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Thanks Mark! Paul Orkiszewski Coordinator of Library Technology Services / Associate Professor University Library Appalachian State University 218 College Street P.O. Box 32026 Boone, NC 28608-2026 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Phone: 828 262 6588 Fax: 828 262 2797 On Oct 10, 2012, at 9:19 AM, Mark Canney <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > If you're not already aware of it, you ought to take a look at Stories Matter (http://storytelling.concordia.ca/storiesmatter/announcing-stories-matter-v-1-6e/about-stories-matter), an open source oral history database tool developed at Concordia University in Canada. SM allows archiving of digital video and audio materials, enabling oral historians to annotate, analyze, etc. > > > On 10/3/2012 6:22 AM, Gary McGath wrote: >> On 10/2/12 8:44 AM, Paul Orkiszewski wrote: >>> Hi 4libers, >>> >>> Does anyone know of something - a kiosk, an iPad app, a web application >>> - that: >> I don't know of anything like it out there, but let's look at what it >> might take. I've done some software work in connection with Harvard's >> Iranian Oral History Project. >> >>> - Initiates an oral history interview by getting demographic info and >>> permission to use and stream for scholarly purposes. >> I'm not sure what you're saying here. It sounds as if you're talking >> about automated correspondence with the sources. That would be a huge >> project in itself, so I assume you've got something more narrowly >> focused in mind. >> >>> - Goes through a standard set of questions (in our case stuff about the >>> Appalachian State experience) >> There are two pieces to this: Recording the responses and storing the >> relevant metadata. The recording probably shouldn't be tied to a >> specific device or application, since field work can involve a lot of >> different conditions. The researcher in the field would want something >> to enter the metadata (who, what, when, where); this would be a >> straightforward piece. >> >>> - Stores the metadata, permissions release, and pointers to the audio >>> files created for each question in a dbase record >> You don't say what the scope of the work is; from the way you're putting >> the questions, I'm assuming it's a small-scale project with one >> researcher doing the interviews and putting the information together. >> Even so, It's probably best to have the field work be a separate >> application from assembling the information in the database. If nothing >> else, once you're at this point there's more standard software that can >> be used. >> >>> - Processes the audio through speech recognition either in real time or >>> post-interview, and populates the dbase record with rendered text (at >>> whatever level of accuracy) >> You could do this piece with Dragon; see this post for some discussion: >> >> http://www.nuance.com/dragon/transcription-solutions/index.htm >> >> A friend of mine is an expert in this area and might be able to answer >> some questions. >> >>> - Provide a search interface, where the meatadata, demographic info >>> (within reasonable privacy limits), and the transcript (however garbled) >>> is searchable. >> I'd suggest basing something on Apache Lucene. >> >>> - Crowd source the improvement of the transcriptions over time >> This needs to be better specified. One solution is to put the text onto >> a wiki. If you're talking about integrating it into the application that >> does all the rest, it could get messy. >> >>> - Package the interface as an app, and set up a machine image on Amazon >>> EC2, such that when someone uses the image and points a browser to it, >>> it goes through a set up routine so that smaller schools and historical >>> societies can set up their own sites in the cloud. I haven't tried >>> streaming on a free tier EC2 server, but you get 30 GB of storage, so >>> you could get a fair number of hours of audio (depending on the >>> settings) before you have to start paying. >> This, I assume, is why you're talking about treating the whole thing as >> a single application. Putting it all together would be a huge chunk of >> work. Dragon's software isn't free, and I don't know of anything for >> free that does decent speech transcription, so that would be a stumbling >> block to making it available to other institutions. >>> ? >>> >>> Anyone interested in trying it with me if there's nothing already out >>> there? I'm leaning toward iPad, so we'd need iOS, server admin, dbase, >>> and media expertise. I have newbie-but-getting-better skill in the last >>> 3. Zero skill in iOS. >> I'm available for freelance work and it sounds very interesting, but >> you've just outlined a huge project that would be a significant burden >> even for the LoC's resources. That's not to say it can't be useful as a >> blue-sky starting point for something more reasonable. If you have >> funding, let's talk off-list. If you just want to continue blue-skying >> the idea for a while, I'm glad to continue on-list (and I promise not to >> bill you for that :). >> >> > > -- > Mark Canney > Manager, Lending Services > Lehigh University Libraries > 8A E. Packer Avenue > Bethlehem, PA 18015-3170 > 610-758-3028 > [log in to unmask]