As is often said these days, words matter. And within the vast IT vocabulary that has grown up over the last 50 years, there is no word today that is worse than 'users'. Outdated, somewhat insulting and loaded with the worst of connotations, everyday IT discussions would sound less adversarial if we could come up with an alternative word, but thus far, nothing has caught on.

The term 'users' is outdated because when we are online, we are no longer just 'using' the technology like we would use a toothbrush. We are increasingly creating, communicating and interacting in ways that add value to the system as a whole. By holding on to a word rooted in our industry's top-down, terminal-based past, there is an implicit denial of these changes.

The connotations are even worse. There is only one other well-known profession that refers to its customers as 'users' – drug dealing. The parallels are revealing: dependency, lack of respect, high costs, even addiction. No one wants to be called a 'user'.

Today, the pervasive and largely unthinking acceptance of this term by most IT organizations tends to reinforce many of the very beliefs that IT most needs to change: that IT controls technology, that IT shouldn't expect much knowledge or responsibility from employees, and that escalating costs are the nature of the business. Whenever I hear IT people talk about their 'users', I can't help but think that they bring some of these biases with them.

Yet while the problem is clear, the solution is not. Both the English language and the IT community have been pretty good at generating new words when needed. Think of patients, clients, and audience, or in tech speak, surfing, texting, googling, etc. But just as we haven't been able to resolve the gender-neutral pronoun dilemma ("when a CIO examines her/his strategy"), we have so far failed with 'users', and without an attractive alternative, change is difficult.

Perhaps the best known attempt stems from Alvin Toffler's prosumers (a cross between producers and consumers, picked up and applied to IT by Don Tapscott and others), but it's too clunky, and most new IT words aren't formed in this hybrid way. While the similarly hybrid netizens has caught on to a modest extent, its use is more for the web itself and lacks a direct business connection. In contrast, simply referring to employees is too narrow, as many of the people connected to company systems are not actual employees. Customers doesn't work either, as it's too easy to confuse IT's internal customers with the actual customers of the firm.

What to do? If we look to the past to find the likely sources of new noun generation, we see that there are at least five proven techniques: the -nts (patients, clients), the -e(o)rs (partners, actors), the -ists (strategists, typists), the -ians (electricians, pediatricians), and the -nauts (astronauts, cosmonauts). Just playing around with these options generates possibilities such as participants, constituents, contributors, players, co-creators, collaborators (not good), communists (taken), cyberians, communitarians, symbians, technians, cybernauts and the like.

Of these, the only one that sounds even remotely right to my ear is 'participants', which has just about all of the right connotations – involvement, commitment, valued contribution, and a certain amount of egalitarianism. For example, if you swap 'participant' for 'user' in a typical Enterprise IT sentence such as "We support 10,000 participants", you immediately feel how the meaning changes in a more positive and inclusive way.

But of course 'participants' is far from perfect. It lacks a direct connection to the world of IT, ideally one grounded in a Latin or Greek root with a specific meaning, like patients (those who endure) and audiences (those who hear). 'Participants' are merely those who participate, but perhaps that is good enough. It's certainly an improvement, but we should be able to do better.

As the title of this piece suggests, maybe the singer Prince could be an inspiration. How about PCUs (Previously Called Users)? It's quick and easy to remember, with the bonus of including 'PC' to give it a high-tech, politically correct feel. There is also an echo of SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), providing an appropriately Big Brother touch in this time of pervasive technology tracking. All in all, not bad, but there are surely other possibilities. Any suggestions?

If we could solve this one, perhaps we could also find a replacement for all those awkward words unmarried people beyond their teens use to refer to their romantic interests – partners, significant others, POSSLQs (pronounced postleques), special friends, etc. But while these words often sound silly, they are basically harmless. 'Users' isn't, and in a world of consumerized technology and double-deep workers, it really needs to go. If you have any better ideas, let us know.