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and a significant interest in speech technology.

  • In 1997, the Personal Computer world was hit by offerings of low-priced natural speech recognition software, and a new dimension of interest in our field - the user of speech technology - was born.
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"...our field has moved on from the research interests of a small group of academics..."

  • In 2001, there are forums and conferences being held in Australia at which the business world is debating the pros and cons of introducing speech technology.
Over these last 30 years our field has moved on from the research interests of a small group of academics who were prepared to embrace multidisciplinary projects, to a technology that still has rough edges but which is being taken seriously by the business sector in Australia.  What does this mean for ASSTA?  How can we serve the business sector?  Do we once again need to embrace a disciplinary expansion of our field to include legally and sociologically trained colleagues as issues of the use of our imperfect but increasingly useful technology is starting to come to centre stage?
Perhaps we can share some views in the next newsletter?  �