NPR transcripts are now - I read - easier to find. I had a quick look around and couldn't find one, but I didn't try that hard.
Could be of interest when run through text-summarisers, auto-classifiers etc to make new routes to their content. More on NPR transcripts here - http://help.npr.org/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=5670&task=knowledge&questionID=464 And googling for NPR API I find http://www.npr.org/api/index which mentions a Transcript API, http://www.npr.org/templates/apidoc/transcript.php as well as all kinds of other fun stuff (including topic lists eg. http://api.npr.org/list?id=3002). Also here's a blog post on their API - http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside/2008/07/npr_api_is_live_on_nprorg.html It'd be rather nice to see some work on cross-referencing stories across eg. BBC and NPR sites, to get different(-ish) perspectives on the same issues. Having textual transcripts should help with doing that at an approximate level, beyond the metadata NPR provide directly... Dan ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: kimo <k...@webnetic.net> Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 7:05 PM Subject: [sunlightlabs] Free Transcripts on NPR.org now To: sunlightl...@googlegroups.com http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/08/free_transcripts_now_available.html?ft=1&f=17370252 Free Transcripts now Available on NPR.org 3:32 pm August 19, 2009 comments (3) Recommend (1) byline goes here Transcripts of favorite, missed or maddening stories on NPR used to cost $3.95 each, but now they are free on NPR.org. Previously, NPR charged for transcripts because an outside contractor worked fast to prepare them to be available to the library within a few hours of a piece airing. It was a costly expense which NPR did for the benefit of classrooms and deaf audiences, or anyone who wrote to Listener Services and was willing to pay. As of the new NPR.org site re-launch on July 27, over 20,000 visitors had gone online to get transcripts. Now, all you have to do to get a story's text is visit www.NPR.org and click on the transcript link to the right of the audio button, located just below the story's title. Quotes from these transcripts are for non-commercial use only, and may not be used in any other media without attribution to NPR. Why now? "Transcripts were once largely the province of librarians and other specialists whose job was to find archival content, often for professional purposes," said Kinsey Wilson, the Senior VP of NPR's Digital Media department. "As Web content becomes easier to share and distribute, and search and social media have become important drivers of audience engagement, archival content -- whether in the form of stories or transcripts -- has an entirely different value than it did in the past." NPR took the new website launch as an opportunity to offer free transcripts, according to Laura Soto-Barra, NPR's Senior Librarian. "We made a decision to go ahead even though NPR pays a considerable amount of money to produce transcripts on deadline," said Soto-Barra. "Transcripts are posted six hours after the shows air, except for Morning Edition's transcripts which are posted four hours after the show is broadcast. We have offered free audio for a long time and we felt that free transcripts were long overdue." New software allows NPR's staff to receive daily metrics and supply data for "most popular transcripts yesterday", most popular transcripts for the last seven days" and "most popular transcript ever". Keep in mind transcript coordinators do their best to catch and correct errors on the text. But since there is a quick turn-around time on transcripts, mistakes can occur. If you notice a spelling or typographical error, please email transcri...@npr.org, where it can be corrected. Soto-Barra said that NPR transcripts may contain minor or significant errors, ranging from the use of "ex-patriot" instead of "expatriate." In another example, a transcriber mistakenly quoted filmmaker John Waters as saying of former Manson follower Leslie Van Houten: "She's a yuppie," when what he really said was, "She's not a yuppie." Transcript coordinators "Dorothy Hickson and Laura Jeffrey do their best to find and correct errors but unfortunately, they cannot proofread every piece," said Soto-Barra. "Librarians and transcript coordinators appreciate when someone calls their attention to errors, particularly when they involve name spellings and use of (unintelligible)." categories: What is this? Share --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sunlightlabs" group. To post to this group, send email to sunlightl...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sunlightlabs+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sunlightlabs?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
