Ken Barnes worked at Microsoft as senior editor of Music Central, having come from journalism and the entertainment industry. He is a collector of music and of language and embarked on the compilation of this lexicon as a guide to himself and others neophytes. Music Central folded in June 98, but Ken Barnes' lexicon lives online at Jim Emerson's site for film lovers, CinePad, and has become an informal orientation tool for new Microsoft employees (Wired News interview, 14/08/98).