Two platforms for research in Human Communication Science: The AusTalk corpus and the Alveo Virtual Laboratory

Denis Burnham, Dominique Estival, Steve Cassidy, P. Sefton, Karin Verspoor

Abstract: Over the last 4 years we have built two platforms that are pivotal for Human Communication Science research: AusTalk, a 3000 hour auditory-visual corpus of Australian English, and Alveo, an extensible Virtual Laboratory housing corpora and analysis tools glued together by a versatile workflow engine. This paper describes the genesis and operation of each of these in some detail and sets out the advantages they provide (i) for Human Communication Science in their present form, and (ii) the maieutic role they can play in research collaboration across disciplines, across institutions, and across languages and national boundaries, especially in our region.