FOLKER transcription editor: introduction and tutorial

Author:	Schütte, Wilfried
Author 2:	Thomas Schmidt
Abstract:
FOLKER is a transcription editor developed for the FOLK corpus project at the Institute of German Language in Mannheim. The aim of this project is to construct a large corpus of spoken present-day German, so that it may be used for research and teaching purposes. FOLKER builds on the experience gained with multi-purpose systems like ELAN and EXMARaLDA, but attempts to improve simplicity and transcription efficiency by restricting and optimizing both data model and tool functionality to a single, well-defined purpose. FOLKER's main interface offers three editable views of the transcription data: segment, partition, and contribution. Each of these views is optimized for a specific step in the transcription workflow, and users can freely switch between the views at any time in the transcription process. In both the segment and contributions view, the syntax of the annotation text is checked for conformance during input, according to the minimal transcript level of the GAT transcription conventions. Likewise, the temporal integrity of annotations is verified. Additional functions of FOLKER also include automatic procedures for pauses, import and export routines, and visualisation functions for displaying a transcription in a browser or a text processor. After the presentation, for which you do not have to register, this workshop will be offering a collective transcription exercise on the data model and data format of FOLKER. The participants can bring along their own, preferably English, audio recording. The workshop will be offered as a “closed session” therefore a registration e-mail to the organizer is requested (schuette@ids-mannheim.de). Notebooks and headphones should be brought. A Windows and MAC OS X-Version, as well as sample transcripts and a manual can be downloaded from http://agd.ids-mannheim.de/html/folker.shtml for free. The program should be installed before the workshop.