The complete text with related links may be read at,
http://businesssoft.about.com/compute/businesssoft/library/weekly/aa030200a.
htm


Microsoft
has announced plans for a Beta release of their flagship product,
Office Suite 2000 (
presently code named Office 10) sometime this summer with a release by years
end.

What seems to be the most noticeable difference from previous releases is
supposed to be the full integration of speech technology in every aspect of
the
productivity suite. Yes, I know it does kind of sound like a reprise "Wolf,
wolf..", after enough false cries the wolf never appeared. Well, you know
the
rest; it is a little tough to believe it this time. But, as in the original
fable, just because the first 10 times were false doesn't mean the wolf
won't
eventually actually show.

Microsoft long ago has chosen
Lernout & Hauspie
to be the  Speech Recognition Technology provider of choice. Even though the
last two previous Office releases spoke in overtones of upcoming voice
integration
technology, this is the first firm and extensive spoken commitment to
delivery of fully speech-enabled technology.

One of the previous major holdbacks in this arena has been the hardware. So
far this technology has proven itself always yearning for more horsepower.
Well,
that time is now over. With many systems outfitted with either Intel's
Pentium IIIs or AMD Athlons, and 128 MB of RAM (and the long over-promised
Rambus Memory)
or better these speech recognition programs will no longer be "pushing the
envelope".

Microsoft's avowed support for all things speech-enabled certainly seems
credible. First of all, in about six months Microsoft will release a
rewritten
version of its Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) 5.0 to better
allow developers to more intricately interact with it. The SAPI will also
recognize and interact with XML Web tags, enabling Web enabled sites to call
up speech engines and functionality.

People are still trying to figure out how voice activated/controlled
computers can work in today's new typical office space. Modular work space
with 2,
4 or more workers sharing  an open space sounds too deafening just imagining
it.

There are other major differences as well, all for the benefit of Web hosted
solutions and making Office more Internet available. If there is going to be
an
Application Service Provider (
ASP) sector, Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to position itself to be
a pioneer.

I don't know if the typical office scenario will be compatible with people
conversing with their computers. Do you? Take our poll and let your opinion
be
counted.


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