BlogOn: Podcasting to Text

The question of whether there is value in having podcasts transfered to transcripts came up during a panel discussion at BlogOn 2005 conference. The panelist, Michael Geoghegan, of Willnick Productions, being asked about the value of speech-to-test for podcasts said he saw no value in this because his podcasts are meant to be heard and that the emotion that comes across in his voice would be lost in transcript form.

I think he's missing the point. Once podcasts are transcribed they can be searched and text mined. This adds additional use to the podcasts that otherwise have a limited distribution. Without being able to search or mine podcasts most of their usage is going to come from browsing and category searching. For example, if I search for "Pinot Gris" in a podcast search engine I will likely miss the podcast that mentions "pinot gris" because the podcast description might not mention specific grapes and wines.