We are very pleased to have partnered with the leading Dutch blog platform web-log.nl. The initial uptake of ReadSpeaker webReader by web-log.nl bloggers is great and we look forward to many more in the next coming months. The implementation is really easy thanks to the widget that we have developed specifically for web-log.nl blogs. For those who listen to Dutch out there, here is example of a web-log.nl blog which has implemented ReadSpeaker webReader.

Techshare Logo

I just got the message that I have been offered a presentation slot at this year’s Techshare Conference in London hosted by the RNIB at 3.30pm on Friday September 18. I will speak about the new web standard for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) and I will be presenting our current work for speech enabled Government eServices. A way to make it possible for more citizens to participate in the digital community, and create better reach for government web applications.

Techshare is a series of pan-disability assistive technology events, hosted by RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People), which aim to develop this exciting and innovative field to support end users.

Assistive technology can be defined as any item, equipment, product or service which increases, maintains or improves functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.
Techshare conferences are supported by partners who work with us to develop and deliver the conference, providing a valuable contribution to, and steer on, the content of the event.

VoiceCorp are happy to announce the release of a plug-in for ReadSpeaker Enterprise services for the WordPress publishing platform. More and more companies as well as media organizations use the WordPress platform to create websites and blogs. The platform is easy to use as well as it is easy to customize and maintain. With this new plug-in, the ReadSpeaker Enterprise Expanding Player is implemented in no time and with just the click of a few buttons. The plug-in adds a Listen-button to each blog post and enables the visitor to listen to each post/article. It works pretty much like the Listen function on this blog (which is also built on the WordPress platform). With ReadSpeaker Enterprise, the customer can also customize the user experience by having a selection of many different languages and voices.

I am going camping!! Swedish Social media geeks are gathering on a small island in southern Sweden for a barcamp over the weekend: Sweden Social web camp. There will be over 250 participants and a very intensive program from Friday night to Sunday morning. There is some indoor housing for about 100 of the participants but main part will sleep in tents. There is at least 5 big military tents on site from friday. And Veidekke is mounting a giant tent on 250 kvm. And there will be a lot of other venues also for the discussions/presentations on Saturday. If the weather is fine we can use the whole island outdoor as venues for sessions.

I hope to manage to both show people how to speech-enable their blogs with webreader. (And why they should do it). And I will also lead a discussion on digital gaps, a subject that I personally is very interested in.

If they manage to arrange a internet connection that is enough for us all I will be twittering and broadcasting on Bambuser all weekend from the island.

One reason for participants in Sweden Social Media Camp to speech-enable their blog could be this:

Contest on the SSWC: Win a speech-enabled iPod Shuffle 4 Gb

The rules are very easy to take part in this contest:

1. You should be a registered and present participant at the Social Web Camp.
2. You speech-enable your blog with webreader. (You know, you can get it even for free)
3. The blog must be a real one and not a sandbox kind-of blog or a pro-beta-playground (you know what I mean).
4. Submit your blog as a comment to this post (and you also get a free inlink
5. The submission must be done before 10.00 AM on august 23th (before everyone leaves the island).

If you already have speech-enabeled your blog earlier (like I know a couple have done), you just have to add your blog below as a comment.

It is not the first time we give away a free iPod Shuffle. And we love this model very much since it uses speech synthesis for navigation. We will announce here on sunday at 10.00 who won the iPod. We will also mail the winner.

Sign up for a webreader here!

Good luck!!

UPDATE 2009-08-23: The winner is Joanna Öberg with her blog www.joanaoberg.com

Congratulations and good luck with your new toy!

We thought it would be a good idea to share with you a Q&A session we had with one of our customers about the thinking process that goes with giving a web site a voice. We are honoured to share the following discussion we had with Michael Clevestig, Senior Manager Online Marketing of  SITA who is the world’s leading specialist in air transport communication and IT solutions. SITA delivers and manages business solutions for airline, airport, GDS, government and other customers over the world’s most extensive network, which forms the communications backbone of the global air transport industry.

Q : How did you come up with the idea of speech-enabling your web site ?

A : When we re-did our web site in 2008, one of the main objectives was to provide different access channels for the various constituencies that visit our web site. We see our web site as a multi-faceted and dynamic media and wanted to go beyond the text version only. At the same time, we were looking for a way to introduce some of these new channels without having to engange in costly production costs. When we heard about ReadSpeaker, we thought this was a great way to emulate a speaking version based from our already existing text content.

Q : When you say « already existing text content » what did you have in mind ?

A : That is a good question ! We initially thought that ReadSpeaker provided pre-recorded messages that would need periodic updates. That is where we discovered that the ReadSpeaker application converted on-the-fly our text into speech. The process is entirely dynamic ; the ReadSpeaker application parses the html code on our web pages, converts it into text and then file streams the mp3 back to the user.

Q : How much effort did it take your Internet team to implement ReadSpeaker ?

A : Since ReadSpeaker is a web-based software, our implication was limited to the initial implementation of ReadSpeaker’s html based code in our content management system (CMS). The ReadSpeaker web-based software comes with a number of customisation features such as start and stop tags to determine which part of our pages sould be read, personnalisable and accessible flash players, custom owned dictionnaries where we could provide ReadSpeaker with certain abreviations that needed specific pronunciation. Once the ReadSpeaker software was implemented – and the support we got from the ReadSpeaker team during this phase was A-class – our part of the job was done. The advantage thereafter of using the web-based ReadSpeaker product is that we are always getting the best and latest version of the software and don’t have to periodically update it ourselves.

Q : Your web site doesn’t seem to be aimed at end users who have reading disabilities so why did you take the decision to add ReadSpeaker to it ?

A : Our web site is mostly used by professionals in the air transport industry which, in their vast majority, do not encounter reading problems. However, we feel that adding an audio dimension to our text content brings our site to the next level by introducing greater usability for all, irrespective of any disability. We see the listen function on our web site to be as natural as the print and email buttons we provide. Many of our visitors are busy professionals that operate in multi-task contexts and to be able to listen to our articles while doing something else has a value in itself.

Q : Would you recommend ReadSpeaker to the air transport industry ?

A : Definitely ! We see ReadSpeaker as a very useful tool that can be used for different types of web site visitors who have various needs. It is easy to implement and the team behind the product are experts in speech technologies.

As the initiators of the market for speech-enabling web sites with our ReadSpeaker products, we have come across many different reasons amongst our 3000+ customer web sites for giving their online text content a voice using our server side solution.  Here is a list of the 10 main reasons which come back most often from our customers :

1.    It helps certain users get better access to our web site, notably all those that have different reading handicaps such as dyslexia or a certain degree of visual impairment.
2.    It is a great comfort tool for users who spend long periods of time in front of their computer or mobile phone and who appreciate listening to a web page to ease the strain of reading text.
3.    It is a very easy way for listening to our text wherever our user is and whenever he/she wants to listen. Thanks to the save mp3 feature or the ability to convert RSS feeds into podcasts, our text content is portable to mobile devices like a smartphone or mp3 device.
4.    It is a learning tool that helps our web site visitors whose language is not the same we write our content in better understand by listening to it.
5.    We can reach out to more users, increase the trafic to our web site or blog and at the same time show that we care for those that benefit from listening instead of reading our online content.
6.    It helps our users in multi-task contexts listen to our content while engaging in other activities. This can range from listening to cooking recipes while in front of the stove, to listening to step by step do-it-yourself activities like putting up a new window.
7.    It provides us with the missing link, we can now have our users listen as well as sharing, printing, sending our content.
8.    It immediately and on-the-fly converts our online text content into voice thereby giving us an effortless audio channel that we can propose for free to our followers.
9.    Because of the server-side service proposed by ReadSpeaker, our content can be listened to from any device connected to the Internet, whether from home, at the work place or from any location with Internet connectivity.
10.    Since ReadSpeaker is device independent, we are sure that our visitors can listen to what we have to say whatever hardware they use, from a PC to an Android supported phone but also gaming consoles, interactive Internet-TV systems, Internet kiosks, etc