Daniele Triumphs at Intersteno!

A guest post from the amazing Daniele Casarola, who just won second place in Audio Transcription - Seniors Division at Intersteno using Plover!! So incredibly impressive and cool!!!

The 54th Intersteno concluded on July 17, 2024, a biennial event held in Katowice, Poland.

The event lasts a week, during which speed writing professionals gather.

This year, the Congress and its seven international competitions saw the participation of over 400 people from countries across all five continents: Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Czechia, China, Korea, Croatia, Denmark, France, the Philippines, Finland, Germany, Japan, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Romania, Slovakia, the United States, Turkey, and Hungary.

I attended my first Intersteno in 2017 in Berlin, then in 2019 in Cagliari, in 2022 in Maastricht, and finally this year in Katowice.

I have always used the stenographic keyboard and the Plover application with the plugin for the Italian method, from version 3.0 up to the latest 4 RC2.

2017 was also the year I started working as a stenographer, so my ranking in the competitions was decidedly low.

I was impressed by the speed and accuracy that the stenographers who reached the podium were able to achieve, especially the American stenographers, with whom the Italian stenographic method shares the same keyboard layout.

Even when replicating the same competition alone in the tranquility of my studio, I couldn't match the same results.

The nature in which Plover was developed allows for deep customization.

This allowed me to introduce accessibility tools and make the stenographic method more usable.

Furthermore, I was able to customize the dictionary not only in terms of abbreviations but also with additional orthographic rules, aiming to reduce the number of keystrokes as much as possible.

It was a long job, requiring a lot of patience, but with each new competition, I saw improvements.

Until July 17, 2024, when in the Audio Transcription test, I reached the second position on the podium, naturally below an American stenographer :)

Plover has always proven to be a reliable tool, performing its job without interruptions or crashes.

The experience of live competition is not like that of everyday work.

Being all gathered in a large room.

The silence, and tension accompanying the countdown.

The starting whistle and the frantic noise of fingers on the keys.

Hands starting to tremble with emotion and the vain attempt to control them.

These are moments where more than competing with others, you compete with yourself, putting into practice the training done, the new abbreviations, and trying to control your emotions.

A heartfelt thank you to the whole team that has worked on and contributed to the development of Plover, which has allowed me to reach this milestone.

Aerick Demonstrates Javelin

The ever-marvelous Aerick shows you how to embed steno on your hobbyist steno keyboard using the wonderful Javelin firmware!

The Jarne Store is Up and Running!

You can now buy a Jarne! Woohoo! Notice that prices are in Australian dollars.

Jeffrey Lim, aka Tharelia, inventor of the Jarne, says:

The order page for Jarne is now public! Prices are in AUD.

https://shop.chenonetta.com/product/jarne-the-ultimate-keyboard/

Boards are being made as orders come in, so please allow some time before your board ships.

Some notes on options:

- USD had to be disabled in the store for the options to be charged properly. If payment in AUD is an issue, get in touch with Alecat and a USD paypal invoice can be issued. No other currencies will be offered.

- Black keycaps are coming. ETA mid July

- Nocturnal switches are currently being investigated, but no ETA on that.

Asterisk First Impressions

I got just a few minutes to play with the Asterisk today, and it's definitely gonna require some practice to build the muscle memory necessary to use it, but I have to say the thing is absolutely adorable. I love that it fits in the little zipper pocket on my backup laptop's sleeve. I love how light and sleek and cheerful the design is. The cutouts are an ingenious way to tell your fingers whether you've hit the right key after the fact, but I do miss the ability to rest my fingers in the home position between strokes. Whether I'll be able to retrain my hands sufficiently to find that position while hovering in midair remains to be seen, but the experience of using it is enjoyable enough to give it a try, for sure. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna load Javelin onto it so that I can use it with either phone or computer, and I'm currently in the planning phases for a new novel that I'm planning to write for NaNoWriMo in November, so I'm thinking of trying to build up some proficiency with the Asterisk while working on notes for it. Definitely not something I anticipate using as a backup for any of my captioning machines (I'm happy to say that I was unable to use my daily driver Infinity Ergonomic yesterday and the Jarne worked marvelously well as a backup!), but as an ultralightweight and low profile machine to carry around for fun and brainstorming? It just might fit the bill! I'll keep you posted.

2024 Open Steno Community Survey is out!

Take the 2024 Open Steno Community Survey here!

Blue Asterisks!

Over on Kickstarter, the beautiful Asterisk keyboards are almost ready to ship, and surprise! They're not white -- they're blue! Which I'm really happy about, personally. I like blue way more than white! Can't wait to get mine and try it out!

Talking about Open Steno to Court Reporters

I'll be addressing a group of professional court reporters tomorrow, telling them about my career as a professional captioner and also about The Open Steno Project. I've found in the past that court reporters are often unimpressed when I try to explain about Open Steno. They don't see the point, or think the project is doomed to failure, or... Something! I've never quite been able to figure it out. I find the idea of making steno open source and unlocking it to a vast pool of amateurs and hobbyists thrilling and empowering, but in the past I've gotten the sense that those who don't find it futile find it threatening somehow. Anyone have any ideas on how I can break through their indifference or suspicion and make my case? Any suggestions welcome.