of BYOC. Initially, employees weren't given a sum of money, but they did however get to bring their personal laptops into the office to replace the corporate standard.

· Bring/Buy your own device (BYOD) is the most commonly used term for this trend as of today. It basically is the same as Citrix' original BYOC program, but instead of just notebooks, this covers other devices too (mainly phones and tablet-pc's) as stated in my last blogpost the B can stand for either "Bring" or "Buy".

· Employee-owned device program/policy are just different names for the same thing. A lot of companies experimenting with BYOD gave it their own fancy names.

· Bring your own PC (BYOPC) is another widely used term, but i've somehow seen people in the Netherlands use this one a lot as of lately.