Welcome to the EAB
The selection of Speech Technology magazine's Editorial Advisory Board for the 2006/2007 term proved excruciatingly difficult. We had many more responses than expected and a number of very worthy individuals were not selected. We felt we needed to choose nominees that reflected the diversity of the impact of speech technologies and the magazine's quest to become even more relevant in all uses of speech technologies. We also wanted to expand our knowledge base outside North America and we chose nominees that represent this fact. Quite frankly, it really bothers me to not select all of the nominees, but we had to set a limit at the beginning or it just gets too unmanageable. So with this mea culpa out of the way, let me introduce the new Editorial Advisory Board of Speech Technology magazine.
Michael Bergelson
President and Co-founder, Audium
Rich Bray
General Manager, Microsoft
Dr. Janet Cahn
Senior Voice User Interface Designer, Bose Corporation
Dr. Juan Gilbert
Associate Professor, Auburn University
Marie Jackson
VP of Marketing, Intervoice
Volker Jantzen
Founder and CEO, SVOX
Dr. Lizanne Kaiser
Senior Principal Consultant, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories
Dr. Yoon Kim
Chairman and CEO, Novauris Technologies
John Kirst
Vice President, TuVox
Peter Mahoney
Vice President, Speech Division, Nuance Communications, Inc.
Bruce Pollock
Vice President, West Interactive Corporation
Ken Rehor
Chief Architect, Vocalocity
Dr. Manish Sharma
Director, Speech Solutions, Nortel
Jonathan Taylor
CEO, Voxeo
Tiemo Winterkamp
Co-Founder and VP, VoiceObjects
Isabella Villani
Speech Recognition Consultant, Dimension Data
Michael Zirngibl
President & CEO, Angel.com
Dr. Debbie Dahl*
Consultant, Conversational Technologies
Dr. Caroline Henton
Founder and CTO, Talknowledgy
Daniel Hong*
Senior Analyst, Datamonitor
Dr. Nancy Jamison*
Industry Analyst, Jamison Consulting
Dr. James A. Larson*
Manager, Intel
Dr. Judith Markowitz*
President, J. Markowitz, Consultants
Dr. William Meisel
President, TMA Associates
Dr. Walter Rolandi*
Founder and Owner, The Voice User Interface Company
Dr. William 'Bill' Scholz*
Architect Director, Unisys Corporation
Robin Springer*
President, Computer Talk
We begin this edition of the magazine with an interview with Bob Ritchey of Intervoice. Bob recently completed a large acquisition of Edify and we wanted Bob to share with you his thoughts on where he sees the industry and the path Intervoice will be taking.
Using speech as a medium to enhance searching capabilities is just natural and something I think many of us believe will be a significant use for speech technologies over the next few years. Beginning on page 12, Phil Britt takes us inside to see how Pull-a-Part, an Atlanta-based owner of five discount, self-service auto parts stores/salvage yards, relies on a speech-based search system to find the parts they need.
Stephanie Owens continues her reporting on how enterprises are effectively using speech by covering AvMed Health Plans of Florida. AvMed has automated many of its services and recently deployed a solution from TuVox to replace a proprietary DTMF system. Stephanie got some interesting feedback from AvMed on its decision to go with speech. Empowering Customers: The AvMed Way begins on page 17.
Ken Rehor, a founding member of the VoiceXML Forum and holder of seven patents involving telecommunications, provides an overview on considerations for selecting a VoiceXML-based platform. We begin Ken's story on page 21 and also highlight what it takes to receive VoiceXML Forum Platform Certification on page 22.
Steve Chirokas contributes this month's cover story on making your speech applications more secure beginning on page 24. Steve provides some really good insights on how to make your application much more secure, a concern for all of us in today's environment.
Beginning on page 29, Nick van Terheyden examines how speech has improved productivity at Staten Island University Hospital in New York. Nick discusses the challenges physicians face in documenting their work and how speech improved the productivity of the physicians at this hospital.
Ian Colville discusses why it is important to understand the issues impacting the selection of hardware for your speech deployment. Ian goes under the hood to explain these issues and provides you with valuable guidance on improving your speech application beginning on page 33.
Thanks to everyone for their work on this magazine and to the fine folks on the Editorial Advisory Board.
* These members serve as ex oficio members for their work as columnists for the magazine. They were selected as columnists for their industry-leading expertise in the domain area they cover.