Kim Patch

kim [at] scriven [dot] com
(617) 325-3966
patchontech.com

Kimberly Patch is a writer, editor, user interface expert, software developer, and musician.

She is Project Manager for the investigations unit at the nonprofit news organization The Conversation. The unit produces longform investigations reported and written by combinations of academic researchers and investigative journalists. Kim is responsible for workflow and logistics, and also does editing, web production and video editing.

Kim also consults as a Technical Editor for PBS FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, which publishes interactive versions of documentaries and interactive transcripts of source interviews that are shareable at the quote level. The Putin Files project included 70 hours of interactive source interviews from the documentary Putin’s Revenge; subsequent FRONTLINE projects include Trump’s Showdown, The Facebook Dilemma, Supreme Revenge, Zero Tolerance, America’s Great Divide, Amazon Empire, The Choice 2020, and America After 9/11.

Kim wrote the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism case study about the New York Times paywall.

She is also an Invited Expert for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessibility Initiative. Kim was chair of the Mobile Accessibility Task Force and an editor for the User Agent Working Group. She has worked as an accessibility consultant, including helping Pearson Education enable speech input for math education software.

From October 2014 to August 2019 Kim was Lead Researcher for the Rutherfurd Living History program at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy. She conducted user and technical research, and architected the InSite workflow and publishing system. The open-source publishing system enables interactive transcripts that can be shared at the sentence level, in context. Details: Patch On Tech: Interactive Transcripts Page.

In 2005, Kim founded Redstart Systems, a company dedicated to improving the speech interface. Redstart Systems produced Utter Command, an add-on to Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The technology she developed for Utter Command is patented.

In 1999, Kim cofounded the science and technology Web publication Technology Research News. During its run as a weekly newswire and Web publication from 2000 to 2005, TRN grew to over 650,000 page views per month and achieved a Google PageRank of 8, equal at the time to Discover and Scientific American. MIT’s Technology Review carried TRN’s news brief feed on its website from 2003 to 2004.

Earlier, Kim founded the Internet beat as a Senior Editor at PC Week, and was a metro reporter in Washington D.C. for United Press International. She has freelanced for many publications and news services including the Associated Press, Reuters, the Boston Globe, the San Jose Mercury News, Computerworld, Popular Mechanics, Nature Biotechnology, Technology Review, CIO, InfoWorld, Information Week and Network World.

She has given presentations at AccessU, the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference, the Computation + Journalism Symposium (C+J), Closing the Gap, CSUN, Harvard University, I Annotate, Macworld, MIT IAP, the MIT Venture Capital Conference Entrepreneur Showcase, SpeechTEK and SpeechTEK West.

Kim plays fiddle for Louder Than Milk and for Andrew Innes and the Reluctant Ramblers; she played fiddle for the Creek River String Band, and violin with the Boston Chamber Symphony.

Kim began using speech recognition software in 1994 after she was hit with repetitive strain injuries. To learn more about her experiences, see Greetings from planet RSI: an attempt to explain what it’s like to have hands that hurt all the time and Advice from planet RSI: how to get better.

www.linkedin.com/in/kimpatch

Projects, Presentations and Writing

Selected Writing/Video

Behind the scenes of the investigation: Heists Worth Billions
The Conversation, June 21, 2023

The Patch on Tech blog

Neural dust swept up in latest leap for bioelectronic medicine
Nature Biotechnology, March 10, 2021

The research and story behind InSite, a workflow and open-source publishing system for interactive transcripts developed at Duke University:
Part 1 – The Interview: a report
Part 2 – InSite: a guide for recording, transcribing and publishing interviews

Salvation or Mirage? The New York Times Paywall
Case Consortium @ Columbia, June 2014
Case study PDF
Epilogue PDF

Projects

Short Text
A way to speed and neaten written text – both handwritten and typed.

InSite
A workflow for recording, transcribing and organizing interviews, and an open-source system for publishing interactive transcripts.

Speech Input
Information about speech input, how Kim has improved it, and the way she uses it.

Invited Papers and Presentations

Making Input Efficient: Speech and Short Text (slides)
AccessU, May 19, 2021

InSite and Short Text (abstract)
Reaching Into an Interview and Speeding Input
Computation + Journalism Symposium, February 19, 2021

The InSite System: Enabling Transparency with Searchable, Shareable Interactive Transcripts (PDF, slides)
I Annotate, June 6, 2018

Including Speech Input Users:
What’s frustrating, what’s needed – 2018 update (PDF, slides)
AccessU, May 16, 2018

Accommodating Speech Input: Challenges and Best Practices
Harvard University, August 14, 2017

Including Speech Input Users: What’s frustrating, what’s needed
AccessU, May 17, 2017

The InSite System: Record, Transcribe, Organize, Publish, Navigate, Share
The third annual StoryLab Micro-Conference, Northeastern University, February 7, 2017

Siri and Beyond: Using Speech and More to Control your iOS Device
MIT IAP Seminar, January 14, 2015

Speech Input and Web Accessibility
Knowbility’s AccessU at CSUN, February 27, 2012

Leveraging the Accessibility Community as an Asset for Universal Design
Notes from the Boston Accessibility Unconference, September 17, 2011

Where Does Speech Input Make Sense? Lessons from the Desktop
AVIxD 2011 Workshop on Voice Interaction Design, January 23, 2011

The User Context: Aligning System and User Behavior
W3C Workshop on Conversational Applications: Use Cases and Requirements for New Models of Human Language to Support Mobile Conversational Systems, June 18-19, 2010

Web Accessibility: Taking Control with Speech
ATIA 2009 Chicago, October 31, 2009, and ATIA 2010 Orlando, January 28, 2010

Making Speech Commands Work Well on the Desktop: It’s All About Steps
Closing the Gap, October 16, 2008

Difficult Web sites demos
AVIOS New England meeting, March 19, 2008

Pardon Me, Your Computer’s Showing: Using Speech to Speed and Streamline Desktop Computing
SpeechTek West 2007, February 22, 2007

When Natural Language Isn’t: The Need for a Dedicated Speech Interface
SpeechTek 2006, August 8, 2006

It’s All about the Interface: Speech Recognition That Works for Both Human and Computer
MIT IAP Seminar, January 17, 2006