SpokenWeb Meeting #8 – June 15th, 2011 4:00PM
Present: Jason Camlot, Darren Wershler, Jared Wiercinski, Annie Murray, Matthieu Tremblay, Celyn Harding-Jones, Melanie Bell, Deanna Fong
Agenda
-Jared- Meeting with SoundCloud
– Jason- Update re: conferences, graduate class
-Matt and Annie- Survey
-Other tools to integrate into site
-Timeline, TAToo, etc
-Text itself- Copyedit, full text
-Next grant application- Oral/historical context for this project
(attribute speakers, create a narrative, interviews)
Jared- SoundCloud Meeting:
-Jared met with Ben from SoundCloud to discuss the some of the challenges of using SoundCloud for a project such as ours:
-Tethering audio to text
-Sound visualization
-Platform for network of spoken archives
-Geolocation features
-Timed comments
-Audio workstation
-SoundCloud team very positive about our project, however would not be a resource for developing the kinds of features that we would need at this time—basically, we would have to develop the features we want ourselves using their API
-Have access SoundCloud’s promotional channels in the event that SpokenWeb goes public
-Ben also suggested we present our needs to Music Hack Day, an international event at which developers build new hacks or web applications for audio companies, i.e. SoundCloud. They are currently working on integrating a visual/audio workstation into SoundCloud, which would be helpful for our project.
– Partnered with SXSW- recordings tagged with their locations, creating a sound map of the event. Can listen to recordings directly from map- perhaps a similar map could be made for the SGWU reading series
On tethering text to audio: Mozilla makes code to this effect, used in NPR website (http://hyper-audio.org/r/) – Jared and Mathieu will try to track this down
New transcription software integrated into SoundCloud: Provides an automated, low-cost transcription service. Test it out with some of the new recordings from ongoing series, and perhaps have a man vs. Machine contest—Celyn vs. automated transcription—to decide whether or not such a service might be viable for us.
Deanna/Celyn/Melanie- Transcription and Print Sources: Transcription underway for poems in George Bowering, Henry Beissel, Mike Gnarowski and Eli Mandel readings
-Questions regarding the transcription of poetry- How is lineation represented? Which print sources are used? How do we represent features that are exclusive to audio, such as dialect, non-verbals, etc. What is the best way to present transcription on our site?
-For now, print lineation used, with discrepancies noted, sources cited
-What print materials should we include on the site? How much?
–How I Hear Howl, for example, is direct result of two authors interacting during SGWU reading series—would provide contextualizing information re: recordings and also contemporary print culture
-Deanna will begin scanning Bowering publications from 1967-1974
-Melanie has begun copyediting the complete text in document form—changes will be manually updated to the site from this document
Annie & Matt- Survey: Survey complete and on site.
-Participants will get a special password that only links to survey
-A mix of required questions and more case-specific detailed questions- See where certain pockets of authors/materials exists
-Participant agreement at beginning of survey
-Team can view responses on SpokenWeb site (location-specific view of responses and other specific reports)
-Matt will add a map that shows where views are coming from
-Participants: Memory institutes, libraries, English departments, Creative Writing departments—Deanna and Celyn will help Annie to fill out this list
-Annie: contact IRTS regarding maximum number of To: and Cc: fields, create a public about page for participants to see, and edit “about the project”—add proper terms for consent to research
-Survey open for 3 or 4 weeks, with email notice when 1 week left – August and September
-Repositories conference- grappling with digital collects content DM- open source interest in representations of Digital archives on the web.
Oral history/Interviews: Team comes up with a template of questions that are common to all people interviewed, creating parallel narratives that surround SGWU Reading Series events (using Please Kill Me as a template) Celyn and Deanna will start a Google doc, which team members can edit and contribute to. Jason, Celyn and Deanna will meet to establish a protocol and plan of action for conducting interviews
Interviewees: include people who were in audience (faculty/students), readers, introducers.
Start researching contextualizing print material
Tools to add or implement:
-Graphics (Photographs, print materials, etc.)
-Timeline
-Time-stamping link
-Mozilla code
-Geo-tags
The Future of SpokenWeb 2.0: What to do with project once we no longer have funding to keep an account with SoundCloud? Where does the project go from here?
-Look at making a contract with SoundCloud, in which they would sponsor our account and house audio recordings
-Meet with organizer of ongoing reading series (i.e. Sine, Synapse) to discuss getting a grant for a sister audio archive—one that uses the groundwork that SpokenWeb has established
-Jason: Possibility to develop a partnership with Danish radio project from Copenhagen conference that is grappling with many of the same issues as we are
-copyright issues surrounding showing the site to other people-Francophone component to -Find a researcher who could apply our template to a French series from around the same time (La Nuit de la Poésie – 1970) Parallel context important –perhaps an Études Français Graduate student?
-Jason and Deanna will meet re: what to apply for in the upcoming year