Then my reaction was huge
dismay and questioning, "Why should I even stay in business?"
This came JUST after spending almost two months getting clear on
why my transcription business feels exciting to me and realizing
that I want to assist and support creative, positive, motivated
people to succeed in ways they have not been able to before, working
on interesting projects!
I imagined emptying my transcription business website of all information
-- just leaving a notice (as a ‘public service’) pointing
out to the people who THINK they need me to transcribe their audios
that they should go and buy that software instead!
Yikes! Drastic thoughts!
But seriously, then I started thinking some more...
I mean, it's a legitimate question! Why SHOULD someone hire me
if they can buy software for dictation?
In what situations would dictation software be inferior than having
a live, intelligent human being (who is passionate about helping
her clients succeed) listening and transcribing their audio material
instead?
Knowing such software exists, ANYONE might appropriately ask that
question!
Since I've never worked with this kind of software, I realize I
may not understand it perfectly, so I decided to ask some questions...
With audio recordings of interviews, groups, or live teleclasses,
seminars, and so forth, how does the software distinguish between
multiple speakers? How does it know to punctuate and break the text
into paragraphs appropriately?
When people just speak naturally, their speech is filled with tons
of 'ahs' and 'ummms' and 'you know's' and so forth. Does the software
know to filter those out when appropriate? People also string multiple
sentences together with 'and' forever! Does the software know when
to break the sentences apart?
How about when the quality of the audio recording is not top-notch,
such as when there is background noise or people speaking on top
of each other... how does it handle that?
Even when there is only a single speaker, if they do not dictate
punctuation, paragraphs, etc., does the software intuit that correctly?
If the software does not handle these issues well, how much work
is involved in cleaning up the text?
Also, in my relationships with the clients I've worked with, there
is the unquantifiable element of me being an objective outsider
who can catch errors or discrepancies in the CONTENT. And I often
even come up with valuable ideas to help them improve their material!
There is a creative, collaborative give and take between my clients
and me that often seems to be of benefit to us BOTH beyond the action
of me ‘just’ transcribing their audio recordings.
So, I concluded, there IS still a need for my services by many
people! Not all, but I’m sure enough to keep me busy. I actually
do enjoy this kind of work under the right circumstances and with
the types of clients I intend to connect with!
So in the end, I thanked that discussion forum member for her post
and the internal thinking process it sent me through, because it
helped me face a fear and come out stronger on the other side!
And then, as a welcome validation of everything I had deduced on
my own, quickly after I had submitted my reply to her, she was kind
enough to reply with a more detailed explanation of how the voice
recognition software works and its definite limitations -- everything
I had suspected, and even more!
I truly have a valuable, worthwhile service to offer my clients.
I’m very proud of my skills, my dedication, and my opportunity
to make a contribution to the entire world by assisting my clients
to develop their own gifts in ways they might never on their own
IF it was up to themselves alone to type out their wisdom and creativity!
Copyright Laurie Kristensen, 2005-Present. All rights reserved.
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