Technology and Organizations

Step by step we’re getting closer to voice transcription that can change how we manage our work and social lives. Step by step I’m moving my life to Google. This morning I spotted great news in Leena Rao’s GrandCentral To (Finally) Launch As Google Voice. It’s Very, Very Good. Google Voice provides (free) US calls, (cheap) International calls, one phone number, voice mail, SMS, conference calls, forwarding, etc.

This is great news because Google Voice provides transcription! With transcription, our communication is searchable to the spoken word and that is game changing. High-end systems provide this now. I’ve been waiting for the everyperson version and it looks like we’re close.

From the TechCrunch article:

Voicemail Transcription: Google also added a nifty transcription feature (which is using the same subscription service as Google 411) for voicemails. All voicemails are transcribed easily [and] saved into the system and searchable. Users can add notes or tags to voicemails and each transcription details how confident Google is about the success of voice transcription; Google Voice highlights word[s] in [a] lighter color that they are not confident were subscribed properly. And transcription takes about 30 seconds to be seen in the system from the end of a voicemail. All in all, Google may have unkilled the dreaded voicemail….

New User Interface: The primary user interface for Google Voice is through your phone via an audio menu. But users can also log in to the website to administer the account and view activity. This interface has undergone a makeover – It now looks very much like a comprehensive Gmail inbox with tabs for Voicemail, SMS, Recorded calls, Placed calls, Received calls and Missed calls. And the Google Voice is easily integrated into the list of links to Google apps at the top left of each application. All SMS and transcribed voicemails are searchable and taggable, which is very useful and will change the way people interact with these messages. Google also says that full integration with Gmail is coming, but won’t say when. Personally, having all my email, SMS and transcribed voicemails in a single inbox could be life-changing. You can also respond to text messages from the interface and initiate phone calls, which then calls your designated phone and then the recipient.

Why is this game changing? Knowledge management. Consider a team. Without transcription, face-to-face meetings can be less valuable in some respects than email — to archive the communication you have to take notes and store them. Active processes like taking notes and filing are not as powerful as passive ones when it comes to knowledge management (active tasks are less likely to be completed — we just don’t have the time). With transcription, we have access to all the benefits of face-to-face communication, as well as the ability to archive the communication for future use. Once again, you can’t change just one thing so it will be interesting to see how we learn to work with our new capabilities. In my example, I’m already assuming that we’ll place a call even during a face-to-face meeting just to get the transcription. Nevertheless, this is a step in an exciting direction. (3/18/09 Update: Deborah Lohse, one of my colleagues at SCU noted that full calls aren’t transcribed, only voicemails get transcription — though inbound calls can be recorded and stored. The current information from Google states that voicemails can be up to 3 minutes long. As I said, we’re getting close.)

Note: Spinvox is also working in the transcription area — or you can use markets like Elance to arrange for human transcription. Google Voice is not yet accepting new subscribers, but you can get on the list here.

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Tags: google, Google Voice, phone, SpinVox, transcription

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 8:19 am and is filed under Collaboration, Knowledge & Learning, Sociotechnical, Teams, Virtual Teams & Work, virtual work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.