It's Official - I'm writing the first book on Microsoft Speech Server
For a long time now, I've been a big fan of Microsoft Speech Server. With respect to Speech Server though, there's not a whole lot of information out there. KC's 's kick a55 stuff is mainly how I got to find out about it, then after seeing some demos at MEDC, I was hooked. The lack of information on Microsoft Speech Server is a big part of why I found Sara's book so fascinating , mainly b/c she did a superb job covering it. Well, she's going to get another go at it b/c in addition to some of the articles she's written on Speech Server, she's joining me as co-author to write the first Speech Server book. APress was kind enough to extend the offer and we just finished signing the paperwork today. I'm quite stoked b/c not only do I get to work with a great company like http://www.apress.com , I get to work with Sara which is going to be a lot of fun.
As you may know, I've co-authored two books so far and really enjoyed the experience (who wouldn't enjoy working with guys like Wally, Ambrose, Plip , Jean-Luc and the rest), but both times I came in really late in the project. This time around I'm in it from the get go and although it's going to be a real challenge, it's going to be a lot of fun. Not only will this give me a chance to really focus on Speech Server for a while, I'll get a shot at writing a book as good as Sahil's which pretty much set the new high water mark for .NET books in general and ADO.NET books in particular (heck if I even come close to reproducing what Sahil pulled off I'll be pleased). We still have a few details to hash out or I'd post the chapter outline but we're going to split the book up into the Speech SDK, Telephony, Mobile Speech and some thorough walk throughs which go through using each aspect of Microsoft Speech technology in depth. 2006 is already starting off with a bang!