Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Chuck Wins!

Please drop a line to the good folks at Nuance who made a wise decision and picked my entry. They're good people, too. Especially Ms. Erica Hill @ Nuance.
--Chuck

Nuance Announces Winners of Second Annual

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Story Contest

Hundreds of Dragon Users from all Walks of Life Share Their Stories; Winning Entries Submitted by Lawyer, Property Inspector and Iraq War Veteran Detail Life-Changing Experience of Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking

BURLINGTON, Mass., August 6, 2008 – Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today announced the winners of its “I Speak Dragon!” contest, which invited Nuance’s Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® software users to share their unique experiences using the world’s most popular speech recognition solution. The second annual contest encouraged users to share their personal stories about how Dragon has improved their lives.

A testament to Dragon’s broad reach and impact on those who use it, the contest responses were overwhelming, with over 650 Dragon NaturallySpeaking users submitting unique and exciting stories. People from all walks of life – such as college students, writers, teachers, artists, senior citizens, doctors, genealogists, bloggers, lawyers, law enforcement officers and military personnel – submitted amazing stories of improved productivity, creativity and just plain fun using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Three winning entries were selected by a panel of judges from the hundreds of exceptional stories received in three categories, and Nuance is pleased to announce the following winners:

I Speak Dragon to Improve My Life

While serving in Iraq, Chuck Ziegenfuss chronicled his thoughts and experiences in a blog. He gained a readership that appreciated the details and openness in which he told his insightful stories with self-deprecating humor. In June of 2005, Ziegenfuss was wounded by an IED while serving as commander of a tank company. During the recovery from his injury, his wife continued blogging for him. Soon he wanted to get back to authoring the blog himself, but his typing was impaired due to the damage done to his hands by the IED.

A loyal reader of the blog bought Ziegenfuss a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to allow him to freely dictate his thoughts without relying on others. Once he started using Dragon to blog, Ziegenfuss’ readers agreed that this technology should be available to other soldiers who were in the same situation that he was. Ziegenfuss partnered with SoldiersAngels (www.soldiersangels.org) to form VALOUR-IT (Voice Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops) with a vision to provide laptops equipped with Dragon NaturallySpeaking to wounded soldiers whose injuries prevented them from operating a computer manually.

“I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to regain control of the life that was temporarily robbed from me, and to bring that same sense of empowerment to other soldiers just like me,” said Ziegenfuss. “The use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to use a computer, to connect, to do something that I was able to do before I was injured made me feel somewhat whole, somewhat normal, for the first time. It has been my distinct pleasure and honor to give that feeling, a feeling of ability, to our wounded. Dragon has not only improved my life, it has changed my life.”

The above winners will each receive a Garmin Nuvi 360 Personal Travel Assistant as well as Dragon NaturallySpeaking upgrades for three years.

To see a compendium of the most compelling contest entries that demonstrate some of the unique ways that people everywhere are using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, please visit: http://www.nuance.com/dragonstories/readstories.asp.

About Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance is used by millions of people to create documents and emails up to three times faster than typing, and to use their PC simply by speaking. Dragon NaturallySpeaking delivers what matters most in speech recognition – the highest levels of accuracy, seamless integration many popular PC applications, and unrivalled ease of use. Dragon NaturallySpeaking converts speech into text at up to 160 words-per-minute with up to 99 percent accuracy. Dragon is available in US English, Australian English, Asian English, Indian English, UK English, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish versions. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking.

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Nuance, the Nuance logo, Dragon and NaturallySpeaking are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

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