We Want to Hear From You, Big Time

We recently got a comment about the blog, asking us why we don’t cover big headline items like SVOX buying out the Siemens speech patents or Nuance buying IBMs speech patents last week in this space. We also got a comment wanting to know why we insisted on using the word “Speech Head” and seemed to take some umbrage with the general tone here.

For the most part, the feedback we’ve gotten has been positive. In fact, this is the first time we’ve heard back from someone in the community taking issue with what we do on the blog.

With regard to the content of the blog, we see it as just one component in a much bigger enterprise. The main part of what we do is, of course, the print magazine itself. It’s the mothership from which all other work we do flows. In the monthly print version of Speech Technology, we take on bigger picture industry items. For our January/December issue, which should be hitting the streets and our main page any day now, I, for instance, wrote a feature on trends to expect in the industry in 2009. I spoke with several experts to get some perspective about where things are heading, with particular regard to how the recession is going to be affecting speech over the next 12 months—where there’s still room for growth, where things are expected move more slowly. I know my colleague, Adam, worked on a feature for that same issue concerning how to assess the need for speech.

We also have some in-depth articles about natural language (both in theory and practice) that you can expect to see in March.

In addition to our print mothership, we have the Speech Technology website where Adam, Lenny, and I all post daily about important news in the industry as it evolves. Both of the news that our commenter noted, for instance, can be found there. Adam covered the Nuance/IBM story last week and actually worked on the Siemens story for today’s news. We’re constantly talking to vendors, analysts, and users for those stories and we work hard to bring you perspectives and content that goes beyond what you might find elsewhere.

Given both of those more serious news venues that we work on, Adam and I have come to see the blog as a place to handle the weird, strange, and miscellaneous news, concerns, and ideas that pop up in the course of our research. Our posts range from creepy talking robots, to weird gadgets, to researched pieces about historical speech technology, or to just our ambling thoughts about the talking bottle openers that our dads own (as with my post today).

We try to keep the tone light, fun, and informal. Our use of the word “speech head” and even our half-baked catch phrases like “Get speechy with it,” have been part of our earnest (if misguided—actually, definitely misguided, but true-hearted nevertheless) attempt to make humor. We say “Speech Head” with all the love and affection in the world. Let it be known that Adam and I would be the first to self-apply the term. We’ve actually even been talking about making t-shirts for ourselves.

Really, the idea behind this blog is just to serve you. To get you, the reader, talking, moving, interacting. The blog is a much newer feature of the Speech Tech Media Empire and we’re still trying to figure out what the best thing to do with it is. If there’s something you want to see us doing, please comment. Let us know. We’ll be glad to take anything under consideration. We’re doing this for you.

In the absence of suggestions though, Adam and I will probably be blithely contented to go along our merry speech way, writing about robots, the Ediphone, the GirlTech Password Journal, and LG 2-way TV wrist watches.

So please, if there’s something you want or you just want to tell us how much you love the blog, post us some comments. Or email me at ebarkin@infotoday.com or Adam at aboretz@infotoday.com Let’s get some discussion going, Speech Heads.

All the best and much love,
Eric B. & Adam B.