I'm not a freelancer, but for about a decade, I've been a Web worker (minus a couple years in academe). Technically, my title is "IT Business Analyst" for my city government. Unofficially, I'm the Web strategist and information architect. What I tell people is this:

"I help my city government provide, enhance, or streamline city services through digital communications (the Web, yes, but also cell phones and online applications that run ON the Web, but are not themselves Web sites)."

People seem to get that. When they ask further, I usually end up saying "information architect" and then lose them completely. In some ways, yt was easier back in 2000, when I could indicate the Birkenstocks I wore to work every day and say "I'm a Web Master." I don't know if people understood that, but they nodded as if they got it.

Why is it necessary to create an entire vocabulary for this? Five words are all you need: "I'm a freelance web worker." If the person cares (and no offense, but they probably don't), they'll ask for details.

Frankly, it's annoying to ask someone a small-talk type of question about their work and get a three-paragraph monologue in return.

Do you care that I'm a former freelance web developer who is now a healthcare informatics analyst and is leading the business process redesign and software implementation of a best-of-breed vendored electronic medical records solution in a multi-disciplinary environment in a specialty service at one of the world's leading healthcare organizations?

Most of my family members and acquaintances at the bar are perfectly happy with, "I work with computers at the hospital."

code crunching monkey

I work for a school and I'm not a teacher. At that point they loose interest.

I don't tell them it's a virtual school because it leads to too many silly questions.