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Capturing Insight

Posted by: Heather Green on October 03

When I was on the road last week, I learned so much about green issues from the folks I was visiting. Because I was walking around visting places and talking to people in restaurants, at informal conferences, and during car trips, it just didn’t work to take out my laptop to take notes. Instead, I felt like I scribbled madly into those rectangular little reporter’s notebooks for five days straight. (Ok, I did sleep, but it didn’t feel like much sleep!)

Now, I have to go back through to transcribe all those notes, before I lose the connections and the vibrancy of the voices, faces and excitement of the people I was speaking with…..and that got me to wondering.

I wish there was a way to record that train of learning better. I was thinking that a private blog like Vox might be a good idea, next time I go on an extended trip. That way, I could record the interactions later that day, in the short burst of a post. And since it was private, it would be there for me to look at or share with my editors and other reporters. (If i had a green blog it might make sense to do some of that publicly, but i don’t think it fits with the theme of this blog).

Of course, ideally, what i would love would be a way to take in those words as I am hearing them and have them transcribed immediately. I could record all of it, but frankly, that’s just too onerous to sift through.

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Reader Comments

ZF

October 3, 2006 11:19 AM

But you could record it all, and then just revisit the parts you felt both interested in and less than clear about as you write up your notes.

Rex Hammock

October 3, 2006 12:41 PM

Here's a suggestion, Heather. I use a program called Notetaker (Mac software - maybe there's a windows program like this). It has more features than I'll ever know, but one of them allows me to take audio notes in the context of writing. So -- and this is hard to explain, but easy to understand once you see it: You can have a page of running notes, audio file (imported or recorded w/ a click of a link) and photos that you can then work from later. Now, here's the cool feature: You can share that page in the way you describe using a program called "Noteshare" (http://www.aquaminds.com/nsProduct.jsp) ... I sound like I'm hyping this product, I know. I don't know who these folks are and I'm just a "user" but it's one of the few programs that I use that I'm happy I paid for. (Oh, in addition to recording w/ my computer's mic -- great for interviews w/ an open computer, I also have a little mic thing from Griffin Technologies (which, I might add, is headquartered in my hometown, Nashville) that plugs into my iPod and allows me to take audio notes in a situation where a computer doesn't work. The files import nicely into Notetaker -- or iTunes, for that matter.) I'm still (like you) dreaming of a voice reconition, transcription software solution. I've tried different ones in the past -- nothing works the way I need it to....yet. Hope springs eternal.

Ramon Ray

October 3, 2006 02:31 PM

Hi Heather, I use a combination of tools to do this

- I used to only save web articles to my hard disk and use Google desktop to retrieve them

- now I also use deli.cio.us

- also my own blog of course archives, what's of interest to me and that's small business technology!

Ramon

Rick Loughery

October 5, 2006 12:00 AM

Hi Heather - here comes a plug.... if you are looking for a way to capture and digitize your paper based notes... (i.e. from your notebook) use www.scanR.com

scanR will also tag the notes so you can search for them later.

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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