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Democrats Government Republicans The Media United States Politics

NYT Links Convention Videos, Speech Transcripts 34

theodp writes "The New York Times is offering a pretty cool new Interactive video and transcript feature. A window running video of speeches from the Democratic and Republican conventions appears next to a scrolling window containing transcripts of the speeches. Click on the paragraph you want, and the video jumps to the beginning of that paragraph. There's also an outline listing major subject areas in the speeches. Click on the section you want, and you'll be taken to that part of the transcript and video. Check it out, Obama and McCain fans!"
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NYT Links Convention Videos, Speech Transcripts

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  • by zappepcs ( 820751 ) on Sunday September 07, 2008 @12:10AM (#24907585) Journal

    Hey, that's pretty fscking cool! I would like to see that for C-SPAN. That sort of indexing would take a huge amount of pain out of getting information from C-SPAN and many other video sources. Very cool.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by BruceCage ( 882117 )

      I just wanted to point out it's been around for a while now, I actually used it to analyze the Republican debates. Since these new videos aren't debates they don't include a transcript analyzer like the previous ones did.

      Take a look at the same tool for the November the 28th CNN/Youtube Republican debates [nytimes.com] (don't actually watch it though, I beg you). It includes both an interactive transcript (including skipping) and an analyzer showing among other things the time spent on the questions per candidate basis a

    • Sure, this is a nice interface, but it's missing a very important part... the speeches! I see only the tiniest fraction of convention speeches up there, and doubt the reason is a technological one. The issue is financing, of how do transcribers of movies, speeches, TV, DVDs, etc. get paid.

      Speech recognition software? No, that's been on the horizon... or a mirage on the horizon for decades. Not to mention that when we need it most, for the unintelligible bits, it's certain to fail. Call me again when they
    • This is not just "politics" story. It's also a "media/tech" story - a story about how the opportunities offered by tech will inevitably change media, in this case video.

      You'll be amazed to hear that the internet is an interactive medium and TV/cinema usually are not. Yes, I know you know that -- but nevertheless, the vast majority of videos posted online act as if there was no difference between the internet and TV or cinema. Youtube is fun, and has plenty of interaction before or after the video - but
  • Progress.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by B5_geek ( 638928 )

    What I like about this is that it represents an evolution of technology and not just mundane rehash of an existing idea.

    Take Youtube for example. It is an internet Monster, both in terms of # of people viewing AND # of people contributing. It is nothing more then a modern take on "Home Movies" and Americas Funniest Home Videos.

    This idea that the NYT has implemented is just one step away from bringing awesome to ALL forms of information. I wish I could invest money in an idea, because this will be everywh

    • by samcan ( 1349105 )

      What about an open standard for implementing this kind of technology? Say an XML file containing relevant video file names for the different paragraphs. If someone can get an open source tool together once a standard has been created, it really could be some killer tech.

      An example use case in the music academic world may be something where a click on a measure of sheet music in the viewer would link to a recording of the piece, cued up to that point. Kind of like scene selection on DVDs. Or perhaps a click

      • by QuantumG ( 50515 ) *

        How about just using one of the existing subtitle formats. SRT or SUB. They look like this:

        31
        00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,394
        I want them dead.

        32
        00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,558
        That I cannot do.

        33
        00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:46,036
        I'll give you anything you ask.

        34
        00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:52,633
        I've known you many years, but this
        is the first time you've asked for help.

        35
        00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:58,799
        I can't remember the last time
        you invited me for a cup of coffee.

        36
        00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:03,269
        Even though my wife is godmother
        to your only child.

        37
        00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:08,190
        But let's be frank here.
        You never wanted my friendship.

        38
        00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,915
        And you were afraid to be in my debt.

        Personally, I'd be much more impressed if you could take a file without the markers and infer them from the audio.. but that would take some serious speech recognition technology.

        • YouTube has since introduced support for the common subtitle formats.

          Personally, I'd be much more impressed if you could take a file without the markers and infer them from the audio.. but that would take some serious speech recognition technology.

          That or a closed caption decoder.

    • by Airw0lf ( 795770 )

      Take Youtube for example. It is an internet Monster, both in terms of # of people viewing AND # of people contributing. It is nothing more then a modern take on "Home Movies" and Americas Funniest Home Videos.

      You have a point there. But I do like some of the new features, like the ability to have keywords and comments pop-up during a video. It's pretty cool to see supplementary information like that, and it's a similar concept to what the NYT is doing...

  • WHAT?
    I should check this out this hitech fob and miss the re-re-reruns of "The Beverley Hillbillies " and "Gilligan's Island"?
    No WAY!
    Give Me Elli Mae and Mary Ann
    ANYDAY!

  • by Airw0lf ( 795770 ) on Sunday September 07, 2008 @01:50AM (#24907967)
    Check it out... http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/us/politics/20080905_WORDS_GRAPHIC.html [nytimes.com] This link looks at both conventions and tries to quantify the major themes each party has tried to highlight. Unsurprisingly the DNC is leading on "Change", but Biden has used the term more than Obama during the conventions. However, I refuse to believe that Rudy Giuliani referenced 9/11 only once! This is the guy who could bring 9/11 into a discussion on public health for crying out loud!
  • is it just me? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DragonTHC ( 208439 ) <<moc.lliwtsalsremag> <ta> <nogarD>> on Sunday September 07, 2008 @01:57AM (#24907997) Homepage Journal

    I wondered if I was the only one who thought John McCain's speech was poorly delivered? There were several hiccups with his performance that led me to believe there was a problem with the teleprompter.

    Not only that, but a bit puzzling. My wife is a teacher and a damn good one, and I can't figure out McCain's education platform. It sounds to me like he wants to privatize the education system in America. Are my children going to be attending Halliburton Elementary #1138?

    • by Airw0lf ( 795770 )

      My wife is a teacher and a damn good one, and I can't figure out McCain's education platform.

      There's nothing to fear my friend. McCain isn't going to change a thing about America's great education system. I mean, he depends upon his schooling everyday as he ponders developments along the Iraq-Pakistan border...

    • No, it's not just you.

      The speech was devoid of many specifics and lacking in gusto, but at least it was long... The stream of random sentences at the end was a particularly odd touch, along with the "fight with me," fight, fight, fight thing at the end. Why is everything so damn violent at the RNC? RNC = Fight, drill, attack, pit-bull, etc, DNC = hope, change, diplomacy, community service, etc.

      McCain seemed to imply that he would put school vouchers back on the table, though he didn't call them out by name,

    • I seriously doubt it. Even if McCain wins the Dems are likely to keep control of at least one house of Congress. Given the state of public education in the US today though, they'd probably be better off if they did.

    • by Poppa ( 95105 )

      I do know that Sarah had a problem with her teleprompter. It wasn't stopping for applause. This is why she quipped the pit bull joke.

      This shows how amazing this woman is. After all of the vile attacks from the Left, this woman showed how strong she is and was able to deftly handle the teleprompter problem on top of all of the other pressure she was facing.

    • I realize it's an old post, but McCain has never been a good speech-giver. He's much better in the town hall setting - which is why they modified the stage so he was in the middle of a crowd of people to give him the feel of being in the middle of a town hall. And good in the debate structure.

      That being said a lot of professional critics said, for a McCain speech, it was pretty good.

      What will be truly interesting is the debates. Obama is an orator - he lives and dies by the teleprompter. McCain is the e
  • Can't they get some better columnists? Maureen Dowd links in their pages are wasting my bandwidth.
  • I looked at Palin's speech, and MSNBC and CNN both had identical transcripts, complete with spelling "nuclear" as "new-clear". Its like they both used speech to words software and didn't bother to proof-read the thing (or one of them did and the other stole it from them). Fox New's was different, it showed where breaks in applause / boos occurred and actually spelled all of the words right.
    • I looked at Palin's speech, and MSNBC and CNN both had identical transcripts, complete with spelling "nuclear" as "new-clear". Its like they both used speech to words software and didn't bother to proof-read the thing

      Or they both took their transcripts from the electronic cue cards that Ms. Palin was reading so that she wouldn't make a Bush of herself by saying "nucular".

  • I hate to be able to jump to conclusions so quickly, but I can't copy & paste sections of the speech for quotation. That's the very first thing I tried to do. I realize Flash is currently the sweet spot for this kind of close integration with video, but the inability to highlight and copy content makes this a pretty big loser right out of the gate. I know you can copy & paste with Flash, but the only reason I can't fix this bug is because of it being a proprietary format.

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