VoiceXML Forum Field Report

By Manish Sharma, Ph.D., Nortel
Chair, Marketing Committee, VoiceXML Forum

Here’s a summary of the technical, educational and marketing activities currently underway at the VoiceXML Forum:

New Leadership
The annual Board of Directors and Committee Chair elections took place in December, and I am pleased to announce that Mark Randolph, Motorola, has been elected chairman of the Forum.  Mark is joined by Rob Marchard, Genesys, who was elected vice chairman, and by Curt Tuckey, Oracle, who was re-elected as Treasurer.  For a complete list of the Forum’s leadership, please visit http://www.voicexml.org/bod.html.

Committees in Action
Ken Rehor, Chair of the Conformance Committee, reports that a total of 22 VoiceXML 2.0 platforms have been certified since the Platform Certification Program was launched.  Recent certifications include Cisco, Microsoft, Plum and SandCherry. There are several more vendor platforms in the testing queue, attesting to the continued value of platform certification to the community.

The MRCP Committee has created a set of best practices for implementing VoiceXML 2.1 using MRCP v2 — the protocol being developed by the IETF that defines a standard interface to speech resources such as automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) engines.  This work has allowed the Committee to provide feedback to the IETF SpeechSC Working Group, the group responsible for MRCP, to correct incompatibilities between MRCP v2 and VoiceXML 2.1.  The Committee plans to publish these best-practice guidelines in the next few months.  For more information about the MRCP Committee, please contact Chair Andrew Wahbe at andrew.wahbe@genesyslab.com.
The Speaker Biometrics Committee has continued its high level of productivity.  Co-chairs Judith Markowitz and Ken Rehor report these accomplishments:

• Completed a new draft of its requirements for adding speaker biometrics to VoiceXML 3.0.  The Committee is expected to publish this document to the Forum’s Website shortly.
• Completed a glossary of speaker biometrics and related terms.  The Committee is expected to publish this document to the Forum’s Website shortly.
• Completed a new draft of its data exchange file format standard for speaker biometrics.  This work has been done in collaboration with the biometrics committee (M1) of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).  The Committee is expected to publish this document to the Forum’s Website shortly.  In addition, the document was (i) published on the M1 Website, making it available for comment by the biometrics community; (ii) added to the agenda for the M1 meeting in June; and (iii) submitted by ANSI/INCITS as the United States’ contribution to the International Standards Organization (ISO) project to develop a data exchange file format for speaker biometrics.  This action resulted in adding it to the agenda for the June ISO meeting in Berlin.
• Completed a vendor questionnaire to gather information regarding the data structures, properties, and other architectural elements needed to support existing and future speaker identification and verification technologies.  This questionnaire has been sent to a number of vendors and the Data Models Subgroup of the Speaker Biometrics Committee has already begun compiling their responses.

For more information about the Speaker Biometrics Committee, please contact Ken Rehor ken@rehor.com or Judith Markowitz at judith@jmarkowitz.com.
The Marketing Committee successfully launched the VoiceXML Solutions Directory (VXSD) in February at SpeechTEK West.  The VXSD is a Web-based directory of VoiceXML products and services and is designed to help companies interested in deploying VoiceXML-based applications find the products and services they need quickly and efficiently.  If you have any questions, please contact Cindy Tiritilli at cindy@voicexml.org or Christian Danella at christian@prequent.com. 
Also at SpeechTEK West, the Marketing Committee coordinated one-on-one briefings with attending industry analysts, including Datamonitor, Opus Research, TMA Associates and Yankee Group, to update them on current activities.
In March, the Forum exhibited at VoiceCon Spring 2007 in Orlando and sponsored the inaugural Voice Biometrics Conference presented by Opus Research.
Throughout the year, the Marketing Committee submits speaker proposals for various industry conferences.  We are always looking for dynamic, qualified presenters to promote VoiceXML and the work of the Forum.  If you are a member of the Forum and would be interested in speaking publicly on behalf of the Forum, please submit speaker information to Christian Danella at christian@prequent.com.  This information should include:

• Speaker information (name, title, company)
• Contact information (phone, e-mail, mailing address)
• Outline of previous speaking experience
• Speaker biography (50-100 words)
• Headshot (.JPG and/or .GIF)
• List of relevant VoiceXML Forum-related topics and/or areas of expertise
• Preference for technical or business/marketing opportunities

The Tools Committee, led by David Thomson, is developing a specification for capturing runtime data from application servers, VoiceXML browsers, speech recognizers, databases, etc.  This captured data is used to analyze and tune applications for better performance.  A first draft is expected this quarter.  By standardizing the data format, service analysis tools can be used across multiple platforms, and vendors will have a useful guide for data logging methods.  In addition, the Committee is working on a specification for a metalanguage, a standard language for writing speech applications that run on an application server.  The Committee will also be hosting a Special Interest Session at SpeechTEK West 2007 on advanced dialogs. 

As you can see, the VoiceXML Forum sponsors a wide range of activities.  I encourage every company that uses VoiceXML, whether as a vendor or a customer, to join our organization.  Opportunities are available to participate in the Forum at every level, and it is a great way to provide leadership and influence the direction of the voice marketplace.  2007 is shaping up to be an exciting year for the VoiceXML Forum and, as the new chair of the Marketing Committee I look forward to working with our members and the VoiceXML community at large to promote and accelerate the adoption of VoiceXML-based technologies and solutions.