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Subject:RE: seeking auto transcribing for a small meeting From:"Dori Green" <dgreen -at- associatedbrands -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 3 Aug 2007 10:18:36 -0400
What John Posada said.
Plus. There is a very good reason that human transcriptionists are still employed. Automatic transcription makes a lot of claims, but they do not hold up in the test lab.
I worked for 20 years as a transcriptionist between tech writing gigs. John Posada is probably one of the very few people who understands why transcriptionists find other employment. As an exercise, I encourage everybody on the list to tape "raw" meetings or conversations -- and then attempt to transfer those tapes into a written format.
Most courts do not allow voice recordings. A licensed court reporter uses a special machine to type the record in a sort of shorthand. The court reporter may then carefully read that record back into a tape recorder and send it out to a transcriptionist, but the raw unfiltered voices are not accepted for the official record.
Also listen to your doctor as they mumble their notes about your heart/tumor/whatever into a cheap recorder -- while they eat lunch. It's truly scary and should not be allowed.
I just ordered a digital voice recorder, Mama is picking up her new toy next week! And I'm looking very seriously at getting the computer transcription software/hardware to be able to use it for SME info capture in my present job. But I'm not asking the company to pay for any of this stuff, because I anticipate that I will still have to rely mostly on notes and getting down and dirty out on the plant floor with the machinery running, where a recorder is useless (so are ears, pretty much, and we have to wear plugs anyway).
For dictating my own notes and stories for transcription and polish, it might be terrific. I'll keep y'all posted on the results of my experiments if you like.
Dori Green
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