{"id":64,"date":"2005-02-27T15:15:09","date_gmt":"2005-02-27T19:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/metasj\/on-transcription-the-joys-and-sorrows-of\/"},"modified":"2005-02-27T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2005-02-27T19:15:09","slug":"on-transcription-the-joys-and-sorrows-of","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/on-transcription-the-joys-and-sorrows-of\/","title":{"rendered":"On Transcription [ the Joys and Sorrows of ]"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

First, here is a quick overview<\/span>
\nof the professional webcred<\/a>
\ntranscripts, as initially received.  (By the time you read this,
\nthey are probably already cleaned up, so this is a moot point. 
\nThis is presented for transcription geeking value only.)  More
\ndetailed
\ncommentary and examples<\/span> at the end.  
\n<\/font>
\n[Now I really <\/span>want
\nto interview someone who runs a transcription business… what kind of
\nspecial effort do they take with celebrities’ names and quotes? 
\nWhat other VIP services <\/span>are available?  What kind of insurance do they need, and what happens when you transcribe slander<\/span>? 
\nHow hard is it to produce a perfect real-time transcript, and how close
\nto “real-time” can one get?   My private hunch: as close as
\nneeded to exactly real time, including ‘post’-processing.]<\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

The good<\/span>:
\n<\/font>\n<\/div>\n
    \n
  1. The transcripts are beautiful<\/span>.  In contrast to some gov
    \nand court transcripts I have seen, they are well laid out and easy to scan.
    \n <\/font>\n<\/li>\n
  2. The English is clean<\/span>.
    \nInterruptions and stuttering are cleanly handled, and most sessions
    \nhave useful sentence and paragraph breaks (even when the speaker was
    \nrambling). <\/font><\/li>\n<\/p>\n
  3. They get most names, proper nouns, organizations, and technology
    \nreferences right.  More than I would get without a list of names
    \nin front of me.<\/font><\/li>\n
  4. Their attention to small connecting words and comments
    \nunder-the-breath is generally excellent.  In general, their
    \naccuracy is fabulous <\/span>[which is, as I’m sure you all know by now, the Official Word of 2005], some 99.5%
    \n <\/font>\n<\/li>\n
  5. This was done quickly : a ~1 week turnaround for 15 hours of dense audio.
    \n <\/font>\n <\/li>\n<\/p>\n<\/ol>\n


    \n<\/font><\/p>\n

    The bad<\/span>:
    \n<\/font>\n<\/div>\n
      \n
    1. They are inconsistent. In some places, [inaudible] is used and
      \nevery
      \nspeaker gets his\/her own line and paragraph.  In others, just a
      \nfew dashes or underscores “___” are used to indicate something
      \ninaudible.  Full names are used in some places, and not in others,
      \nat times ambiguously.  Some sessions have poor formatting,
      \nparagraph breaks; the transcription of podcasting audio clips, for
      \ninstance.
      \n <\/font>\n <\/li>\n
    2. They get many names, proper nouns, organizations, and technology
      \nreferences wrong.  They should have lists of these terms in front
      \nof them, and should ask for what they don’t have.  This would help
      \nthem spell podcasting without a space, write “blogosphere” without a
      \ncap, and remember that yes, Jon Bonn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      First, here is a quick overview of the professional webcred transcripts, as initially received.  (By the time you read this, they are probably already cleaned up, so this is a moot point.  This is presented for transcription geeking value only.)  More detailed commentary and examples at the end.   [Now I really want to interview someone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-64","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7iVvB-12","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}