I believe I have come to the end of my time transcribing interviews for the Association of Virtual Worlds. I have learned a lot from what I have heard in five-word segments. There is a lot going on right now and I'm not sure how much I can discuss here out of consideration for the book that they are putting together but I can say for a fact that I did have to take some breaks from transcribing to go and look up some of the things that were discussed in the interviews. I learned a lot about marketing in the new virtual environment these last few weeks and it seems that there are several common themes that interviewees (if they can be called such) described independently of each other. While all this new social media in the virtual web environment (or however you choose to call it) can be daunting, with the right tools, knowledge and assistance, any company (even a fairly wealthy individual) can market a product or a brand. While there was no specific talk (in the interviews I'd transcribed) about product placement, the subtle ways in which companies now advertise their products to us and manage to keep their names at the 'front' of our minds is amazing.
In regards to the actual work, I have realized the value of Elluminate/Blackboard Collaborate's one-person-talking-at-a-time function. In the end, transcription times generally stayed a consistent 1.5 hours per 15 minutes of interview though naturally times seemed to elevate for places in the interview when the people were talking faster or excitedly interjecting over each other with comments.
This week's challenge was a surprise deadline. While I had set myself a deadline for Friday, my supervisor wanted the interviews done by this morning so I fit a whole interview transcription into my schedule. Though this was not ideal, knowing how long it would take me to finish the interview helped me plan out my time to better arrange meals and breaks and sleep.
Perhaps it would be better to have mutually-agreed-upon dates (specific dates, not general time frames) for our deliverables.
Awaiting further instructions from our supervisor as to specifics on our next project.
There are times when we have to make those unexpected adjustments. Unfortunately I had two unexpected reports required in the same week--and I had already planned almost every waking moment to get what I knew about done. Obviously, the moments I hadn't planned on being awake were used. Oh, for some sleep! But you are right, if a timefame could be worked out ahead of time, and unexpected events did not occur, we would all be better off.
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