Embattled mobile speech-to-text company Spinvox will demonstrate its technology to journalists in the latest effort to counter allegations that it relies heavily on call centres.
As Charles wrote over on the Technology blog, Spinvox tried to put the allegations to rest with a post on its blog. It was a rebuttal to the BBC's allegations that the speech-to-text service was using humans to do the conversion, and that some of the data involved was being transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA) – which would breach the Data Protection Act for any British calls.
But the accusations continue to rumble, not just from sceptics of the technology but also from unpaid contractors. Spinvox told paidContent.co.uk:
CEO Christina Domecq, in a two-part interview with paidContent:UK, said company finances are being pressured by its suppliers paying it late and by the demands of a strong growth following Latin America client wins that will make SpinVox cashflow-positive within 90 days.
The demonstration is unlikely to completely quell the criticism as the Mobile Industry Review has pulled out after Spinvox denied their requests to film, even though they were offering the company "full editorial veto".
Writing at the Mobile Industry Review:
It's my view that me simply experiencing how their system works won't tell you much at all. I think you need to see me and/or Alex or one of the MIR team (or even a representative from another publication) playing with and testing out the system. We need to visualise the process and simultaneously look into the whites of the SpinVox team eyes. We don't need to have close-ups of the user interface. We don't even need to film equipment. But what we do need is authenticity.
I'm sure you've got questions. Let me know what they are, and Spinvox willing (or unwilling), we'll get some, but probably not all, of the answers today.
