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The phrase “in the wild” is used in IT to refer to technology that has passed through a development environment, and has become a publicly used tool. Another way to talk about “in the wild” is in reference to technologies that are “post-release,” for example, software products that have already been released to the public.
Techopedia Explains In The Wild
Part of the use of the slang term “in the wild,” which was popularized by the HBO TV series “Silicon Valley,” relies upon an analogy to the natural world. In nature, people look for wildlife and plants in the wild, where they are beyond any human monitoring or supervision. In technology, people talk about technologies being in the wild when they are no longer under the control of their makers. Software or other products that are in the wild are no longer in a development or production environment – and so tech workers are less able to control how they are perceived and used by ever-larger sets of users. Even in intermediate stages such as beta, software is more observable, and it is easier to make changes. After it is finally released, there is a limit to what its original makers can do to control its use.
