Podcast appearances and mentions of James Parton

Think marketing to developers is all about hoodies and hackathons? Think again. As the developer-led economy is poised to grow to a TRILLION dollars, companies that offer products for developers must refocus to a business-to-developer (B2D) model as developers become not only users of products, but key purchase influencers. In this episode, Nnamdi Iregbulem, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Joyce Lin, Head of Developer Relations at Viam, and Caroline Lewko, CEO of Revere Communications, reveal actionable insights for building and scaling developer relations programs that drive adoption, loyalty, and growth in a developer-led economy. Specifically, you'll learn:How to get developers to adopt and build on your platform – from APIs and SDKs to advanced ML and DevOps tools.What it takes to deliver an exceptional Developer Experience (DX) – aligning marketing and product teams to meet the unique needs of developers.Key ingredients of a winning Developer Relations program – from onboarding to advocacy and retention.How to stand out through community engagement – turning developers into loyal evangelists for your platform.Resources Mentioned:Nnamdi Iregbulem -https://www.linkedin.com/in/nnamdiiregbulem/Joyce Lin -https://www.linkedin.com/in/joyce-lin/Caroline Lewko -https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinelewko/Lightspeed Venture Partners | LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/Lightspeed Venture Partners | Website -https://lsvp.com/Viam | LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/viaminc/Viam | Website -https://www.viam.com/Revere Communications - https://www.reverecommunications.com/Tyler Jewell's research on developer-led markets -https://tylerjewell.substack.com/p/the-developer-led-landscape-20-08-28Stack Overflow Developer Survey -https://survey.stackoverflow.com/2024/GitLab's “Everyone Can Contribute” philosophy -https://gitlab.com/“Developer Relations: How to Build and Grow a Successful DevRel Program” by Caroline Lewko and James Parton - https://www.devrel.agency/bookThis episode is brought to you by:Leverage community-led growth to skyrocket your business. “From Grassroots to Greatness” by author Lloyed Lobo will help you master 13 game-changing rules from some of the most iconic brands in the world — like Apple, Atlassian, CrossFit, Harley-Davidson, HubSpot, Red Bull and many more — to attract superfans of your own that will propel you to new heights. Grab your copy today at FromGrassrootsToGreatness.com.Each year the US and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don't get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca.Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com.#DeveloperRelations #BusinessToDeveloper #B2D #Product #Marketing #Innovation #Startup #GenerativeAI #AI

Today is Independence Day here in the United States. What better way to celebrate than with a story talking about how the days leading up to the signing of this very important document. Today we read the story “John Adams and the Question of Independence” which comes to us from the book “Revolutionary Heroes, and Other Historical Papers” written by James Parton.   Website: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/   Blog https://thefightingmoosepodcast.blogspot.com/   iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fighting-moose/id1324413606?mt=2/   Story (PDF): http://ww.thefightingmoose.com/episode347.pdf   Reading List: http://www.thefightingmoose.com/readinglist.pdf   YouTube: https://youtu.be/BpbRz7nuzXM/   Book(s): “Revolutionary Heroes and Other Historical Papers” http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8154   Music/Audio: Artist – grapes http://beta.ccmixter.org/people/grapes http://www.facebook.com/grapes510   National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): http://www.nasa.gov   Song(s) Used: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626 Ft: J Lang, Morusque

James Parton chats with Benjamin Storey of Barclays, discussing the announcement that Barclays Eagle Labs will open at The Bradfield Centre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nineteen-year-old James Parton is a photographer and filmmaker and is creating a movie about ecology and the connectedness of global ecosystems. The project focuses on less known issues and brings them into the spotlight to help provide solutions for all of us. James plans to show what we can do to help combat these situations. His stories are uplifting and inspiring as he creates a collective community to help make a positive change.  Also on Speaking of Travel, Garrett Martin, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, outdoor photographer, conservationist and owner of the production company - VentureLife Films, shares his newest venture, THE GREAT FOREST, which follows conservationists throughout southern Appalachia as they look to manage two of the most biodiverse and visited national forests in the country. And, a conversation with with Tina Kinsey at the Asheville Regional Airport. With so many state and national parks in this country, you might find yourself flying somewhere to be outside someplace else. And that could mean hanging out in the airport for a bit. Tina shares some ideas from what she sees and hears from passengers who are making that wait fun. 

James Parton, Managing Director of The Bradfield Centre describes the impact of COVID-19 on the Centre, the feedback received from our membership, and outlines how this feedback has led to the creation of a range of new services tailored to a new way of working. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lockdown Update by Adelina Chalmers and James Parton

In our Season 1 finale, we trace Andrew Jackson's feelings about women's honor from his early days as a rowdy outhouse-mover to his tragic relationship with his wife Rachel and finally to the Petticoat Affair – the scandal surrounding Margaret Eaton that nearly took down his entire administration. We'll be back with more brand new episodes soon! Follow us on Facebook for updates. Sources: The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson's White House by John F. MarszalekLife of Andrew Jackson by James Parton

Today we celebrate a man known as “The Pathfinder” and the birthday of a man who impoverished himself writing a book in tribute to Carl Linnaeus. We'll learn about the woman who was as passionate about botany as she was assisting with the war effort and today’s National Day that celebrates a garden creature. (Hint: it has a bushy tail) Today’s Unearthed Words feature a riddle from an English-American writer and poet. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps us understand the language of flowers. I'll talk about a garden item that comes in handy if you grow houseplants, and then we’ll wrap things up with the birthday of a botanist who had an incredible love story and wrote beautiful poetry. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles A Winter Greenhouse: A Productive Way To Harvest Vegetables All Winter | @savvygardening Have you ever dreamt of harvesting fresh vegetables year-round?! Get inspired by @savvygardening - a winter greenhouse is a project worth thinking about... AND, they share this great tip: Keep a heat-generating compost pile INSIDE the greenhouse.    10 Unusual Vegetables For Adventurous Gardeners | Mother Earth News | @MotherEarthNews The list includes Cardoon, Shiso Perilla ("SHE-so per-ILL-ah"), Oca tubers, Celeriac ("sell-AIR-ee-ack"), Malabar Spinach, Kohlrabi, Seakale, Amaranth, Winter Radish, and Salsify & Scorzonera ("score-zah-NEAR-ah").   Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events 1813   Today is the birthday of the American explorer, soldier, and the first Presidential candidate of the Republican Party, John Charles Frémont. Frémont is remembered as “The Pathfinder” after helping many Americans who were heading West by creating documents and maps of his expeditions West. John and his wife, Jesse, created an entire map of the Oregon Trail.   When Frémont saw Nebraska, he didn’t see merely an endless prairie; he saw beauty. To Fremont, the entire state was one big garden, accentuated with fertile soil, swaying grasses, and wildflowers as far as the eye could see. Fremont was one of the first explorers to write about cottonwood trees. He discovered them near Pyramid Lake in Nevada on Jan 6, 1844. Years later, botanists would name the cottonwood in his honor, calling it the "Populus fremontii." Cottonwoods are the fastest growing trees in North America. After all of the beautiful elm trees at my childhood home succumbed to Dutch elm disease,  my parents selected cottonwoods because they knew they would grow quickly -  Up to six feet or more each year. They couldn't stand how naked the house looked without the beautiful large elm trees.   In truth, there's no comparison between a cottonwood tree and an elm tree, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful trees by landscape painters. In addition, because the Cottonwood tree grows so quickly, it often has weak wood that can easily be injured or damaged. Cottonwood trees are in the Poplar species. Only the female trees produce the fluffy cotton seeds that float through the air and collect in your garden and garage in June.   1837   Today is the anniversary of the death of the English physician and botanical writer Robert John Thornton. Robert adored Carl Linnaeus. He was a huge fan. When Robert wrote his book called “The Temple of Flora,” he dedicated it to Linnaeus. Robert wanted his book to be the very best illustrated botanical book ever made, and his goal was that it would be a memorialization of Linnaeus’ work. Robert’s idea was to have 70 large plates of exotic plants that would be organized according to Linnaeus’s classification system. Another unique aspect of Robert’s illustration concept was that the plants would appear in their native environment. Unfortunately, after working with the very best illustrators of his time, Robert had to stop production on the Temple book after only twenty-eight plant illustrations. He ran out of money, and the project stalled. Yet, even in its unfinished state, it remains one of the most excellent compilations of botanical illustrations that has ever been created. Although Robert was overly ambitious with his goals for the “Temple of Flora,” the work is still considered to be arguably one of the loveliest botanically Illustrated books in the world. The most famous engraving in the book is of a night-blooming cereus cactus plant. The bloom takes up almost the entire width of the image, and in the background (in the dark), you can see the ruins of a castle. The night-blooming cereus is known as "The Queen of the Night." The flowers of the night-blooming cereus don't last long, but they are stunning. The night-blooming cereus is native to Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. Most people would be surprised to know a cereus cactus can get to be ten feet tall. Outside the Southwest, the cereus is generally grown as a houseplant. If you're waiting for your cereus plant to bloom, just know that it won't start flowering until it's at least five years old. Initially, you may only get one or two blooms for a few years. That said, once you do get a flower, you will be in love because the bloom is seven inches across, and the scent is heavenly.   1879   Today is the birthday of Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan - a prominent English botanist and mycologist. She died in 1967. Gwynne-Vaughn also helped form the University of London's Suffrage Society - where she was the first female professor. During #WWI, she also helped establish the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. Due to her extraordinary wartime leadership, Gwynne-Vaughan was one of the first women to receive a Military Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire award. Early on in her botanical career, Gwynn-Vaughan researched rust fungi. Rust is a plant parasite that invades a plant and uses it as a host for its survival. Rust actually invades the plant's cells, and it steals nutrients from the plant. The plant treats the rust like an infection. Sometimes the plants are able to fight off the rust. Other times, the rust wins, and the plants succumb to the Rust. Rust destroys 15 million tons of wheat each year. The University of London recently released a lovely article about Gywnne-Vaughan called "Fungi and the Forces," which revealed that Gwynne-Vaughan was as accomplished in the armed forces as she was in the theater of fungi. In fact, a handful of fungi are named for her - like Palaeoendogone gwynne-vaughaniae and Pleurage gwynne-vaughaniae.   2001Today is National Squirrel Appreciation Day, which was founded in 2001 by Christy Hargrove, a wildlife rehabilitator in Asheville, North Carolina. Christy created the special day to acknowledge that food sources for squirrels are scarce in mid-winter. Gardeners are generally of two minds when it comes to squirrels. They either don't mind them, or they really dislike them. Squirrels can be a challenging pest in the garden because of their tremendous athleticism. Squirrels have a 5-foot vertical.  Nowadays, their ability to leap is well-documented on YouTube. And, squirrels are excellent sprinters and swimmers. Squirrels are master zig-zaggers when they run - a skill that comes in handy when they need to evade predators. A squirrel nest is called a drey. Squirrels make their nests with leaves, and the mother lines the inside of the drey with grass.  Squirrels perform an essential job for trees. They help the forest renew itself by caching seeds and burying them. The caching of seeds by squirrels is vital for many tree species. As squirrels bury acorns and other seeds, they either sometimes forget or simply don't return to some of their buried food. Although squirrels have tremendous ability to source buried food, they can smell an acorn buried in the ground beneath a foot of snow.   Unearthed Words Today’s poem is a winter riddle from James Parton. The answer is snow: "From Heaven I fall, though from earth I begin.  No lady alive can show such a skin.  I'm bright as an angel, and light as a feather,       But heavy and dark, when you squeeze me together.  Though candor and truth in my aspect I bear,       Yet many poor creatures I help to insnare.  Though so much of Heaven appears in my make,       The foulest impressions I easily take.  My parent and I produce one another,       The mother the daughter, the daughter the mother." - James Parton, English-born American biographer, A Riddle - On Snow    Grow That Garden Library The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh Today’s book is a fiction book. Vanessa weaves the Victorian language of love into a love story: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. For the main character, Victoria Jones, flowers are more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. An unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger forces her to confront a painful secret from her past. Brigitte Weeks of The Washington Post gave my favorite review of this book: “ I would like to hand Vanessa Diffenbaugh a bouquet of bouvardia (enthusiasm), gladiolus (you pierce my heart) and lisianthus (appreciation). . . . And there is one more sprig I should add to her bouquet: a single pink carnation (I will never forget you).” This is a lovely fiction book for gardeners who are looking for something light and fun to read over the winter. This book came out in 2012. You can get a used copy of The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $1.   Great Gifts for Gardeners Universal Products 10 Pack of 6 Inch Clear Plastic Plant Saucers for Indoor and Outdoor Plants $9.49 Make sure this fits by entering your model number. MADE IN THE USA - 10 pack of 6" clear, round, plastic plant saucers. Each plant saucer measures 6" at the top and 4-7/8" at the bottom. SUPERIOR PROTECTION - Never worry about excess water or spilled soil staining or damaging your household surfaces again! These drip trays will catch excess debris and moisture with their waterproof design. OPTIMAL PLANT DRAINAGE - Ensure your favorite houseplants, pots, planters, and flowers have an ideal drain tray while not having to worry about over or under watering them. EXCELLENT FOR DIY - These saucers are great for gardening projects and home décor. You can decorate around the base of your favorite potted plants and flowers while protecting your surfaces against moisture. SATISFACTION GUARANTEE - Take advantage of these benefits for multiple home garden locations around your house with this 10-pack of saucers! They are backed by a 90-day manufacturer warranty.   Today’s Botanic Spark 1854   Today is the birthday of the Washington DC-based USDA botanist Erwin Frink Smith. Smith had attempted to solve the problem of the peach yellows. Peach Yellows is a disease caused by a microorganism called a phytoplasma that was affecting Peach Orchards. It became known as the Peach Yellows disease because the main symptom begins with new leaves that have a yellowish tint.  Had Smith solved the problem of the Peach Yellows, he would have become world-famous - but he didn't. Years later, it was actually the botanist Louis Otto Kunkel who discovered that a type of leafhopper was carrying the disease. Now Smith may not have solved the Peach Yellows problem, but he was a peach of a guy. In researching Smith, I discovered a rare combination of kindness and intellect. He developed a reputation for hiring and promoting female botanists as his assistants at the Bureau of plant industry in Washington DC. Smith gave these women tasks based on their strengths instead of their job descriptions, and in many cases, they were able to work on projects beyond the scope of their job description. Smith’s friend, Dr. Rodney True,  revealed Smith’s unique combination of strength in a tribute after he died. He wrote: “Erwin developed a knowledge of French, German, and Italian literature that opened to him worlds of intense pleasure… He read his Bible in a copy of the Vulgate, and Dante was a favorite … in Dante's own great language. Goethe was often quoted in the original. Seldom have I known a man who brought such joy and understanding to the works of great writers. His library was a sort of map of his mind. In it were all manner of noble things. He was quick, enthusiastic, and strangely appealed to by beauty in all its forms.” The happiest day in Smith’s life was no doubt when he married the pretty Charlotte Mae Buffet on April 13, 1893. They shared an epic love for each other and for reading and poetry. Tragically, after twelve years of marriage, Charlotte was diagnosed with endocarditis. She died eight months later on December 28, 1906. Smith dealt with his grief by putting together a book of poetry, stories, and a biography of Charlotte. The book is called “For Her Friends and Mine: A Book of Aspirations, Dreams, and Memories.”Smith wrote, "This book is a cycle of my life— seven lonely years are in it. The long ode (on page 62) is a cry of pain." There are many touching passages – too many to share here now.” There's one passage from Smith describing Charlotte’s fantastic ability to attune to the natural world, and I thought you'd find it as touch as I did when I first read it: “Charlotte’s visual powers were remarkable. They far exceeded my own. Out of doors, her keen eyes were always prying into the habits of all sorts of living things: ants, spiders, bees, wasps, fish, birds, cats, dogs. Had she cared for classification, which she did not, and been willing to make careful records, she might have become an expert naturalist. Form in nature seemed to interest her little or at least comparative studies of form. What did interest her tremendously was the grade of intelligence manifested in the lower forms of life. She would spend hours watching the habits of birds and insects, and never without discovering new and interesting things. Whether she looked into the tops of the tallest trees, or the bottom of a stream, or the grass at her feet, she was always finding marvels of adaptation to wonder at and links binding the world of life into a golden whole. She made lists of all the birds that visited her neighborhood. She knew most of them by their songs, and some times distinguished individuals of the same species by little differences in their notes, as once a song-sparrow at Woods Hole, which had two added notes. She knew when they nested and where, how they made their nests, and what food they brought to their young. In studying birds, she used an opera-glass, not a shotgun. She was, however, a very good shot with the revolver.”

In this episode of CUTalks, Shreya and Thomas talk to James Parton and Stewart McTavish. James is Managing Director of the Bradfield Centre and Stewart is Director of ideaSpace, both co-working environments for different stages of start-ups. They discuss common pitfalls of first-time entrepreneurs and key advice for all aspiring founders.

Ever wonder how small companies make it to unicorn status through their marketing? It's all about creating a movement behind the company that transcends the functionality of the product and makes customers understand exactly how something will affect their life, as well as what something does. In many ways, this is marketing 101, yet so many of us get so wrapped up in the day to day we lost sight of the things that really matter in our efforts. In this talk, James Parton gives the inside track of how to create a movement, just like he did at Twilio, the unicorn tech company just a few years ago. For more from The Marketing Meetup, head to themarketingmeetup.com

If "irregardless" isn't a real word, then why the hell is it in my dictionary?!? It's a matter of philosophy. Steve and Kory give a primer on descriptivism and prescriptivism, two approaches to describing language, and how modern dictionaries are descriptivist (which is exactly the opposite of what everyone believes). They recap the culture wars of the 1960s, which gave rise to the American Heritage Dictionary; discuss the AHD Usage Panel and what it does; lament the state of modern dictionary marketing; and gab extensively about where people can get themselves some of that sweet, sweet prescriptivism they long for.  BONUS FEATURES:- Kory and Steve offer to stage-fight at your conference; - Steve introduces you to the best dictionary marketing video known to humanity (and YOU ARE MOST WELCOME); - Steve amazes Kory w/r/t Romanian; - Stamper Mispronunciation Rundown: "biases" TRANSCRIPT BELOW: ----more---- Kory:                     Hi, I'm Kory Stamper Steve:                   and I'm Steve Kleinedler. Kory:                     and welcome to Fiat Lex, Steve:                   a podcast about dictionaries by people who write them. Kory:                     That would be us. So last episode, we talked a little bit about how words get into dictionaries and how dictionaries are written, but we wanted to sort of backtrack and give you an underlying philosophical basis for how modern dictionaries are written. Steve:                   Right. And one of those perceptions that are held by the public who pay attention to the brand of dictionary, which we-- admittedly is a small subset of people who actually use reference works. Is this distinction, this dichotomy that doesn't really exist between, for example, the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's. Kory:                     Mm-hmm. So lots of people assume that we are mortal enemies. That American Heritage and Merriam Webster, we are competitors. We have always been set up mostly by our marketing departments and other people as direct competitors. But, in fact, we are not really direct competitors of each other. That's just been something that has been sort of formulated because of this philosophical difference that we're going to talk about. Steve:                   And also, the editors at the different companies -- we're all colleagues, most of us belong to the same learned societies such as the Dictionary Society of North America, where we meet together with much conviviality -- we're friends, Kory's my friend. Kory:                     And Steve is my friend. Steve:                   And even though we keep threatening to attend conferences and stage fake duels, with the weaponry that Kory has assembled, we have not yet done this. We may do it someday. Kory:                     Let us know. Let us know if you want us to come to your conferences, stage a fight Steve:                   We'll stage a fight or we'll just do a normal q and a section. And with this, this, this, this frame of reference that there is somehow this distinction is borne out of a concept of prescriptivism versus descriptivism. Kory:                     Right? So let's just define terms very loosely. Prescriptivism and descriptivism are these two approaches to language that are common in modern linguistics. Steve:                   A prescriptive approach is one that claims there is a right and wrong. There are rules that prescribe how one should use English or any language properly. Kory:                     Right. And descriptivism is the idea that all languages, all varieties of a language are an equal footing, and it's really, you're just describing usage, not passing judgment on usage. So, so if you, if you say ain't and that's native to your dialect, then that's a matter of context and not a matter of right and wrong. Steve:                   And truthfully, this is how most modern dictionaries in the United States are in fact produced. They're very descriptive. However, due to incidents that happened in the 1960s, in the public consciousness, there's this idea that the American Heritage Dictionary is this prescriptive dictionary and Merriam Webster is descriptive. There's this -- this argument raises its head from time to time.The New Yorker about five or six years ago, had this string of essays, followed by letters to the editor about this dichotomy that it's -- it seemed to be that the journalists were still thinking that this is the case. There's a really good article by Steven Pinker called the activist tours that you can find in the New Yorker that describes that kerfuffle in some detail. But! The original kerfuffle, how this all got steeped in the consciousness, goes back to 1961. Kory:                     1961. At that point, Merriam Webster, which was one of the main dictionary companies in America, released its Third New International Unabridged Dictionary. Now, this was a dictionary that had been eagerly awaited by the public. It was 12 years in the making, over a hundred editors, over 200 outside consultants helped with it, and people assumed it was going to be in the style of all of the 19th century dictionaries we wrote where we had sort of given this idea that the dictionary is the sum of all human knowledge, and therefore is sort of this intellectual tool. 1961 comes around, and the book is released. Now the book was informed by modern linguistic thinking, and so it took more descriptivist stances on things than most people thought it should. For instance, instead of saying that something was uneducated or illiterate, we would say it's substandard or nonstandard. Those are linguistic terms, but the general public knows that linguistic terms don't really matter in the real world. So when the book was released, it was kind of roundly panned by the general press as being way too anything goes, way too, you know, just throwing aside its role as the guardian of the language-- Steve:                   Often revolving around one word in particular-- Kory:                     That would be the word ain't. Steve:                   Ain't. Steve:                   Oy. So in fact, there is a great book about this controversy that is called The Story of Ain't by David Skinner -- it's a great book if you want to know more about this. It gets into a lot of the culture wars that were going on at the time too, which I think is frankly more interesting than dictionary history, but it all ties together. So, 1961, The third comes out. It has panned in the general press and then, Steve:                   and then in these pre internet days, publishing companies could make a lot of money off dictionaries and as such, the fact that Merriam Webster was being excoriated in the press for its inclusion of ain't and other, kind of these liberal approaches, other editors thought, hey, we can write a dictionary that is in response to this and take a more prescriptive approach. One editor at American Heritage named -- affiliated with American Heritage -- named James Parton, came up with a plan to create a competing dictionary, that would be in response to Merriam Webster, and it is in the early sixties when he is going forth with this plan that, this, this, this concept of prescriptive versus descriptive approaches was really embedded in the consciousness of people who are paying attention. The interesting thing though, is as the dictionary -- as the American Heritage Dictionary was compiled in the sixties, the editors who were working on it, and even members of the Usage Panel who were brought into service to give their opinion on style issues, came -- well, they didn't come to the conclusion most of them had this conclusion -- is, well, no, a dictionary in fact, does to a large degree describe how words are being used. And in, in the earlier podcast we talked about corpus -- corpora material, that, that the editors were using to make definitions, craft definitions, the, the evidence is there in print as to, well, this word is used this way, this word is used this way. It's our duty to report that. So even though the genesis of the American Heritage Dictionary was thought of to be this prescriptive approach, it ended up being fairly descriptive almost as much as Merriam Webster Kory:                     It was. And you know, Steve and I -- we have a party trick that we like to do when we speak together. And that is we put together a slide with the American Heritage Definition of irregardless, and the Merriam Webster definition of irregardless, side by side, and you will see that they treat the word almost identically. Steve:                   The note covers the same amount of material. And you can find a lot of information about the word irregardless in Kory's book Word By Word, The Secret Life of Dictionaries. She has a whole chapter devoted to irregardless. Steve:                   Thank you for that plug, Steve. Steve:                   Well, you're welcome. On one hand, dictionaries do serve the purpose of pointing out style issues so that, for example, even though people might think inflammable means not flammable, it actually means flammable, which is an important thing if you were the manufacturer of cushions or children's pajamas, you don't want that mistake coming up because in this, you know, it can be fatal. So there are certain style issues where there -- all dictionaries will point out, use this word, not this word, but then nowadays you know, something like whether or not to split infinitive or use a singular they. And we will get into these in later podcasts in greater detail, what dictionary say nowadays might surprise you. Kory:                     So I want to talk a little bit about the Usage Panel that Steve mentioned about the American Heritage Dictionary. So that was the American Heritage Dictionary's big hook was Parton, who Steve had mentioned earlier, Parton originally actually wanted to buy Merriam Webster and his plan was to pulp the Third and reprint the Second which was released in 1934, and just move straight onto the Fourth, and the Fourth was not going to be this sort of hippie Commie, pinko, anything goes dictionary. It was going to be a right proper dictionary, and he couldn't buy out the company. So he started his own dictionary and the Usage Panel was the hook. This was a group of editors, writers, journalists, linguists -- Steve:                   -- linguists, poets. In later days we added crossword puzzle makers, basically people who made their living off using language in, in, in some fashion. I mean we all use language but as you know, as part of, as part of their life's work. Kory:                     And this usage panel is queried pretty regularly to -- basically American Heritage will send them questionnaires and say, how would you use, or is this particular example of decimate, let's say, correct or incorrect, or in what context would you consider this incorrect? Steve:                   And these ballots are tabulated and these percentages where relevant, find their way into Usage Notes at various words throughout the dictionary. I'm sure there's a note at various, which I probably just used incorrectly, but check out the Note and see. So, if you go to a word that you think has a styler usage issue, if you go to ahdictionary.com, look up that word, you'll probably see a Usage Note, you know, and you might see the Usage Panels' responses, and with some words like impact or contact where we have looked at these repeatedly over the years, you can see what the percentages were like in the sixties versus, you know, three years ago, if it was, you know, depending on whenever the last time it was balloted. And through this you can see how perceptions about languages change. If I could give a brief anecdote. Steve:                   Yeah, absolutely. Steve:                   So for example, tracking whether you pronounced the word HAIR-US or huh-RASS, 20, 30 years ago, the predominant form was HAIR-US. Steve:                   Huh! Steve:                   And then in the late nineties it was very split. And then the last time that we balloted it, huh-RASS was by far the preferred term. And you can see-- Kory:                     It was split as late as the late nineties? Steve:                   Yes. Steve:                   Well, I'm a hick, so I grew up saying huh-RASS-- Steve:                   Well, I'm a hick too. I was -- there will be a podcast where Kory and I talk about our variety of English we used growing up-- Kory:                     [laughter] About how they let hicks write dictionaries, too. So one of the interesting things though, I thought this was fascinating about the Usage Panel, is most people, and it was actually kind of advertised this way early on, most assumed that the Usage Panel's advice changed how the word was actually defined in the dictionary. And -- Steve:                   And that is so not the case. Steve:                   [[laughter] Steve:                   Uh, the Usage Panel had very little to not at all effect on the definition. Usually the definition within the Usage Note comes from the definition -- the Usage Note will repeat that definition and then talk about what the Usage Panel thinks about it. Sometimes the Panel results, when there's change over time, might cause the editors to look how a word is being defined and cause the editors to consider revising it or revising it, but that is one piece of the evidence and the definition isn't being rewritten on the basis of a judgment from the Panel alone. Also, the Panel is not deciding what words go in, what words are taken out. They are basically, there's maybe 400 words or so, 500 words, where they have weighed in on over the course of the past 50 years, and that information is included in the Notes, but this Panel is not responsible for the editorial decisions that are made. Kory:                     And I as a lexicographer did not actually realize that until I started learning more about the history of the American Heritage Dictionary. Because the perception is that Usage Panel is there to be prescriptive and that makes the dictionary itself prescriptive. Which my mind, I thought, well, that means that every part of that dictionary from, you know, the front matter to the back matter must be prescriptive. And in fact, it's not. The way that we define at Merriam Webster and the way that they define it American Heritage is pretty -- I mean, it's almost identical. We were all trained by the same people, Steve:                   Right? And, or the people who trained us, were trained. I mean there's this very small tradition, and we're not the only dictionary company that has these types of -- I mean we're the only one that calls them a Usage Panel, but the New Oxford American dictionary back when it was called that had an advisory panel that they got this type of information from. So we're certainly not the only dictionary to do it either. And by the same token, Oxford editors, were defining and they weren't being dictated how to define definitions based on what NOAD's advisory panel said. Kory:                     Right? So, so long story short, American Heritage / Merriam Webster actually very similar in spite of all of the marketing that would tell you otherwise. Steve:                   Speaking of marketing-- Steve:                   Oh, you're going to talk about one of my favorite things. Steve:                   So, about eight or nine years ago, when we were moving floors between the building that we were in, someone in marketing uncovered this footage from an ad campaign that was undertaken in the early seventies at the American Heritage Dictionary. It's like a 15 minute clip and it's done in the style of Laugh-In [[Kory laughs]], marketing the dictionary. It's ridiculous. Oh, there's a link on Youtube which we'll include it on our podcast twitter page. We encourage you to check it out because it is a lot of fun. And I think part of the reason it was made was to in part combat this image that the dictionary was stodgy and you know, finger wagging. It's a lot of lighthearted, ridiculous fun, and it's very seventies. Kory:                     It is so 70. So Steve and I will, when we're working, we usually have a chat window open and every once in a while we just send each other random links and usually it's to like eighties new wave or drag parodies of eighties new wave-- Steve:                   --or pharmaceutical ads. Steve:                   Oh, gosh, lots of those. Steve:                   One of the things I do for the American Heritage Dictionary is the pronunciations, and one way to find out how, various generic names of drugs are pronounced is by going to the pharmaceutical company's website and seeing their, their promos about them, but they're ridiculous. So we'll share these links back and forth. Kory:                     But so Steve, you know, chat window is open and I'm working and I get a random link from Steve and I look at it and then I get a text from him that says, did you get that link? You have to watch the link. And I watched the link and I, I watched it twice, all the way through and I was shrieking through it, which caused great -- my dog came running in and wanted to know what was wrong. It is phenomenal. So if you do nothing else but watch that video after this podcast, then Steve and I can both die happy people. So, okay, so if that's how dictionaries are written and everyone assumes that dictionaries are prescriptive, then the question is why don't dictionary companies give the people what they want and write a prescriptive dictionary? Steve:                   Um, I think in part the audience would be far smaller than most people realize [[Kory laughs]] and dictionary companies have essentially done that with various style guides that have come out, which focus on the do this, not that. The problem is, and the author and linguist and educator Steve Pinker discusses this in A Sense of Style, is that there are some rules that, well, where do you draw the line? For some people, you know, they will never split infinitives for other people, it's totally cool because this is a part of what you do. Uh, so there, there's this, every style guide becomes this where the line is drawn, we accept this but not this, and you can say this, but you can't say this. And it comes down basically to that editorial board or single author's opinion. Kory:                     Right? And you know, modern dictionaries are staff written and they're staff written specifically so that there is not any individual person's bias present, either with regard to cultural mores or with regard to language. And we all have these biases -- biaSEES? biaSIS? I've suddenly gone British, we all have them, anyway, even lexicographers. So, the idea of a prescriptive dictionary not only goes against all of the training that modern lexicographers have, but you know, really that's not what a dictionary should do. If you want prescriptivism, get a style guide, get a usage dictionary, get a bunch of usage dictionaries, and compare them. That's the best way really. Steve:                   In my book, in the book that I wrote Is English changing -- there's a chapter about style guides and usage books and other reference sources. And in there I distinguish between the types of rules. A rule of grammar is one that you don't have to be taught if you're the native speaker of a language, you just know it. You know, as a native speaker of English that the proper sentence structure is "The cat is on the mat" and not "The the on mat cat," for example. That-- Steve:                   Wow, you did that so naturally. Steve:                   --is no one really, no one has ever taught you that that is the rule. Steve:                   Right. Steve:                   But if you were learning Romanian, as an English speaker, you would learn that words like "the" go after the noun and not before. Kory:                     They do? Steve:                   Yes. Kory:                     I didn't know that. Steve:                   Yes. Kory:                     Dang Romanian. Steve:                   Yeah. Steve:                   Oof. Yeah. You also, the other thing that is so fascinating about dictionaries is that a lot of people, when they want prescriptivism, Steve, has alluded to this, but they don't actually want word level prescriptivism. They want sentence level prescriptivism. They want us at the entry for "infinitive" to include a thing saying don't split them or at "preposition" a note saying don't end sentences with them, and that's actually -- dictionaries only work on the word level. We do not talk about these broader style issues. We don't even talk about whether you should hyphenate "terracotta" or not. Decisions go into that. Steve:                   Actually, the two examples you mentioned are the two exceptions [[Laughter.] to that. At American Heritage, we do have a note at "split infinitive" and one at "preposition" about that just because-- Kory:                     Editorial notes not Usage Notes? Steve:                   Oh no, Usage Notes. Kory:                     Oh, Usage Notes I think are different. I mean, like when people, you know, people go buy a paperback dictionary for a dollar and they want this in there. Yeah. They and they want that kind of advice. They want someone to say don't split infinitives. They want someone to explain the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. They, and that's not, I mean, dictionaries really have never done that. That's always been the province of grammar books and what we now call usage dictionaries. So, so what we're saying is just buy more dictionaries. Steve:                   Right? And to further to the point, for example, where I grew up, I did not distinguish well between "lie" and "lay." Kory:                     Right. Steve:                   And when it comes to the past tenses, I still have to look them up every time. This is an example of a type of speech that people expect you to use in certain contexts. And for that, there are style guides, or in the case of verbs where you actually show inflections in the dictionary matter, that is kind of their point. The part of Michigan where I grew up in, your past participle form of "buy" is "boughten" and I, and I speak not only of store boughten bread, but I will utter, "I have boughten blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" if I'm not thinking about it, because that is a quote unquote rule I had to unlearn. Kory:                     Right, and dictionaries don't, I mean, you're a general dictionary, you are trying to cover as much of the language as generally as possible, and if you start squeezing in on the prescriptive ideas of what language is, yes, you, you alienate a bunch of people, most of whom do not speak standard English, because standard English is actually a written form and we can have a whole podcast about that, too. But you know, you want to be broad and that means that you can't get into style guide issues because those change constantly. Steve:                   And, and they do change constantly. I think the Chicago manual style is just up to its 17th printing. The Associated Press Style Book is updated every single year. And there are so many different style guides and usage dictionaries. And, you're right, why pick one? You should get a variety of opinion there, see what different people are saying. There are a few issues pretty much everyone agrees on. Try to get everyone to agree on an Oxford Comma and you'll start a fight. You know, everyone has an opinion about that. So part of it is if you work for a place that has a communication staff, chances are they either have an internal style guide or they say follow the AP or the Chicago Manual or what have you, and refer to those to arbitrate decisions. And not every style guide is absolute. You can say you're going to follow the AP, and the AP editors say this all the time: "We're a guide, you know, for our AP editors, if you follow AP, but you're in-house style has a different thing, fine. Use It, use it. Just be consistent. Right? Kory:                     Right. So to sum up dictionaries, descriptive, we're sorry, that upsets you. We will actually tweet a bunch of links to some of these usage dictionaries and style guides we've been talking about. We will tweet links to Pinker's book and to David Skinner's book. Steve:                   And to this wonderful ad from the seventies. Steve:                   Oh my gosh. It really, guys, really is the most amazing ad. It really -- oh, it's so good. See you next time! Steve:                   Thank you! Bye!  

In this episode of the Heresy podcast Dimitar talks to James Parton, the former Director of Europe for Twilio. Dimitar and James compare notes on their experience being the first European employee for a fast-growing, venture backed US business and what "building and scaling Europe meant" for Twilio (and Stack Overflow). James also talks about the importance of training and sales enablement, pre-sales and sales engineering at Twilio and much more. Check it out!

James Parton was Twilio's first hire outside of US and headed up Europe for them from June 2012 until June 2017. To say Twilio have been an important company would be an understatement and James was key part of that but this is also a slightly more personal podcast as well. I think it's the kind of Podcast I want to make more of! I hope you enjoy listening.

"[Thomas Jefferson] could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play a violin." — James Parton, 1874 This week, we ask President Jefferson to confirm or deny these reported talents. Find this episode, along with further recommended reading, on the blog. Learn more about Odyssey Tours and the summer 2017 Lewis & Clark adventure on odytours.net. There, you can also find the Lochsa Lodge retreats: one on Walden and another on Shakespeare. Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson. 

The famous biographer, James Parton, once referred to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as "Hell with the lid off", but today the city is vibrant, colorful and celebrated. The Senator John Heinz History Center traces its roots back to 1879, making it the oldest cultural institution in Western Pennsylvania. The museum and research facility presents over 250 years of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania life and it’s quest for storytelling is supported by the affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.  On a recent visit to Pittsburgh we sat down with Brady Smith from the History Center, who shared how Western Pennsylvania helped author some of America’s most compelling historical stories. Pittsburgh was a main destination of the African-American Great Migration and that southern exodushern exodus produced a cultural mecca in the Hill District. The community inspired playwrights, musicians and Hollywood as it was the setting for the television series “Hill Street bBues”.   Marimba Milliones from the Hill Community Development Corporation tells us that remnants of the Hill District’s cultural mosaic during it’s hey-days from 1920 to the 1940s, can be seen today in landmarks that once housed synagogues and other places of worship, and in the architecture of some of the historic structures that accent the community.  Built in 1907 along the Monongahela River, Carrie Furnaces 6 and 7 still stand tall and they offer a rare look into early 19th century iron-making technology. Since the collapse of Pittsburgh’s steel industry in the 1980s, the Carrie Furnaces remain the only non-operative blast furnaces in the area.  

James Parton, Director of Twilio Europe, for Twilio Inc, One of Silicon Valleys hottest startups and entrants to the Unicorn Club, talks to SaaScribe about: Twilio, How he got the Gig, views on culture, mentoring, Startups and Marketing

Sat, Aug 22 2009 Mister Ron's Basement #1424 Our Saturday Night Special is from 'Fanny Fern, A Memorial Volume,' compiled not long after Fern's 1872 death by her husband James Parton, and published in 1874. Today we read a short, fun piece that gets right to the point - - 'Clumsy People.' Time: approx four minutes The Mister Ron's Basement Full Catalog can be found at: http://ronevry.com/Mister_Rons_Full_Catalog.html The Fanny Fern Catalog of Stories is at: http://ronevry.com/Fanny_Fern_Stories.html When in iTunes, please click on 'Subscribe' button. It's Free! Thank you.