SALT Specification Contributed to W3C

SALT Forum Contributes Speech Application Language Tags Specification Version 1.0 to World Wide Web Consortium

Contribution Furthers Goal of Establishing Open, Royalty-Free Standard for Speech-Enabling Multimodal and Telephony Applications

Boston, MA, USA. August 13, 2002.

The SALT Forum, a group of companies with a shared goal of accelerating the use of speech technologies in multimodal and telephony systems, today announced that it has contributed the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) specification to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The SALT Forum has asked the W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group and Voice Browser Working Group to review the SALT specification as part of their development of standards for promoting multimodal interaction and voice-enabling the Web.

There is a growing interest in multimodal applications, including the use of speech technologies to expand the reach of Web content. "Many companies within the speech technology industry view standards as key to speeding acceptance of speech-enabled multimodal applications," said Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates. "The contribution of the SALT specification to the W3C gives the group a robust starting point for creating a single standard for multimodal applications, which is ultimately in the best interest for the speech industry."

The SALT specification defines a set of lightweight tags as extensions to commonly used Web-based markup languages. This allows developers to add speech interfaces to Web content and applications using familiar tools and techniques. The SALT specification is designed to work equally well on a wide variety of computing and communicating devices.

"We respect the standards efforts of the W3C and are pleased to bring the SALT specification to W3C Working Groups for their consideration," said SALT Forum representative Martin Dragomirecky. "By making a comprehensive royalty-free contribution we hope to accelerate their efforts targeting a new class of mobile devices that support multiple modes of interaction."

About the SALT Forum

The SALT Forum brings together a diverse group of companies sharing a common interest in developing and promoting speech technologies for multimodal and telephony applications. Founded in 2001 by Cisco, Comverse, Intel, Microsoft, Philips and SpeechWorks, the Forum seeks to develop a royalty-free standard that augments existing XML-based markup languages to provide spoken access to many forms of content through a wide variety of devices. Additional information on the SALT specification is available on the Forum's web site, www.saltforum.org.

About the W3C

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, nearly 500 organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/.

Contact

Greenough Communications
Rachael Diana
Tel: +1 617/275-6549
Email: rdiana@greenoughcom.com

[Source 2002-08-14: http://www.saltforum.org/press.asp. See also http://www.saltforum.org/pastpress.asp.]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See "Speech Application Language Tags (SALT)."

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