by Dr. Moshe Yudkowsky,
author of The Pebble and The Avalanche: How Taking Things Apart Creates Revolutions
Mon, 2010-Feb-08, 08:20
Bill Meisel informs me that Speech in the User Iterface: Lessons from Experience has been published and will appear on Amazon shortly. The book consists of a compilation of essays from industry experts on, well, speech in the user interface.
I have an essay in this book, and I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's.
Topics: · announcements
Thu, 2010-Jan-14, 08:33
I see that I've managed to neglect something important: Cloud Communications Summit at ITExpo. I'll be speaking at 10 AM about "Communications Enabled Business Process Fundamentals." And since the Summit is in Miami Beach, Florida, you'll get to look out the window at the warm sunshine while shivering in the air conditioning.
The Cloud Communications Summit is the brainchild of Thomas Howe, who knows this stuff backwards and forwards. There will be an eBook of short essays on the topic published when the conference is over; I'll have an essay (tentatively) entitled "Consistent Communications: Lessons from Russian Military Intelligence."
Topics: · announcements
Tue, 2009-Nov-10, 08:00
My talk at SpeechTek is now available online at my "channel" on Blip.tv.
As for why I haven't been updating the blog lately, let's just say that work has been both exciting and exhausting over the past several months.
Topics: · announcements
Wed, 2009-Aug-12, 09:07
Although the idea is very popular, multi-tasking is actually a myth. When you do two or more things "at once," you're actually switching from task to task in a linear fashion. If you're a knowledge worker, this lack of focus and concentration — "flow" — will decrease your productivity. And that's not a mere assertion: that's science.
In a keynote address to Cluecon 2009 (video here), a conference for Voice over IP ("VoIP," otherwise known as Internet Telephony) developers, I discuss the problems associated with VoIP. In particular, VoIP makes it possible to put telephones into all sorts of locations, including light switches and car keys. Given that phones interrupt our concentration, and interrupting our concentration reduces our productivity, can VoIP ever be more than just a terrible mistake? (The answer, by the way, is a somewhat-qualified "yes.")
Topics: · announcements · telecommunications
Thu, 2009-Jul-23, 09:20
The American Society of Business Publication Editors, Northeast region, had their annual awards ceremony last night. I'm pleased to announce that my regular column in SpeechTek Magazine, "Industry View," won my category's silver medal. (Here's a link to my articles and other appearances in the magazine.)
My thanks to SpeechTek Magazine for their continuing support and encouragement, and to ASBPE for their kind recognition.
Topics: · announcements
Fri, 2009-May-22, 09:29
I'd like to quote the fine people at Cluecon:
Dr. Moshe Yudkowsky will once again kick things off with the opening talk on Tuesday morning. Moshe is very energetic and really gets the crowd going. Stay tuned for more information as we wait for Dr. Yudkowsky to give us his topic.
I swear I'll send them the topic as soon as I figure out what it is... that is, after I send my latest article off to SpeechTek Magazine.
Topics: · announcements
Tue, 2009-Jan-20, 12:33
For once I'm attending a conference without speaking — from the podium, that is. I certainly intend to pay careful attention to the talks and to allocate generous dollops of time for networking.
The eComm conference schedule and registration is here. I have a discount code which ought to get you 10% off the registration: YFEDHW5E. Oh, and sometime in the next 24 hours it ought to be fixed, but the room rate has now dropped to just $159 per night (instead of $189 per night as listed on the web site and with the call centers).
Topics: · announcements · education · industry · telecommunications
Mon, 2008-Sep-15, 09:41
This post is by way of a public service announement. Market Watch, a financial news site which should know better, writes in a story summary that "Lehman Brothers Holdings is closing its doors." I've seen other variations on this theme.
Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means that Lehman will seek to continue to do business, reorganize, and emerge from bankruptcy. I don't know if they'll suceed, but Chapter 11 is a far cry from going out of business.
Topics: · announcements · business
Mon, 2008-Sep-08, 08:39
Here is my talk "What End Users Really Want: Featuring Mabel and the White Mice," which I gave at the August 2008 SpeechTek conference. The talk focuses on innovative services in speech technology, but aside from some jargon the overall point of the talk should be fairly clear.
The video consists of the conference audio track synchrnoized to the slides (download, PDF). If you find the correct icon (the screen icon, to the left of the progress bar) you can view this presentation in full-screen mode.
Topics: · announcements · innovation · predictions · technology
Fri, 2008-Sep-05, 07:34
The keynote address I gave at Cluecon — "If Information Wants to Be Free, Where Is It Hiding?" — now available online as a video presentation. Here are the slides in PDF format.
The abstract of the talk:
Interesting web applications demonstrate that information really does want to be free. Developers mix and match data from various sources to create new, fascinating, and useful web sites. By comparison, telephony applications incorporate limited information and -- in a mobile world -- almost nothing in the way of location-sensitive information. What information will be free in twenty years? How will telephony applications incorporate this information? How do we get there from here? How can we make money during the journey?
I've also updated both parts (Part I, Part II) of the CCXML Workshop. If there are any remaining problems with the video, please contact me.
And with any luck, I should have another interesting (but much shorter!) talk available online later today.
Topics: · announcements · innovation · predictions · technology
