What Does

What Does "Extreme" Mean?

As used on this website, and in particular in the phrase "Extreme Speech™," the "Extreme" implies a method of doing things that is very different from conventional methods. This usage is borrowed from the expression "Extreme Programming" used in software engineering and has very different implications than "extreme sports."

This community project is motivated by the believe that speech and language technology is very important and has great potential, but that this potential can only be achieved with very significant improvements over the current performance of speech and language technology. It is further motivated by the belief that such improvements can be achieved, but only by exploring methods that are very different from those currently dominating the field. Hence, the introduction of the concept of "Extreme Speech™."

It is not necessary to discard or replace the current methods in speech and language. Although they include unconventional components, the new methods planned in this project are designed also to work with current methods and even to be flexible enough to accommodate many future methodologies that haven't yet even been conceived.

The ICISLT effort also incorporates a strong belief in innovation not only in products but in business practices. It is also founded on a principal of fostering entrepreneurship. But, just as with the technology, it is motivated by a belief the full potential of entrepreneurship needs the development of new approaches to entrepreneurship and venture capital that differ substantially from the conventional approaches. Hence, we also introduce concepts such as Extreme Entrepreneurship, Extreme Bootstrapping and Extreme Venture Capital. These new methodologies are designed to maximize the probability of survival and success for a new business and to maximize the return to investors in ways that are not feasible in the conventional framework.