Good morning! This post is coming to you super-early, because I have way too much to do later today. So, before my boss creeps in, here’s all the news for the week so far. Our faithful, intrepid managing editor Len hath returned from the Genesys G-Force conference (read his posts about G-Force here), and he’ll have more to report to you in coming days. Such as what he did with the Genesys-emblazoned belt buckle … and how the rest of the office kind of wants it to add to our wall of “free stuff vendors send us.” So, unless you’re totally intrigued by how Xerox (haha, remember photocopies?) plans to compete with Google and Salesforce, or that giant squid is still freaking you out (hello, it has the world’s largest eyes), follow the jump for less-disgusting news stories! [Speech Tech Blog, Information Week, Associated Press]

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I wish there were two of me. No, seriously — except not in that creepy way portrayed in the venerable film Mulitiplicity. Because, seriously, there is way too much news on which to report for this issue of Round Up & Release. So sit back and relax, unless you live in California, because, according to scientists, you will be hit with a catastrophic earthquake within the next 30 years. No! Google! Apple! I’m already sad.
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Since I enjoy writing “Crushes & Hexes” so much, in the coming weeks, the blog will continue to feature breaking news updates from Ryan, while I focus only on regular features and product reviews. The newest addition to our features is “Round Up & Release,” a compilation of the biggest stories and developments from the speech tech world. While “Crushes & Hexes” focuses on the tech community as a whole, RR&R is just about speech. I hope you like it - it will appear every Thursday on the blog. As always, keep the comments coming, and send us feedback! Seriously, Ryan and I get all giddy when our readers comment. Sad but true — it’s the small things. Full post after the jump!

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***Update: I got someone from TellMe on the phone. Read about their involvement with the iPhone here.***

Sure, March is the holy month for college basketball (FYI - Ryan is a UCLA fan; I’m an MSU girl), but here at Speech Tech, it’s Mobile Month. Even more news today! The sci/tech feeds at Google News are abuzz with stories about Microsoft partaking in the iPhone’s SDK. No big surprise — Microsoft would be silly not to want a stake in the Apple mobility space (and who doesn’t desperately want Excel spreadsheets at all times?). Though most stories report on the integration of the Office suite into the iPhone, a speech tech company, TellMe, is also rumored to be part of Microsoft’s iPhone app projects.

According to a PCWorld blog post, TellMe’s technology could be integrated into iPhone apps –

“Another group at Microsoft interested in the iPhone is from the voice recognition unit at Microsoft featuring the TellMe software that Microsoft recently acquired. TellMe is currently developing voice recognition software for the Windows Mobile operating system, but the iPhone SDK gives plenty of potential for the iPhone route as well.”

Woohoo! Not only is Nuance still on board with Android, but now we may see speech in the iPhone, as well. This also means we have more fuel for news on this here blog — it gives Ryan something to do aside from give us real-time updates about the Sweet 16. Of course, this is all still a gamble. Microsoft has apparently only been looking at the SDK for a few weeks, according to the same PCWorld blog post. Keep your fingers crossed, speech community.

[Photo illustration courtesy of our own Ryan Joe]

Back in New York! Totally forgot that flights from Orlando are always 70%-occupied by small children and screaming babies. The whole flight was like a big tribal gathering, complete with shouting and the sounds of kids playing with their newest toys. Yeah. I’m glad to be back in New York. So, let’s get rolling on what was arguably the biggest presentation at VoiceCon. Cisco wrangled in Al Gore to participate in a live meeting with other panelists via Cisco’s TelePresence product. What is TelePresence? It’s a fancy word for videoconferencing! Gore was in Nashville, Cisco president & CEO John Chamber was in California, and there was also a British reporter in London involved. Each of these panelists was projected on to a TV set in the VoiceCon keynote room. Three big talking heads in one room! It was hard to contain my joy.

All criticism aside, Cisco gets major props for doing something the other keynotes didn’t — they not only showed how their technology worked, but tied it in to their presentation’s title, “Climate Change and Technology Innovation.” Rather than fly all three panelists in to Orlando, they saved major bad-carbon by using TelePresence to conduct the panel. The picture was extremely clear, never broke up, and it was easy to hear everyone. A little piece of my cold, black heart melted. The company’s main point: using videoconferencing not only saves travel expenses, but allows a company to use technology as part of a green initiative. Nevermind the fact that one session I attended said videoconferencing creates the “appearance” that your company has a green program (the “appearance” — surely you can do better than that).

So, major ups to Cisco’s Sue Bostrom for being one of the most well-spoken presenters at VoiceCon - she was also the ONLY female keynote speaker - and gave a clear speech without sounding like a well-trained robot. You go, girl. An illustrated wrap-up follows after the jump!

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Greetings from the Orlando Airport! I’m wearing black clothing (anticipating cold NYC weather), but 99 percent of the people here are dressed like they just stepped out of Epcot. Also, lots of fanny packs. Anyhow, VoiceCon ended today. Though I wanted to live-blog every day, I was unable to do so for a few reasons: my MacBook was set on “better performance” and my battery kept dying; the conference’s free WiFi network always gave me only ONE BAR during sessions and keynotes; and I was busy every day from 730 am - 830 pm (usually, the people at VoiceCon looked at me like I was insane for staying that late, and kicked me out). So, yes — mini-traumas aside, I enjoyed the conference.

Usually, I’m holed up in the Speech Tech, sucked into the world of ASR, IVR, TTS, STT, ACD, and VUI. This time, I got to check out some UC solutions that will have a real impact on the contact center space. The biggest issues in UC/VoIP? Interoperability, integration, tons of “strategic partnerships.” I was reminded of Forrester analyst Brian Haven’s keynote speech at Nuance Conversations at several VoiceCon keynotes. The message from both speeches was the same: companies need to wise up to their changing consumer and employee demographics — and, with a plethora of information available at one’s fingertips, the enterprise must adapt and embrace the changing nature of business relations. This extends past presence and UC/UM sessions; it also penetrates the contact center and overall IT infrastructure. Head geeks, unite — VoiceCon was all about you. Read on for some of my favorite sessions’ highlights…

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This is a transcript of the morning keynote panel between

Bill Meisel, President, TMA Associates

Mike Cohen, Manager, Speech Technology Group, Google

Victor Melfi, Chief Strategy Officer & Senior Vice President, Marketing, VoiceBox Technologies

Neal Bernstein, Senior Director, Local & Mobile Search, Microsoft

Michael Wehrs, Vice President, Evangelism & Industry Affairs [Ed: Yes, that is his real title], Nuance Communications

John Tadlock, Lead Technical Architect, Consumer Application Architecture, AT&T

I typed the discussion out as I listened. So if it’s a little sloppy in parts…tough tamales, readers.

I did this for two reasons. First, it was a really good debate and the panelists gave some great information that I was unable to include in the daily Speech Tech news story. I just didn’t have enough space.

The second reason is because one panelist calls another an “ignorant slut” [Ed: According to staffers here, this phrase originates from SNL's Weekend Update editions with Jane Curtin...and is hilarious in the context of voice search.]. I wanted to share that.

And yes. Yes. You’re welcome.

Meisel: Voice search is vague and we’ve kept it vague for this conference. Voice search is a way of implying, like web search, that you can get things quickly and easily. How do you see this paradigm? What can we do with it?

Answers after the jump!

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It’s time for another edition of the Speech Tech blog’s regular feature, “Crushes & Hexes.” Appearing every Wednesday, we highlight companies, places, technologies, or people we deem praise-worthy, or cringe-inducing within the speech/tech/IT world. As always, your feedback is appreciated! Email us at blog@speechtechblog.com if you have a crush or hex item you’d like to see online.

Crush: Microsoft’s Imagine Cup
Why We’re Loving It: So, I regularly pour Haterade on Bill Gates every week, but this time, I’m giving props to Microsoft for opening up the gates (pun intended) to kids with skills. In its sixth year, the Imagine Cup challenges students and young people to design user interfaces around a real-world problem. This year, contestants must, “imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.” Participants get further points if they make the technology accessible, which, of course, means speech technology could play a big part. Contestants are encourage to, obviously, use Windows programs in their design, one of which is Microsoft Speech Technologies. When judging takes place in France this July, we’ll let you know if our beloved technology played a part in the winning project. Check out Stephen Potter’s blog for more in-depth info. Bill Gates — doing it for the kids!

Hex: The Death of the Man Who Helped Spawn the RPG Phenomenon
Why We’re Hating: Take out your 12-sided die today — Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, has passed away. Sure, the game spawned such time-wasters, fat-makers, and general pale-skin-generators as World of Warcraft, but many of us look back at our halfling days with sadness. While WoW gives users the fantasy feeling, D&D brought together groups of awkward teenagers every weekend in basements across suburban America, and showed them that even though they were tormented at school, they could still be dwarves in the family den. In honor of his passing, I’m presenting one of my favorite D&D references in pop culture — the episode “Discos & Dragons” from Freaks and Geeks. So cute.

A lot of vendors have been hawking their UC solutions in recent months. Perhaps Microsoft’s solution released last year is indeed sparking the market.

But whenever I ask a vendor what UC entails, the response is never clear to me. Generally, I’ll get a long silence followed by the business benefits of deploying a UC solution.

Microsoft describes the concept (question: is it a concept or a solution?) as “bridg(ing) the gap between telephony and computing to deliver real-time messaging, voice, and conferencing to the desktop environment.”

But what about presence? For a while, that was considered the hot item in a UC suite, though is it particularly common?

So far, everyone agrees that UC consists of unified messaging - email, SMS, and voicemail all retrievable from a common location. But what role should web conferencing and audio conferencing play in a UC suite?

As UC is relatively new, I understand that there aren’t a lot of standards around it. At the same time, it seems that some vendors bandy a UC solution that is, in fact, merely an aspect of Unified Communications.

It’s time for another edition of the Speech Tech blog’s regular feature, “Crushes & Hexes.” Appearing every Wednesday, we highlight companies, places, technologies, or people we deem praise-worthy, or cringe-inducing within the speech/tech/IT world. As always, your feedback is appreciated! Email us at blog@speechtechblog.com if you have a crush or hex item you’d like to see online.

Crush: Voice Search - The Cool Kid on the Block
Why We Love It: According to everyone, voice search is the coolest, prettiest, funniest, most awesome new kid on the block. He will change the way we search on mobile phones, interact with multimedia content, and he’s so all-encompassing that he has his own conference! This March, we’re sending our own Ryan Joe to check out the Voice Search conference in San Diego. OK, it used to be SpeechTEK West, but we’re willing to overlook the name change. Make sure to look for Ryan at the conference, or contact him (rjoe@infotoday.com) if you’re interested in speaking with him during the show.

Hex: Bill Gates
Why We’re Hating: Last month, Bill Gates was heralding speech as part of the Digital Decade (a little bit late, eh?), and this week, he’s causing all kinds of eye-rolling among human rights activists. Why? Because B.G., during a speech at Stanford University yesterday, was quoted as saying:

“I don’t see any risk in the world at large that someone will restrict free content flow on the Internet. You cannot control the Internet.”

Oh, really? If that’s so, one blogger wondered, why was Microsoft complicit with the Chinese when the country enforced Internet censorship? Bill, we’re waiting for an answer…

James Dean image [eb.com] & Bill Gates image [tla.ch]