Foreign Language Transcriptions on Demand
May 9, 2011 - Thomas - ~2 Minutes
We updated RhinoSpike today with a new feature. It’s still a work in progress, but we wanted to go ahead and roll it out and get feedback on it.
One of our most requested features was to have a “reverse” RhinoSpike. Users wanted to upload a foreign language audio file and have a native speaker transcribe it for them. Well, now you can do just that with a little thing called a Script Request.
Creating a new Script Request
Now when you click the rhino Submit button you are given a choice: Audio Request or Script Request.
Pick your poison (both are yummy poisons that are extremely good for you)
Clicking Audio Request will send you down a familiar path, but Script Request is new. Clicking Script Request will take you to a page where you can submit audio for a native speaker to transcribe for you. Just enter a title, select a language and upload the file and it will be submitted into the queue for that language.
Creating a new Script Request
The Queue
The Script Queue works just like the Audio Queue. Transcribing for other users will bump your Script Requests ahead in the queue. Not only that, it will also bump your Audio Requests ahead in the Audio Queue! Recording your voice for other users will likewise bump both your Audio and Script Requests!
So if you don’t have a mic, or if you were too shy to record yourself before, you now have a new way to help other users and get your own requests pushed to the top.
How To Transcribe
The “rhino Record button” has now been renamed to the “rhino Queue button”. Clicking the Queue button will take you to a list of pending Audio and Script Requests. The Record! and Transcribe! buttons near the top of the queue page toggle between the two queues. To transcribe, toggle to the Script Queue and click on a blue [ TRANSCRIBE ] link.
Click the Queue button, then select the Script Queue.
Work in Progress
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, this feature is a work in progress. We are still working on integrating Script Requests into the site as a whole and hammering out bug-fixes. We wanted to give you guys a peek early so that we could get feedback. Expect to see some fine-tuning in the days and weeks to come. Embedding YouTube clips is on the list.
Try it out and let us know what you think!