Radio Address

From Linguistic Team International Wiki

LTI WikiMedia CenterPriority List | Pootle Projects Summary | Audio-Only Files | Radio Address Team | Video Releases | Final Proofreading Projects | Public Repository Locations | LTI Publishing (edit)


The Weekly ZM Radio Address

Peter Joseph hosts a weekly Blogtalkradio broadcast where he informs members of current events relevant to the Zeitgeist Movement, answers member questions and occasionally interviews guests. Additional information about upcoming shows and direct links for downloading previous shows in mp3 format can be found at Peter's BlogTalkRadio page.

Completed & proof-read transcripts for many of the broadcasts are available. Most of them have also been indexed for easy reference. You will also find individual files for many of the questions at the Official TZM YouTube Channel hosted by Apollo.

The rest of this page is dedicated directly to the Radio Address Transcription Team, a group of dedicated members who convert these broadcasts into printable English text transcripts that are then proof-read and released to the Translation Team to be converted into all other languages and distributed around the world.


The Radio Address Transcription Team

Project Coordination

Project Forum Thread

The RA Transcription project forum thread is used by all RA transcribers to reserve sections of shows for transcribing, report issues they come across and request assistance from other team members. All RA transcribers should subscribe to the thread in order to be email-notified of new posts by other members.

If you wish to join the team to help convert the shows into English transcripts, introduce yourself in that thread and you'll be warmly welcomed.


IRC Support

If your situation demands a more immediate response, we have a dedicated channel (room) called #ZM-LinguisticTeam in the movement's IRC program. You can access the IRC server directly from that link above or you can use your own 3rd party IRC client (highly recommended) and connect directly to the channel here. You can learn more about IRC, including the info needed to connect a 3rd party client as well as some client recommendations here. This page is also accessible from the IRC entrance page above.

Once you enter the IRC server, type in "/join ZM-LinguisticTeam" (without the quotes) and a new tab will appear in your client or in the web interface. If you're not taken directly to the channel, clicking on that tab will take you there and you can type out your request for assistance. There are usually several members monitoring that channel (along with other channels), but most of them do not work directly with the RA transcribing team. If you see my name (Gman) among the list of members occupying the channel, type in my name and press Enter to make my IRC client 'chirp' to notify me that you are there. Then, give me a minute to reply in case I am in another channel helping someone else. If I don't reply right away, I may be temporarily away from my computer.

Transcription Methods

The two methods below provide insight into the approaches taken by the RA Transcription Team. Due to proof-reading concerns, it's extremely preferable for the entire team to use only one of the methods on any given show. It creates a lot of extra work when show results need to be combined from the output of both methods.

  • The PiratePad method was developed over several months by the originators of this long-standing project. It requires manual control over the MP3 playback, the announced reservation of 'blocks' of the shows and supports versioning to preserve everyone's contributions to any show effort. This method is no longer used, unless the second method cannot be used for some reason.
  • The ZMTranscribe Method is a custom web-based tool created and hosted by MSchlager, a member of the RA Transcription Team. It removes the need for manual control over the MP3 playback, while also providing a simple interface to keep track of what sections still remain unfinished.


Getting Started

Some of the following may recap what has already been said above.

Since most folks are not really in a position to dedicate continuous consistent time to a project like this, we pretty much play the transcribing schedule by ear as we go. We're very flexible and don't want people to feel like they have to do more than they can or wish to do. Many of Peter's shows are already fully transcribed (and many of those have been very carefully proofread, too).

To procure your own audio copies of the broadcasts, you can download all of the previously archived shows in MP3 format directly from Peter's BlogTalkRadio page. Each show is sectioned off and contains its own direct download link. This is also the best site for listening to the shows live.


General Tips, Tricks & Pointers

Once you begin transcribing, if you come across any words or phrases that you cannot figure out, use the combined symbol of (..?..) as a placeholder. During the proofreading phase, I go to work on trying to figure out what's being said. If I'm unable to work it out, the symbol is passed to the translators so someone else can go to work on it.

It's also very important the you spell-check your work, making sure that all contractions have the apostrophe in the right place, all references to the word 'I' are capitalized, new topics or deviations are separated into relatively short paragraphs, etc..

These transcripts also require a time stamp to be added at the very beginning of each question Peter reads. For simplicity's sake, you can copy the following boiler-plate formatting to make it easier, replacing the zero stamp with the 'file time' wherever you are in the MP3 when you hit that spot, and the 'x' with whatever number he calls out. Note that the space above the separator line is necessary and that the questions should be surrounded by quotation marks, but not Peter's answers.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0:00:00

Question x: "


With ZMTranscribe (the online app), a color bar for each show's transcript makes it very easy to see which blocks of text have already been transcribed. The PiratePad method is not quite as intuitive, but we make up for that with continuous communication about what each member is working on, both within PiratePad, as well as in the main thread. The best approach that I can describe for either method is to have the first person starting at the very beginning of a given show, the next person in would start at the midway point and go from there. The third could pick from either the first quarter point or third quarter position and begin, etc..

Peter is now doing these shows weekly with each one running for 90 minutes. Assuming we can get 6 committed volunteers who are willing & able to transcribe a bit every week, it will limit any one person's work to just 15 minute's worth of 'show' that needs to be transcribed (and still under 20 minutes if someone is unable for a given week).


The above approaches may seem like a lot to learn, but it's actually very simple (but I didn't say easy) once you get the hang of it and learn some of the tricks we use. Don't hesitate to post to the main thread if you run into any questions or if there's anything I forgot to include above.


Radio Address Proofreading

All Raw transcriptions are saved within separate PiratePad pages. A full list can be found here


Important Links to Bookmark


LTI WikiMedia CenterPriority List | Pootle Projects Summary | Audio-Only Files | Radio Address Team | Video Releases | Final Proofreading Projects | Public Repository Locations | LTI Publishing (edit)

LTI WikiLanguage Team Contacts | FirstTimers-General Guidelines | LTI Guidelines | Transcription Team | Proofreading Team | Translation Teams | Translation Proofreading Teams | Linguistic Tech Team | Media Center | Project Teams | LingTeam Development | Meetings (edit)