We Have Been Busy!

Patience, persistence and participation – these are the three P’s that have guided the Global Alliance since we launched in early August. I’m excited to tell you that our patience, persistence and participation are paying off!

Patience: When we began to discuss forming an alliance that would include all methods of captioning, all consumers and advocates of captioning and all industry and academia, we knew we would need to be patient. It takes time for folks to fully vet us and to ask questions before joining a new alliance. We are thrilled that in the last week we have added five additional Founding Members! Our Founding Members and their financial generosity are key to our entering the next phase – General Membership – from which we will make committee assignments and ultimately will create real-world testing, certifying and credentialing for all forms of captioning.

We want to thank you for your tremendous patience as we worked to upload the following to our website:

• Bylaws
• Business Plan
• All Past Newsletters
• Captioning All Hands Recording, Oct. 12, 2019

Persistence: The initial buzz and excitement that were created when we launched, naturally were soon tempered. It took persistence on our part to keep the momentum going – through social media posts, our newsletter and numerous one-on-one conversations. Global Alliance Board members all work full-time jobs. We do our Global Alliance work early in the morning, during lunch breaks, in the evening and on weekends. Through persistence, volunteerism and sacrifice, the Global Alliance is growing stronger each day, and our vision of “Universal Accessibility to the Spoken Word Via All Forms of Captioning” is becoming reality.

Participation: In the last week alone, the Global Alliance raised funds and donated time and skills during two Hearing Loss Association of America Walk4Hearing events. A team of five of us walked in the DC Walk4Hearing; Karyn Menck raised funds for the Philadelphia Walk4Hearing; and I volunteered my time to caption the Philadelphia Walk4Hearing. Jen Schuck, Global Alliance Secretary, will be walking and raising funds for the Arizona Walk4Hearing on Nov. 2.

Last week, Karyn Menck went to the National Association of Broadcasters’ NAB Show New York, where she attended presentations given by industry leaders and developers of automated speech recognition. Karyn met one-on-one with many CEOs and heads of industry. There is great interest and enthusiasm from industry for the work being done by the Global Alliance. Be sure to read Karyn’s article in this newsletter for full details!

Patience, persistence and participation – these three P’s will continue to serve us well as the Global Alliance grows and becomes the leading professional authority on speech-to-text captioning, representing all captioners, consumers and industry. Join with us today!

One more P – P.S.: We have less than two weeks remaining in our Founding Members Campaign. Your participation is key to the success of the Global Alliance. We encourage you to visit our website to learn about the many benefits of becoming a Founding Member today!

The Founding Members Campaign is the fund-raising effort to start achieving the goals of the Global Alliance.  We are grateful for the support of the Founding Members to date.  With each pledge of support, we build our membership.  The diversity of our membership is what will help us make captioning better for those who rely on it.

Chris Ales – Supporter
Natalie Ennis – Supporter
Tonya Kaiser – Supporter
Tammy Milcowitz – Supporter
Sandra Smith – SupporterThank you for being a Founding Member!

Patience, persistence and participation. As Chair Steve Clark said, they are paying off! Last week I had the distinct pleasure of representing the Global Alliance at the NAB Show (National Association of Broadcasters) in New York City. Having never attended an NAB event, I had no idea what to expect. I did my homework, researching the exhibitors to find those who are providing captioning of any kind, and was on my way.I landed early Wednesday morning, dropped my bags at the hotel, and headed to the Javits Center. For the uninitiated (me prior to last week), this is a trade show with an exhibit hall, and this year there were approximately 175 exhibitors. There were three stages within the space as well as The Streaming Summit; TV2020 Monetizing the Future; and a Post-Production Pavilion. Connected to NAB is the AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention. I spent about an hour there Wednesday afternoon. While there, I learned about some new microphone options to use while captioning. Be on the lookout for my update, particularly regarding microphone options for capturing multiple speakers.

After arriving at the show, I ran to Stage 1 for the presentation “Maximize Value for Every Video Using Watson AI” by IBM. Captioning for Stage 1 was being displayed by ENCO. There was a second talk by IBM planned for Thursday afternoon: “Deliver Automated, Highly Accurate Closed Captioning with the Help of Watson AI.” Very interesting talks to attend and worth the price of my admission alone.

I cannot imagine a more important meeting for the Global Alliance to attend – and for all captioners to be represented at – than the NAB Show. In between following up with (perhaps accosting?) speakers after their presentations and visiting the booths of caption providers, I was able to speak with Founders, CEOs, and Developers of the world’s leading ASR/AI companies. The Global Alliance’s mission and vision are for all of us to come together and create certification and standards that will elevate the quality of captioning around the world. Working independently will lead to several different standards and will only muddy the waters. Together – with clarity and one voice – we will bring those standards to governmental and regulatory authorities and help navigate changing technologies, thus ensuring quality captioning.

The NAB Show made me feel energized! The Global Alliance has momentum building with our Founding Members campaign. The more we band together – all captioners, consumers, and industry – the stronger we become. I will be following up with everyone I met at NAB and will strongly encourage them to join the Global Alliance.

Patience, persistence, participation – we’ve shown we have the patience and persistence. It’s time for your participation. We need you, the leaders throughout the captioning industry. Join as a Founding Member today to ensure your place on our Advisory Board. Have your voice heard – join today!

Captioning All Hands

The Global Alliance held its first Captioning All Hands online event on October12, 2019. During this 30-minute event, Steve Clark, Global Alliance Chair, spoke about the current and future makeup of our Board; our vision and mission and why we exist; and our short-term, midrange and long-term goals. He also highlighted current activities in which the Global Alliance is participating. Plenty of time was left for Q&A.You can view the recording of our first Captioning All Hands on our website, under the News and Documents tab, or click here.

This is the first of many online events we will present to update you. We hope you can join us for the next Global Alliance Captioning All Hands!