Tue, Mar 27, 2007
CastingWords Transcription Service
#
I've interviewed hundreds of people over the past 20 years, so I'm
intimately familiar with the technology and the trials and
tribulations of transcription. Not surprisingly, the advances in
recording technology have been phenomenal. I have hundreds of dollars
of high quality recording equipment, all of which would have cost
thousands of dollars even five years ago. Sadly, the advances in
transcription technology have not kept up. Until recently, your best
bet was to find a good stenographer, which would have cost you more
than a pretty penny. (M1P)
I recently heard about CastingWords from a
post BethKanter made to the
riders-talk mailing
list, and I was immediately intrigued. CastingWords uses
Amazon.com's MechanicalTurk to farm out transcriptions to people all
over the world. It's a classic case of applying rudimentary
technology in a clever, useful way. It's also incredibly cheap. The
basic transcription cost is $0.75 a minute of recording time.
Many transcriptionists charge per minute of transcription time,
which is usually at least four times the length of the transcription. (M1Q)
As it so happens, I'm doing some work right now that requires
transcriptions, so I decided to give it a shot. Usability is a
breeze, from upload to payment to picking up the transcriptions.
Turnaround time for all of my interviews (all less than an hour long) was
less than 24 hours. And the quality of the transcriptions were
top-notch. Quite simply, CastingWords is an amazing service. (M1R)
/tech |
Posted at 12:26am
EEK Speaks
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Associates, with occasional digressions on food and other vital
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