Midwest Speech Technology Association

If you signed up for an account and it was never approved, please let me know by using the contact form.

The Internet moves in mysterious ways.

There's only a little more time if your company wants to participate in the SpeechTek "In Beta" labs.

If you want to participate, please contact me ASAP; we're updating the list on Friday July 10.

MSTA members can get a discount of 35% for O'Reilly books by using discount code DSUG and ordering at the O'Reilly site or by phone.

Also, you can get a 15% discount if you register for the Emerging Telephony conference with discount code etel07usrg.

The board is working on the schedule of events for the first half of 2007 and beyond. If anyone has suggestions about events, wishes to volunteer to give a talk or to host a meeting, please contact me.

SpeechTek West offers MSTA members a 10% discount or a free pass to see the exhibits. Use discount code MSTA07.

MSTA member David Thomson asked that we distribute this important notice:

The VoiceXML Forum is holding a four-hour workshop on advanced dialogs for voice-activated systems on February 22, 2007 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the San Francisco Hilton & Towers. The purpose of the workshop is to promote technology exchange among spoken language experts and to explore what dialog specification concepts should be standardized for deploying advanced voice-activated services.

The Workshop on Advanced Dialogs is supported by the VoiceXML Forum Tools Committee and will held as part of SpeechTEK West 2007 (but will not be available to general SpeechTEK participants). To receive an invitation, please submit a one-page position paper stating your view on at least one of the following questions:

1. What new language constructs are needed to support advanced dialogs?

2. Where do standard programming languages such as VoiceXML, Java, JSP etc., need to be extended or enhanced to better support advanced dialogs?

3. What is the best approach (plan-based reasoning, rule-based systems, goal-oriented design, world modeling, etc.), perhaps given a particular circumstance, for creating advanced voice-activated services and why?

4. Do you have an example of a case where an advanced dialog was successfully deployed for live customers? What dialog design principles made this deployment a success?

Accepted position papers will be published at www.voicexml.org and participants will be invited to briefly summarize their paper (no slides required) at the workshop. Attendees will analyze alternative approaches and suggest recommendations for how standards should proceed for supporting advanced dialogs.

Papers should be sent to david@speechphone.com by December 15, 2006. A minimum one-day SpeechTEK registration is required for workshop participants (http://www.speechtek.com).

Review Committee:
Jim Larson ­ Co-chair W3C Voice Browser Working Group
Bill Scholz ­ VoiceXML Tools Committee
John Tadlock ­ AT&T
David Thomson ­ VoiceXML Tools Committee

Charter: The Advanced Dialog Working Group (part of the VoiceXML Forum Tools Committee) has the following objectives:

1. To define the XML-based languages needed to represent Advanced Dialogs and implement applications.

2. To provide input to the VoiceXML Forum Metalanguage group regarding what is needed to allow the metalanguage specification to be able to support Advanced Dialogs.

3. To encourage standardization and adoption of Advanced Dialog concepts.

4. To speed the transfer of Advanced Dialog concepts from research to industry.

Advanced Dialog: A voice user interface specification that cannot efficiently be represented by a finite state machine.

Dates:
Paper submission: December 15, 2006
Acceptance notification: December 22, 2006
Workshop: February 22, 2007

MSTA members can receive a 10% discount on Voice User Interface design classes by EIG. The discount is courtesy of efforts by MSTA member Walsh Media.

The seminars will be held in the Chicago area both in September 2006 and in June 2007, as well as other times in other cities. Information about the two seminars offered is here and here.

To receive your discount:

1. Register by writing to Debbi at debbieh@icmi.com.
2. Mention Walsh Media discount.
3. Use discount code WMED

I'm moderating a session at SpeechTek on open-source tools. If you are the author or manager of, or contributor to an open-source tool that you'd like me to list during my talk, please contact me ASAP.

Members of MSTA are eligible for a 10% discount for SpeechTek, which will be held in New York on August 7-10. Use registration code "MSTA6."