To "coin a phrase"?

What does it mean to "coin a phrase"? Who gets to add something to global lexicon? Do I need to make an entry in Wikipedia, for me to get credit?

Recently I was asked to write an article for the Indiana INTERNnet's newsletter about what we do at the Emergent Leadership Institute. Trying define what you do into the simplest terms is one of the key foundations of branding. So in an attempt to communicate ELI to a state wide readership, I came up with the following analogy. Here is the article I wrote, enjoy.

Community Access Point – helpindyonline.com

As our computers become smaller and our dependence on the Internet increases, we sometimes find ourselves in desperate search for a WAP (Wireless Access Point). These “access points” can be found at a variety of locations. More and more coffee shops, hotels, bookstores and yes, even McDonalds are offering up on ramps to the information super highway along side their normal menu of goods and services.

Similarly, services such as the Indiana INTERNnet provide young people across our state with a CAP (Community Access Point). By providing a central location to find quality internships located in Indiana, the Indiana INTERNnet becomes an access point, not only to the business community, but also to the people and neighborhoods these businesses serve. As students begin to become stakeholders in our communities through the access point of these internships, there is greater likely hood that the networks they form will begin to weave these young people into the ongoing fabric of our state.

Another such CAP is helpindyonline.com. Run by the Emergent Leadership Institute (ELI), a one-year old 501c3 based in Marion County, helpindyonline.com connects high school and college students with meaningful volunteer roles around the Indianapolis area. There are over 100 diverse non-profit partners, listing over 500 volunteer positions on this site. In its first year helpindyonline.com has provided an access point for over 520 young people to become current stakeholders in the Indianapolis community.

Along with its website, ELI also provides a hands-on community access point to young people through it’s HIO Street Teams. And just like WAP’s, these Street Teams can take many forms. They can meet as after school clubs, online social networks, gatherings at coffee houses or a physical ELI staff presence on a high school or college campus. Currently these street teams serve as community access points for the students of sixteen different schools.

ELI recently became a statewide access point for young people to get involved in their community on January 15th, 2007, which is the national Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Through a partnership with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission and Service for Peace, ELI helped create a statewide online volunteer center for MLK Day service projects at www.helpindyonline.com/mlk.

As mobile Internet usage grows, the need for a variety of strong WAP’s also increases. The same can be said about our community. The more diverse community access points that become available to young people across our state, the stronger their ties to home will become.


So there it is. I searched Google, Yahoo and the Wikipedia and found nothing that indicates there is anyone in the non-profit field, here in the US, that is using this term to describe the programs they run. So I guess I "coined the phrase"?