Marshall Harrison - "the gotspeech guy"

Dear Marshall Harrison,

marshallharrison — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:11:11 GMT

I found this in my email inbox this morning.

Dear Marshall Harrison,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way to say thank you for promoting the spirit of community and improving people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. We appreciate your extraordinary efforts in Communications Server technical communities during the past year....

I'm sure that GotSpeech and the impact it has on the Speech Server community had a lot to do with me being rewarded again (3rd year now). GS has become a very active and thriving community and I am always thrilled to see new members come on board. I am really excited when I see members that started out with lots of questions progress to the point that they are now answering other people's questions. That is what it is all about.

So, thanks to each of you for the time you spend on GotSpeech and the contributions that you make to the site and the community.

You can find more info the Microsoft MVP program by visiting https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/.

Yesterday at GotSpeech

marshallharrison — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:19:00 GMT

I've been noticing that the amount of activity on the forums has been increasing with lots of new posters. That is encouraging as it means the new people are trying out Speech Server. Interest in Speech Server is building and that is good for all of us.

One of the things I do quite often is look at he stats towards the bottom of the Forums page. Yesterday when I looked this is what I saw -

5 new threads, 50 new posts and 13 new users in a 24 hour period. That is the sign of an active and thriving community. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributes to this community.

It just goes to prove what Ive been telling everyone - GotSpeech is the place to go for information on OCS 2007 Speech Server.

Why TCP instead of UDP

marshallharrison — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:48:00 GMT

Russell Bennett has a great post entitled "To UDP, or not to UDP, that is the question…" over on the OCS Team blog. Everyone should read it as it does a great job of contrasting the two SIP transport types.

Tech-Ed 2008 Days 3 & 4

marshallharrison — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:19:00 GMT

The last two days of Tech-Ed went pretty quick though I was getting pretty tired towards the end. The crowds were also down some on Friday as some people evidently headed home (or took the day off). Thursday I worked the OCS labs again and on Friday I was back in the MVP lounge.

Both days were good for Speech Server developers as there were sessions both days by Albert Kooiman and Michael Dunn. They did a great job of presenting with some "hints" as to what the future holds for us speech developers. They also put together a couple of apps and answered questions from the audience.

I was excited that the GotSpeech forums and the E-Learning got mentioned both sessions. I also met with several members of the audience and answered questions as well as did some public relations for GotSpeech. I spoke with several of the publishers and training companies in the vendor area about writing a book or developing some training courses. I will have to followup on those after I get back from the second week of Tech-Ed.

I am still working on getting the slides and code from the Speech Server sessions but that may take a few weeks. I also spoke with the OCS team about getting some Microsoft support for the SAPI forums on GotSpeech as well as starting up some OCS related forums. We are still in the early stages of talking about this and I'll let you know if things work out.

While I was there I met Kent Layher who has built a neat little app for phones. It's not exactly speech reco but his Memic List shows some creative thinking. I wish him luck in his marheting efforts.

Tech-Ed 2008 Day 2

marshallharrison — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:25:00 GMT

Nothing for Speech Server on day 2.

In the morning I worked the MVP area of the Community Lounge. I had the opportunity to meet lots of people (some MVPs ans some former MVPs) and talk about the benefits of the MVP program. I love meeting people so the morning passed quickly.

After lunch I hung out in the OCS labs even though I wasn't officially on duty. Then in the evening I had dinner with the OCS Team members that are attending this week. I didn't get back to the hotel until 11:30 so it was a long day.

I did talk with the team about improving communications with the field and clearing up some of the confusion.

I also got a favorable response to hosting the slides and code from the sessions. Nothing is final yet but I'm still hoping.

Today will have more Speech Sserver sessions so I'll report on them later.

Tech-Ed 2008 Day 1

marshallharrison — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:53:00 GMT

Well day 1 is over with now and it was quite exciting. There are about 6,000 developers in attendance here in Orlando and they all seem excited.

The day opened with Bill Gates doing the keynote address and he actually mentioned Speech Server. That was exciting and to make things even more exciting - there are sessions on Speech Server.

I spent the morning working in the OCS Learning Center talking with people about OCS and demoing the different components. I always find it fascinating how you can move so seamlessly from one component of OCS to another. Being able to right click in Office Communicator and share a document with someone that you are IM'ing with is awesome. Demoing the VOIP phones and Roundtable video conferencing really impresses people.

There are a lot of UC/OCS sessions as usual but one of the sessions I attended in the Unified Communications track actually demoed Speech Server. The speaker wrote a small Speech Server app and then illustrated the debugger.

Another speaker demoed an add-in for Visual Studio and Team Server that used presence to notify a manager when a piece of code was checked in. There was also a component that would notify the manager if a build failed. It used the UCMA to check the manager's presence and if they were off line it would have Speech Server handle the notification via a phone call. I got several ideas for things I could do with presence and voice apps frm today's session.

There are more Speech Serve sessions later in the week and I'll be there ready to promote GotSpeech and Speech Server. I'll also be ready to voice my opinions and hopefully clear up some of the problems you have encountered.

I'm not sure who controls the content but I'm going to see if they will let me host the sessions on GotSpeech so that you can view them. I don't know if they will buy into that or not but I'm going to try.

I'll blog again later this week as the Speech Server related sessions occur.

Tech-Ed 2008

marshallharrison — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:58:00 GMT

The GotSpeech Guy will be at Tech-Ed in Orlando for the next two weeks. You can find me in the Office Communications Server Learning Lab or in the MVP Area of the Community Lounge each morning. During the second week I'll also be at the Gold Systems exhibit in the afternoons.

So if you are attending Tech-Ed please stop by, introduce yourself and say hello. I would love to meet you and talk about Speech Server.

27,331,200

marshallharrison — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:08:40 GMT

Well today is my 52nd birthday. That's right, I'm an Old Man playing in a young man's game.

I love what I do and I wouldn't trade it for anything but sometimes I get feeling old and wonder if it's time to give up the game...or not.

Staying up on what is happening with OCS and Speech Server (not to mention IVR as a whole) has become a never ending job. There are so many interesting things to investigate and experiment with that there just isn't enough time to do it all. There is always something (work, family. sleep etc) that seems to take priority. I can't quit work as I need the money like the rest of you. I can't ignore the family or they get upset. That only leaves sleep and as I get older I find it harder to give up on the sleep. All this creates quite a conundrum.

But I really love Speech Server and coding and I can't think of any thing I would rather be doing that pays money. I can think of a lot of things I would rather be doing that doesn't pay. Until I figure out how to get paid for fishing, or setting around on the porch with my feet up or hanging out on the radio I'll just keep doing what I'm doing now.

In case you are wondering about the title of this blog entry I'll explain it. Not counting leap years I've been living now for:

18,980 days

455,520 hours

27,331,200 minutes

1,639,872,000 seconds

That's a lot of days. Like I said - an Old Man playing a young man's game.

Home at last

marshallharrison — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:53:26 GMT

Today (5/10) is the last day of the 18th week of 2008. Of those 18 weeks I've spent 10 of them on the road and 4 of the last 5 weeks were on the road. I'm tired of traveling and glad to be home for a while (I hope).

The only travel I have planned for sure is to be in Orlando for the two weeks of Tech-Ed 2008 where I'll be working the labs for Microsoft. So if you are attending then stop by the Unified Communications area and look me up.

The Florida area .Net development community will be conducting 'tweener' on the Saturday and Sunday between the two halves of Tech-Ed. I'll be there for that and possibly teaching a Speech Server class on Sunday. I'll blog more on this once the details are worked out. This is a free event so you should plan on attending.

One of the bad things about traveling so much is that my to-do list has really grown. This is just a short version of things I need to accomplish:

Blog about why you shouldn't nest SpeechSequenceActivities
Blog about why TurnStarting is not your friend.
Work on a blog series about the different components of Speech Server. I want to take each Activity (or group of activities) and really cover them in depth. In addition to the writing that will require a lot of code experimenting and will be time consuming.
Work on the Speech Server Showcase - I've seen some interest in this but no one has actually sent me their write-ups about their applications.
Configure my Vonage line through my Dialogic Media Gateway.
Write a Speech Server app to answer the phone at GotSpeech Central. I know I could just purchase an answering machine but that wouldn't be any fun.

There is probably a dozen other things that need doing but this is just the things that are highest on my list.

Thanks: Being on the road has limited the time I've been able to spend in the forums on GotSpeech. It is really awesome (but humbling) to see how well things carry on without me. I checked the site stats this morning as shown below and I was excited to see how active things have been. We have some very good speech server developers on this site and they are willing to share their experiences with others. That is what grows a community like GotSpeech as well as help grow Speech Server acceptance in the developer community. If people don't get tehir questions answered then they won't come back. I'm especially proud of the new threads/posts counts. The official Microsoft forum for Speech Server doesn't get anywhere near this much activity.

2,848 users have contributed to 3,178 threads and 3,611 posts.
In the past 24 hours, we have 4 new thread(s), 34 new post(s), and 6 new user(s).

Speech Technology write-up on bridgeSpeak

marshallharrison — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:27:00 GMT

I first heard of brigeSpeak a little over two years ago when I met Jon Poploskie at a Microsoft TAP event For speech Server 2007 (it's come a long way since October 2005). Jon and I became friends and have stayed in touch ever since and his company was one of the early supporters of GotSpeech. He recently sent me a link to a Speech Technology article about the Speech Server application that brigeSpeak has developed.

Since I've been blogging about showcasing applications developed with Speech Server I though it would be good to mention the bridgeSpeak article. You can read all about it here - http://www.speechtechmag.com/Articles/Editorial/Deployments/Automotive-Auto-Attendants-41418.aspx

Attending MVP Summit

marshallharrison — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:09:17 GMT

It's less that 12 hours now before I leave for the Microsoft 2008 MVP Global Summit so my participation on GotSpeech will be limited next week as I will simply be too busy to get Internet access.

But the best thing about GotSpeech is that it doesn't really need me. The site has grown so that there are many knowledgeable speech developers that are always available to answer your questions.

So keep posting and I'll see you when I get back.

Announcing the GotSpeech Speech Server Showcase.

marshallharrison — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:16:00 GMT

My recent post on what Microsoft must do to grow Speech Server created quite a stir. I think some people may have taken what I had to say the wrong way. I always have been and still am fully dedicated to Speech Server and its future. I've seen what is in store for OCS and Speech Server over the next couple of releases and it is exciting. There are good times ahead. Though I'm confident of the future I still think there are some things that can be done now and that is what I was trying to get across.

There are a lot of Speech Server applications (both 2004 & 2007) in production around the world taking and making thousands of call a day. What I want to do is to highlight those applications and make the world aware of where and how Speech Server is being used. To do that I will be standing up a Speech Server Showcase page as part of GotSpeech.net.

The showcase will allow companies and developers to highlight the applications that they have created using any version of Speech Server. To do this I will be collecting information over the next month while I get things up and ready. So if you want to be included and highlight your application then please email or send me the information below. I know some companies may not want to disclose all of this information but they can just disclose what they are comfortable with.

Customer name
What the app does
A sample call flow recording
The version of Speech Server used
Who created and maintains the app
Some call statistics - i.e. how many calls per hour or per day
A small write up with anything you want to add about the app

To get things rolling I'm going to mention that Gold Systems has a demo line where you can interact with the applications that we have. That demo number is 866-212-4254. If you are new to Speech Server then you can call the number and interact with the Help Desk app, the V-Dialer and the PassWord Reset apps. This is not meant to be an advertisement for Gold Systems but I do know this number and am familiar with it so I'm using to to jump start things.*

Some people think that no one is using Speech Server and I know that is not true - there are literally thousands of applications out there either in production or in development.

This is your chance to do something to help promote Speech Server. Don't pass it up - send me the info and get your app into the Speech Server Showcase when it goes live.

*GotSpeech.net is completely independent and is not controlled by Gold Systems nor is it a marketing tool for Gold Systems . I am proud to be employed by Gold Systems but I make the decisions about the content on GotSpeech. While I may from time to time endorse something from different companies the fact still remains that I make the decisions and I can't be bought - GotSpeech will always be an independent voice for Speech Server.

Microsoft 2008 MVP Global Summit

marshallharrison — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:47:00 GMT

The week of April 13 - 17 I'll be in Seattle for the 2008 MVP Global Summit. The Summit is a four day invitational event for Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and Regional Directors (RDs) The Summit gives us a chance to:

Connect with other MVPs and RDs
Engage with Microsoft product managers
Provide valuable feedback directly to Microsoft on its products and technologies.

The highlights this year include:

Event closing technical discussion by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect
Keynote by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive officer
Deep technical sessions by competency
Cross-competency electives
Highly dynamic and interactive sessions, designed based on Open Space Technology, where you’ll be able to define topics, attend, or even host
Additional activities designed to promote networking and meet attendees' diverse informational and business needs

So in my best effort to "be there" for you guys I'm soliciting a list of questions you would like me to ask. I can't guarantee that I will be able to get answers for all of your questions and certainly not going to guarantee that you will be happy with the answers I do get. But GotSpeech exists to serve your needs and I'll try my best to get you the answers you need (and deserve).

So if you have a question (or feedback) then post it as a comment to this blog entry or email me directly.

Change to GotSpeech Forums

marshallharrison — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:21:00 GMT

Since OCS Speech Server 2007 is the current version of the product I've moved its forum to the top of the forums list. I just wanted you to know as I didn't want to confuse people.

So if you are used to going to the bottom of the forums list then don't do that any more. It is now at the top of the list.

Tip: the easiest way to view forum entries is to use the "Posts you have not read" link near the top of the right navbar.

5 things Microsoft must do so OCS 2007 Speech Server can grow

marshallharrison — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:52:02 GMT

Fix the licensing confusion

To be honest I'm not sure if the licensing scheme is flawed or not because I don't fully understand it. And I'm not alone in my confusion as it seems that a lot of people are confused about what they need to get properly licensed. Do you need licenses for outbound applications? What if callers aren't authenticating? What constitutes authentication for license purposes? What kind of licensing and how much will it cost to migrate an Speech Server 2004 app to the new platform?

There is also a lot of confusion about how Speech Server fits into the overall OCS picture. Just last week I received a call from someone who was interested in switching over to Speech Server for their platform but they had been told that to do that they would have to install all of OCS plus Exchange. He couldn't see why they needed to install Exchange and Unified Messaging when all he wanted was Speech Server. We spoke for several minutes and I got him on the right track but my point is that there shouldn't have been any confusion to start with.

Direct SIP connections to PBX/POTS

Currently the supported means of connecting to OCS 2007 Speech Server is through a media gateway (I'm not even considering the TIM/TIMC option). I know of two large companies that are implementing solutions using MSS 2007 and both want to do direct SIP connections between their Avaya PBX and Speech Server. Both of them have the necessary PBX hardware and software but this is not a supported architecture. I'll say it here in bold text Speech Server should be capable of a direct SIP connecting to a PBX or any SIP provider and be a supported configuration. If you follow the forums here on GotSpeech (or if I let you read the emails I get) then you would know that there is a lot of interest (and confusion) in setting up Speech Server this way. This isn't to say you can't do this or that it won't work but rather to say that it needs to be a supported configuration.

Fix the documentation

This should be as the help files (or at least mine) have been broken from the start. Too many times I have tried to look something up in the help files only to find that the links are broken. Or there is help but it doesn't include any sample code. I know Speech Server very well (though I don't know it all ) and when I need to look up something I want lots of explanation and a code sample. I want to be able to see what it does and how it works.

Open up the ASR

In order to gain wider acceptance I think that Microsoft needs to open Speech Server up so that third party applications can use its ASR/TTS engines. I realize it may sound counter productive to let others use your stuff but I believe that if it was open and others could use the ASR engine then it would create a migration path for moving those applications to C#. I think that Visual Studio and Windows Workflow is the best development platform currently available. I realize that aumtech has an MRCP connector but I think that the platform itself should allow this.

Promote Speech Server

I was the first and only Speech Server MVP (before we became part of OCS) and even though I'm now an OCS MVP it is still very near and dear to my heart. I talk about it and promote it every chance I get. I just wish Microsoft would do the same.

It seems that since Speech Server got rolled up into Office Communications Server that it has become like a *** stepchild. No one wants to talk about it. There is confusion about how to get it and how it fits into OCS. I can't count the number of people I've encountered that think you need to install OCS in order to install Speech Server. If you don't believe me then go to an OCS event and ask questions about Speech Server - everyone clams up. I know because I've been to 2 different OCS Ignite events (a 2 day event and a 5 day event) and I've tried asking questions only to get the cold shoulder. I know of two companies (not the same companies I mentioned above) that spend days trying to get answers from their Microsoft reps about how Speech Server fit in with no luck. One company couldn't even get an answer when they asked where they could get the install CDs.

I don't know what the problem is but I do know that Microsoft should really start promoting Speech Server if they expect the number of users to grow.

Okay, I've gone and stuck my neck out ont his one.. I've vented a little in this posting and may have even aggravated a few people. But I've been thinking about this for quite some time now and I finally decided to publish what I've been thinking and feeling. I love Speech Server and have staked my career on it. I've spent a lot of my own time and money promoting it by speaking and and helping others get started with Speech Server. I really want to see it grow and become more popular as I think it is the best IVR platform available. I don't allow Microsoft bashing in the blogs or forums on GotSpeech so I've thought long and hard about whether or not I should post this. In the end it came down to two simple facts - I've always allowed valid criticism and I think this just needed to be said.

If you agree with me or not I still want to hear what you have to say about this. If you have your own ideas on how to grow Speech Server then I would love to hear them too. If I've misunderstood anything or you think I've misrepresented anything then feel free to call me out on it.

I want to make it clear that these are my opinions and they may or may not be the opinions of my employer (I didn't ask them for their opinion).