Abstract: Described herein is a system that enables service provider's to integrate speech functionality into their applications. A service provider maintains a set of application servers. To provide a particular speech service to a client of the application server, the application server causes the client to request the speech service from another set of servers. This set of servers is responsible for providing this speech service as well as others. Such speech services include recording digital speech data at the client, and storing the recordings. Later, the application servers may retrieve the recordings, and even more, retrieve data derived from the recordings, such as data generated through speech recognition processes.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are described for asynchronously conducting interviews though a user interface executing on a client. The user interface prompts an interviewee for at least one audio response, which is digitally recorded. User interfaces are generated by a client according to code defining the user interfaces downloaded from a server via, for example, the Internet. The server may be remote from the client, thereby allowing interviewees to interact with the user interfaces on their own computers. The user interface queries an interviewee and the interviewee responds, either by entering text or digitally recording a response using controls supplied by the user interface. The responses are down loaded via, for example, the Internet to a server. Evaluators may review an interviewee's response through the use of user interfaces. A user (e.g.