... Continued from my blog 'Talk in not really cheap'.....How do you get the thoughts of those people published on the net who talk better than write. Due to some heavy socialising over the weekend, I am unable to put all my thoughts here. So I will revisit this later in the month. However, very briefly, three issues here:
Issue A:
Speech recongnition would not work. There are options here like Casescribe and SpinVox. But speech recongnition will not do justice with those pearls of wisdom. The only option is to transcribe provided you get a good transcription service. And you can bank on India for that. Thank you England for teaching us English.
Issue B:
The other issue is that users should be able to record voice anywhere, and with a click of a button upload the voice file to their blog page. So we are talking about a mobile voice recording
client that is pre-set to ftp to a certain server, server of the service provider who transcribes your voice file and posts it on your blog page for you .The client should be able to send that voice file over a mobile data connection such as WiFi or WiMax or the present day GPRS. I have looked at such clients and there are none i.e. no client that satisfies two simple conditions (1) works on a mobile either Windows Mobile or Symbian, and (2) has pre-set functionality to ftp the voice file to a certain site with a single click. There is no public client software out there that does both these things.
Issue C:
The third issue is that of billing. You have some podcasters pay via Paypal for transcribing some of their podcasts. That billing method is very poor. What we need is a billing method similar to that of VoIP clients i.e. you have certain amount of credit with the company, you are charged X amount for transcribing Y number of words, and your latest balance is available on the same client that records your voice on mobile phones and sends it onewards via ftp.
So first thing you need is a transcription team. Then you need to develop the client I just described above. Make sure it is free initially so that you have the downloads you require. Once your users get the taste of sending voice files to their blogs for free, provide them a premium service of charging for transcribing those pearls of wisdom!
Immediate application areas: well there are lots, will mention them in subsequent blogs; however to start with ... how about medical transcription ..... doctors will soon be recording on Nokia N series phones rather than old recorders; The biggest long term market however is those who talk better than write and want to have their thoughts published on the Internet ... these would be the ultimate bolggers ... let us call them wloggers ... w for wisdom. Now, go register that domain quick, wlogger.com. And give me 5% in your startup.