Wiki-like Editing of Imperfect Computer-Generated Webcast Transcripts

As the use of Internet broadcasting (webcasting) increases, more webcasts will be archived and accessed numerous times retrospectively. One challenge in skimming and browsing through such archives is the lack of textual transcripts of the archived medias’ audio channel. Ideally, transcripts would be obtainable through Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). However, current ASR systems can only deliver, in realistic conditions, Word Error Rates (WERs) of around 45% – unsatisfactory, as shown in our recent study [1], which revealed that transcripts are useful and usable in webcast archives for WERs equal to or less than 25%. We therefore propose an extension to the ePresence webcast system that engages users to collaborate in a wiki manner on editing the imperfect transcripts obtained through ASR.