On Wednesday 4 August, I will be leading a discussion on speech technologies in the developing world at the SpeechTEK 2010 conference, in New York City.

At the Foundation, we believe that speech technology is crucial for bringing Web access to the 4.8 billion people who have basic mobile phones and/or who are illiterate. Voice access may also prove useful for people communicating in languages that do not work well on the Web. Therefore, SpeechTEK is a great opportunity for us to raise awareness on the use of voice technologies for social development.

I am grateful to the organizers — conference chair Jim Larson in particular — for giving me an opportunity to dialog with leaders in the  industry about the issues that are so important to us. I am also very much looking forward to learning from voice technology experts.  So if you happen to be at SpeechTEK next week, you’re very welcome to come and join the discussion.