EntreList » VoiceTracker

@peter, thanks for the comprehensive rev …

Neil — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:15:53 +0000

@peter, thanks for the comprehensive review of VoiceTracker legislation roadbumps. Transcriptions would bring a whole new realm of previously unavailable data right in to Google’s indexes, and subsequently make it a whole lot easier to find content on YouTube.

I don’t think it’s a problem having lengthy posts here - we’re treading new ground with a group-esque blog (I’ve yet to see anyone else doing this), so I’m all for a mixture of tweet-to-blog length posts and seeing where they take us. Either way, it’s a whole lot easier and more fun than a traditional monoBlog. I’ve probably made 10 posts on EntreList in the same time that I’ve made 1 post on my own blog. It’s all about conversation…

VoiceTracker

Peter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:07:13 +0000

Again, thank you Neil and Pieter for your replies. As some of you know, I am, among other things, a lawyer by training. So allow me to go briefly over the legal implications brought up by VoiceTracker (VT). This is not going be a thorough study in comparative law, so let us focus on the case in the US.

Let’s assume a conversation between two persons gets recorded. Then there are three cases:

1.Mutual consent: both parties are aware that the conversation is being taped (possibly by one of the parties) and have no objections. No legal problems here.
2.One-party consent: one of the parties knows they are being taped and has no objection. This situation is legal in 38 of the 50 states in the US.*
3.Third-party consent: someone is taping a conversation between two parties without their consent. Illegal, except for the authorities in certain situations.

The second case is the most relevant for VT. Note that it can always be turned into the first case by asking for someone’s permission - although I’ll be the first to admit that might be a bit awkward. The most obvious strategy would be to implement it in those states where you need only one-party consent. For calls to other states, you can choose the option of including a notification that you’re using VT, or just shut the app down.

@Neil - In business settings it is often standard procedure to tape phone calls. Therefore, because it happens so often, it’s not very awkward to inform people you are too.

OK, enough about the legal stuff, I hope everybody is convinced that it does not have to be a major obstacle. More on implementation!

@Pieter - I totally agree that the added value isn’t in just storing the conversation. A LOT of companies are already doing that. But the thing is, those companies are actually very much focussed on the b2b market, whereas VT is more geared towards personal use. Also, they really look like they’re having a 20th century approach towards the whole thing: E0.19 per stored conversation which they email to you, and that’s about it :p Let’s examine how we could do better.

To reiterate some of the points I discussed in my previous post:

Tagging the conversations with geo-spatial data, data on your conversation partner(s), or your own/automatic tags (business, social, etc.)
Search on date/time, tags, keywords, etc.
Analysis of the conversations
Transcription

I think the first one speaks for itself. The second and the third are enabled mostly by the fourth, the transcription part. From what I see on the web, voice recognition software is already very accurate (+98% under ideal circumstances: http://voicerecognition.com/). Like Pieter said, it’ll be an extra difficulty to keep this stuff functioning at that high level when there’s lots of noise. But who said that it has to be perfect right from the start? Or ever, for that matter? I’m guessing the software gets better at recognizing your words, the more you use it. And in any case, you also have the original recording.

Guys, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: of course there will be resistance against this. But I think it’s just a temporary thing, people adjusting to the possibilities of new media. Look at all the people not ‘getting’ Twitter: they still think in terms of the old.

As a final note, I’d like to say it’s probably a good thing that many entrepreneurs are deterred by this resistance, because it implies less competition

P.S. For the sake of the clarity of EntreList, I’ll post a big item like this on my own site next time: http://ptegelaar.nl (NB No activity there yet).

*My personal opinion is that legislation is lagging behind the technology in those 12 states. Saving voice conversations and saving IM conversations are not fundamentally different, so it doesn’t make much sense to make one illegal and not the other.

@Peter - sounds good to me. I’mInLikeWi …

Neil — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:03:42 +0000

@Peter - sounds good to me. I’mInLikeWith I’mInLikeWithYou, so more Blockles is good. If any random EntreList visitors (we’re aggregated through a startup hub now!) are also interested in trying out a cool app and reaching the highest heights of social interactivity on the Web (multiplayer puzzle gaming and dating games!) please let us know! Maybe you could leave a Seesmic-powered video comment, speaking of which….

@VoiceTracker - seeing as TC has given Seesmic a real golden ticket for their video commenting feature, VoiceTracker - and the speculative transcription function - would actually answer all the questions being raised about it’s usability (and lack of scan-a-bility).

@Microformats - MyBlogLog have just introduced hCards on profile pages. I haven’t played with it yet, but it’ll be great to see it working in a mid-tier social networking service. http://mybloglogb.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/mybloglog-hcard.html

@Neil - Haha, I am the king of Power-Ups …

Peter — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:35:55 +0000

@Neil - Haha, I am the king of Power-Ups! Don’t hold a grudge, we’ll have an all-out match soon enough and you guys can gang up on me ;p

@Neil + Pieter - Thanks for your replies to VoiceTracker! I’ll post my response later tonight

Pieter — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:51:46 +0000

Howdee! My first post here! I’m just writing along what comes to mind as I’m reading the two posts below.

First thought: privacy nightmare. Second thought: that might actually be useful. Third thought: if I can hack that, I can hear anything anyone says. Hmm, that must be my security mindset working overtime.

The difference with storing e-mail and I/M conversations, is that people generally think a bit more about what they write than what they say. You’ve got the chance to edit before you send written text. The equivalent is obviously thinking before you speak, which is a lot harder and less common.

Searching through the material would require transcription software which could handle confusing input, because multiple people are speaking in a single conversation and the software might have a hard time distinguishing between them. Once the conversations are transcribed, you can do all kinds of exiting search operations on them.

Starting this as a phone application which records conversations would indeed be the logical first step. The question is though, is this not way too straightforward? Recording conversations isn’t really a revolutionary concept. If this is going to be distinctive, the added value will mainly be in the way the information is made available and accessible. Basically what matters is the question: how can you make this as useful as possible to people?

Still, the privacy implications are significant and so will the resistance against this be.

@VoiceTracker - it’ll happen, but it’l …

Neil — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:13:21 +0000

@VoiceTracker - it’ll happen, but it’ll struggle with privacy implications, particularly in business operations (employee privacy groups won’t like it one bit). Let’s put it this way; if we can record something to make our lives more convenient, we probably will. So the best part would be automation of meetings, tasks etc; decide to do something through a conversation, and the app will turn that into a todo. Sounds good to me!

Killer iPhone app?

Peter — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:15:34 +0000

@Everyone - Just a futuristic little idea of mine, inspired by cheap storage. Imagine carrying a voice recorder with you that’s on always. Preferably it’s really small and not encumbering, and connected to the Internet. So basically, you’re storing every conversation you’ll ever have - unless you choose to switch it off of course - for preservation, to search, and analyze later on (or to get really space-age: in realtime :D). I think the uses of this are very similar to storing e-mail/IM conversations. Some ideas:

*Search for conversations (by date or by voice keywords) and check who exactly said what (in an argument for instance)
*Analyze your speech patterns, to see if there are certain words you use too often (like: ‘like’)
*Just knowing how you talked and acted in the past
*Having in storage your conversations with people now deceased

Actually, when you think about it, this idea is not necessarily so futuristic as it sounds. The device doesn’t have to be supertiny to begin with. Let’s just start with the conversations you have on the phone. An application records what you’re saying and places it in a buffer on your phone. Then, it sends that data to a server for permanent storage, whenever it has a connection to the Internet (either through wireless or when connected to your computer). I think voice is like 1MB/min, judging by the average mp3 song, so I think this is a realistic scenario. Also because most people have 100-500 phone minutes per month.

I think there are many opportunities for a startup in this respect.

*Developing the app that does the recording and the sending
*Making algorithms to efficiently filter the recording
*Making voice-search based on keywords instead of only date/time
*Tagging the conversations with geo-spatial data, data on your conversation partner(s), or your own/automatic tags (business, social, etc.)
*Analysis of the conversations

Of course a lot of people will be freaked out when you tell them their words will be recorded. But I think this is mostly a temporary thing: storing e-mail/IM conversations is the most normal thing in the world, so why not storing voice? Anyways, if you have any suggestions for additions to these lists or if you think the idea sucks b*lls: shoot away!