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Subject:RE: Voice to text problem From:Kevin McLauchlan <KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com> To:"'Elna Tymes'" <etymes -at- lts -dot- com>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 3 Feb 2000 17:26:10 -0500
I'd say go with the writer.
Never mind the "wandering off in all directions",
by the amateur "instructors" in the video, there's
a good chance that areas of the instruction will
be unclear or not sufficiently developed. A good
tech writer will not only transcribe and edit, but
will go talk to people who can explain the fuzzy
bits and fill in the gaps.
Some instructional experience/training on the part
of the writer will also guide the outcome in useful
directions.
Many writers also come equipped with passable
illustration skills -- that can only help to
capture the meaning of the engineer's original
scribblings, and make it look purty.
You end up with a useable and a useful product.
Or, so the opinion went when I first read your posts...
Later, I'll change my mind. :-)
/k
> -----Original Message-----
[snip]
> Currently considered options are:
>
> 1. Using voice to text software, such as Dragon Naturally
> Speaking (in whatever edition seems most appropriate) and
> IBM's ViaVoice Gold. (After reading the reviews, I'm not
> inclined to recommend the Kurzweil offering in this
> area.)
>
> 2. Paying someone to transcribe the spoken words on the
> tape. Here we run into the problem of the transcriber not
> necessarily knowing the jargon. But the translation software
> probably wouldn't know either.
>
> 3. Taking notes from the videotape and writing the source
> material fresh. Here at least we have a writer who is
> moderately knowledgeable about the jargon, who may be able to
> grab some word-type information from the diagrams the
> speakers are sketching, or even reproduce the sketches.
