E: Yeah . So Yeah . So I I uh , I I 'd mentioned to Adam , and that was another thing I was gonna talk uh , mention to them before <comment> that uh there 's uh It it oc it occurred to me that we might be able to get some additional data by talking to uh acquaintances in local broadcast media .
E: Because , you know , we had talked before about the problem about using found data , <comment> that that uh it 's just set up however they have it set up
E: and we don't have any say about it
E: and it 's typically one microphone ,
E: in a , uh , uh or and and so it doesn't really give us the the the uh characteristics we want .
E: Um and so I do think we 're gonna continue recording here and record what we can .
E: But um , it did occur to me that we could go to friends in broadcast media and say " hey you have this panel show , or this you know , this discussion show , and um can you record multi - channel ? "
E: And uh they may be willing to record it uh with C: With lapel mikes or something ?
E: Well , they probably already use lapel ,
E: but they might be able to have it it wouldn't be that weird for them to have another mike that was somewhat distant .
C: Right .
E: It wouldn't be exactly this setup , but it would be that sort of thing ,
E: and what we were gonna get from UW , you know , assuming they they they start recording , isn't als also is not going to be this exact setup .
C: Right . No , I think that 'd be great ,
E: So , <comment> I I I I was thinking of looking into that .
C: if we can get more data .
E: the other thing that occurred to me after we had that discussion , in fact , is that it 's even possible , since of course , many radio shows are not live , <comment> uh that we could invite them to have like some of their <comment> record some of their shows here .
B: Wow !
C: Well Or The thing is , they 're not as averse to wearing one of these head - mount
G: Right , as we are .
C: I mean , they 're on the radio ,
C: right ?
C: So . <comment> Um , I think that 'd be fantastic
E: Right .
C: cuz those kinds of panels and Those have interesting
E: Yeah .
C: Th - that 's an a side of style a style that we 're not collecting here ,
C: so
E: And and the I mean , the other side to it was the what which is where we were coming from I 'll I 'll talk to you more about it later <comment> is that is that there 's there 's uh
C: it 'd be great .
E: the radio stations and television stations already have stuff worked out presumably , uh related to , you know , legal issues and and permissions and all that .
E: I mean , they already do what they do do whatever they do .
E: So it 's uh , it 's So it 's so it 's another source .
E: So I think it 's something we should look into ,
E: you know , we 'll collect what we collect here
E: hopefully they will collect more at UW also
E: and um and maybe we have this other source .
E: But yeah I think that it 's not unreasonable to aim at getting , you know , significantly in excess of a hundred hours .
E: I mean , that was sort of our goal .
E: The thing was , I was hoping that we could @ @ in the under this controlled situation we could at least collect , you know , thirty to fifty hours .
E: And at the rate we 're going we 'll get pretty close to that I think this semester .
E: And if we continue to collect some next semester , I think we should , uh C: Right .
C: Yeah I was mostly trying to think , " OK , if you start a project , within say a month , you know , how much data do you have to work with .
C: And you you wanna s you wanna sort of fr freeze your your data for awhile
C: so um right now C: and we don't have the transcripts back yet from IBM
C: right ?
E: Well , we don't even have it for this f you know , forty - five minutes , that was C: Do Oh , do we now ?
C: So um , not complaining , I was just trying to think , you know , what kinds of projects can you do now versus uh six months from now
E: Yeah .
C: and they 're pretty different , because
G: Right .
E: Yeah . So I was thinking right now it 's sort of this exploratory stuff where you you look at the data , you use some primitive measures and get a feeling for what the scatter plots look like ,
C: um C: Right .
E: and and and uh and meanwhile we collect , and it 's more like yeah , three months from now , or six months from now you can you can do a lot of other things .
C: Right , right .
C: Cuz I 'm not actually sure , just logistically that I can spend C: you know , I don't wanna charge the time that I have on the project too early , before there 's enough data to make good use of the time .
C: And that 's and especially with the student
G: Right .
C: uh for instance this guy who seems E: Yeah .
C: Uh
C: anyway , I shouldn't say too much ,
C: but um if someone came that was great and wanted to do some real work and they have to end by the end of this school year in the spring , how much data will I have to work with , with that person .
C: And so it 's E: i Yeah , so I would think , exploratory things now . Uh , three months from now E: Um , I mean the transcriptions I think are a bit of an unknown cuz we haven't gotten those back yet as far as the timing ,
E: but I think as far as the collection , it doesn't seem to me l like , uh , unreasonable to say that uh in January , you know , ro roughly uh which is roughly three months from now , we should have at least something like , you know , twenty - five , thirty hours .
C: And we just don't know about the transcription part of that ,
E: So that 's B: Yeah , we need to I think that there 's a possibility that the transcript will need to be adjusted afterwards ,
C: so .
C: I mean , it B: and uh es especially since these people won't be uh used to dealing with multi - channel uh transcriptions .
C: Right .
E: Yeah .
B: So I think that we 'll need to adjust some B: And also if we wanna add things like um , well , more refined coding of overlaps , then definitely I think we should count on having an extra pass through .
B: I wanted to ask another a a aspect of the data collection .
B: There 'd be no reason why a person couldn't get together several uh , you know , friends ,
B: and come and argue about a topic if they wanted to ,
B: right ?
E: If they really have something they wanna talk about as opposed to something @ @ E: I mean , what we 're trying to stay away from was artificial constructions ,
E: but I think if it 's a real E: Why not ?
E: Yeah .
C: I mean , I 'm thinking , politically G: Stage some political debates .
B: You could do this ,
C: Well yeah ,
B: you know . You could .
C: or just if you 're if you ha If there are meetings here that happen that we can record even if we don't um have them do the digits , <comment> or maybe have them do a shorter digit thing <comment> like if it was , you know , uh , one string of digits , or something , they 'd probably be willing to do .
G: We don't have to do the digits at all if we don't want to .
C: Then , having the data is very valuable ,
C: cuz I think it 's um politically better for us to say we have this many hours of audio data , especially with the ITR , if we put in a proposal on it .
C: It 'll just look like ICSI 's collected a lot more audio data .
C: Um , whether it 's transcribed or not um , is another issue ,
C: but there 's there are research questions you can answer without the transcriptions , or at least that you can start to answer .
G: Yep .
B: It seems like you could hold some meetings .
C: So .
B: You know , you and maybe Adam ?
B: You you could you could maybe hold some additional meetings , if you wanted .
A: Would it help at all A: I mean , we 're already talking about sort of two levels of detail in meetings .
A: One is uh um without doing the digits Or , I guess the full - blown one is where you do the digits , and everything , and then talk about doing it without digits ,
A: what if we had another level , just to collect data , which is without the headsets and we just did the table - mounted stuff .
C: Need the close - talking mikes .
A: You do , OK .
C: I mean , absolutely ,
E: Yeah . Yeah .
C: yeah . I 'm really scared G: It seems like it 's a big part of this corpus is to have the close - talking mikes .
C: Um or at least , like , me personally ? I would <comment> I couldn't use that data .
A: I see , OK .
E: Yeah .
B: I agree .
C: Um .
B: And Mari also ,
B: we had This came up when she she was here .
B: That 's important .
E: Yeah ,
C: So it 's a great idea ,
E: I I b By the by the way , I don't think the transcriptions are actually , in the long run , such a big bottleneck .
C: and if it were true than I would just do that ,
C: but it 's not that bad C: like the room is not the bottleneck ,
C: and we have enough time in the room ,
C: it 's getting the people to come in and put on the and get the setup going .
E: I think the issue is just that we 're we 're blazing that path .
E: Right ?
E: And and um d Do you have any idea when when uh the you 'll be able to send uh the ten hours to them ?
G: Well , I 've been burning two C Ds a day , which is about all I can do with the time I have .
E: Yeah .
E: Yeah .
G: So it 'll be early next week .
E: Yeah , OK .
E: So early next week we send it to them ,
E: and then then we check with them to see if they 've got it
E: and we we start , you know asking about the timing for it .
G: Yep .
E: So I think once they get it sorted out about how they 're gonna do it , which I think they 're pretty well along on , cuz they were able to read the files and so on .
G: Yep .
E: Right ?
G: Yeah , but E: Well G: Yeah , who knows where they are .
A: Have they ever responded to you ?
G: Nope .
E: Yeah , but You know , so they they they have you know , they 're volunteering their time and they have a lot of other things to do ,
C: What if G: Yeah , you we can't complain .
E: right ?
E: But they But at any rate , they 'll I I think once they get that sorted out , they 're they 're making cassettes there , then they 're handing it to someone who they who 's who is doing it ,
E: and uh I think it 's not going to be I don't think it 's going to be that much more of a deal for them to do thirty hours then to do one hour ,
E: I think . It 's not going to be thirty
G: Yep . I think that 's probably true .
C: Really ?
C: So it 's the amount of E: It 's it 's just getting it going .
G: It 's pipeline , pipeline issues .
C: Right .
C: What about these lunch meetings G: Once the pipeline fills .
C: I mean , I don't know , if there 's any way without too much more overhead , even if we don't ship it right away to IBM even if we just collect it here for awhile , <comment> to record you know , two or three more meeting a week ,
C: just to have the data , even if they 're um not doing the digits , but they do wear the headphones ?
E: But the lunch meetings are pretty much one person getting up and C: No , I meant ,
C: um , sorry , the meetings where people eat their lunch downstairs ,
C: maybe they don't wanna be recorded , but G: Oh , and we 're just chatting ?
C: Just the ch the chatting .
G: Yeah , we have a lot of those .
C: I actually I actually think that 's useful data , um the chatting ,
G: Yeah , the problem with that is I would I think I would feel a little constrained to You know ? Uh , some of the meetings C: but C: OK .
C: You don't wanna do it , cuz C: OK .
G: You know , our " soccer ball " meeting ?
G: I guess none of you were there for our soccer ball meeting .
C: Alright .
C: Alright , <comment> so I 'll just throw it out there ,
G: That was hilarious .
C: if anyone knows of one more m or two more wee meetings per week that happen at ICSI , um that we could record , I think it would be worth it .
E: Yeah . Well , we should also check with Mari again , because they because they were really intending , you know , maybe just didn't happen , but they were really intending to be duplicating this in some level .
E: So then that would double what we had .
E: Uh . And there 's a lot of different meetings at UW
E: uh I mean really m a lot more <comment> than we have here right cuz we 're not right on campus ,
G: Right .
E: so .
A: Is the uh , notion of recording any of Chuck 's meetings dead in the water ,
A: or is that still a possibility ?
E: Uh , they seem to have some problems with it . We can we can talk about that later .
E: Um , but , again , Jerry is Jerry 's open E: So I mean , we have two speech meetings , one uh network meeting ,
E: uh Jerry was open to it but I I s
E: One of the things that I think is a little a little bit of a limitation , there is a think when the people are not involved uh in our work , we probably can't do it every week .
E: You know ? I I I I think that that people are gonna feel uh are gonna feel a little bit constrained .
E: Now , it might get a little better if we don't have them do the digits all the time .
G: Yep .
E: And the then so then they can just really sort of try to put the mikes on and then just charge in and C: What if we give people you know , we cater a lunch in exchange for them having their meeting here or something ?
B: Well , you know , I I do think eating while you 're doing a meeting is going to be increasing the noise .
C: OK .
C: Alright , alright , alright .
B: But I had another question , which is um , you know , in principle , w um , I know that you don't want artificial topics ,
B: but um it does seem to me that we might be able to get subjects from campus to come down and do something that wouldn't be too artificial .
B: I mean , we could political discussions , or or something or other ,
C: No , definitely .
B: and
B: i you know , people who are B: Because , you know , there 's also this constraint . We d
B: it 's like , you know , the the uh goldibears goldi goldilocks ,
B: it 's like you don't want meetings that are too large , but you don't want meetings that are too small .
B: And um a and it just seems like maybe we could exploit the subj human subject p p pool , in the positive sense of the word .
A: Well , even I mean , coming down from campus is sort of a big thing , but what about
B: We could pay subjects .
A: or what about people in the in the building ?
C: Yeah , I was thinking , there 's all these other peo
A: I mean , there 's the State of California downstairs , and C: Yeah .
C: I mean G: I just really doubt that uh any of the State of California meetings would be recordable and then releasable to the general public .
B: Yeah .
A: Oh .
C: Mm - hmm .
G: So I I mean I talked with some people at the Haas Business School who are i who are interested in speech recognition
C: Alright , well .
G: and , they sort of hummed and hawed and said " well maybe we could have meetings down here " ,
G: but then I got email from them that said " no , we decided we 're not really interested and we don't wanna come down and hold meetings . "
G: So , I think it 's gonna be a problem to get people regularly .
A: What about Joachim , maybe he can E: But but we c But I think , you know , we get some scattered things from this and that .
E: And I I d I do think that maybe we can get somewhere with the with the radio .
E: Uh i I have better contacts in radio than in television , but C: Mm - hmm .
A: You could get a lot of lively discussions from those radio ones .
G: Yep .
C: Well , and they 're already they 're these things are already recorded ,
E: Yeah .
C: we don't have to ask them to C: even and I 'm not sure wh how they record it , but they must record from individual E: n Well E: No , I 'm not talking about ones that are already recorded .
E: I 'm talking about new ones
E: because because because we would be asking them to do something different .
C: Why why not ?
C: Well , we can find out .
C: I know for instance Mark Liberman was interested uh in in LDC
C: getting data ,
E: Right , that 's the found data idea .
C: uh , and E: But what I 'm saying is uh if I talk to people that I know who do these th who produce these things we could ask them if they could record an extra channel , let 's say , of a distant mike .
C: Yeah .
C: Mm - hmm .
E: And u I think routinely they would not do this .
E: So , since I 'm interested in the distant mike stuff , I wanna make sure that there is at least that somewhere
C: Right .
C: Great . OK .
E: and uh E: But if we ask them to do that they might be intrigued enough by the idea that they uh might be e e willing to the I might be able to talk them into it .
C: Mm - hmm .
G: Um . We 're getting towards the end of our disk space ,
G: so we should think about trying to wrap up here .
E: OK . Well I don't why don't we why d u why don't we uh uh turn them turn
C: That 's a good way to end a meeting .
G: OK , leave leave them on for a moment until I turn this off , cuz that 's when it crashed last time .
B: Oh .
B: That 's good to know .
E: Turning off the microphone made it crash .
E: Well B: That 's good to know .
E: OK .