Who We Are

Deborah Dahl

Dr. Deborah Dahl is an expert on Conversational AI and related standards. She has developed many natural language processing systems and has over 20 years of experience in standards work at the World Wide Web Consortium and the Linux Foundation AI and Data Foundation. Dr. Dahl has written many technical papers and four books, most recently Natural Language Understanding with Python, published in 2023.

David Attwater

David Attwater has an international reputation as a researcher and designer in conversational design and analytics.

• 25+ years’ experience in the use of speech and language technology for customer service applications.
• Extremely experienced in all aspects of conversational analytics and conversational user interface design, test and development. He is also an experienced software engineer.
• Multi-disciplinary – spanning strategic consulting, conversational design and applied product research.
• Lead Specification Author and Editor for the Linux Foundation LF&AI Voice Interoperability Initiative
• Extensive international professional service experience leading projects in UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, South Africa, Zambia.
• Conference speaker and invited lecturer.

David is currently Senior Scientist at Talkmap, a leading conversational intelligence platform. Previous posts include EIG where he managed their UK professional service practice. Before that he was head of the spoken dialog research team at British Telecom Research Labs.

David has several international patents granted and numerous publications. He holds two engineering degrees from the University of York, UK.

His skills include enterprise business process analysis, strategic planning, conversational analytics, VUI design, natural language technology annotation management, voice biometrics, and conversational voice assistants. He has also pioneered several unique and innovative UX testing techniques worldwide. He has recently turned his hand to exploring the practical use of foundation language models in the leading edge of conversational analytics.

Leah Barnes

Leah Barnes is a software developer currently working with The Linux Foundation. She has played a key role in the development and deployment of the LF Data & AI Sandbox, facilitating seamless integration between conversational assistants. Leah focuses mostly on Python and JavaScript and has enhanced user experience and accessibility throughout her time working on the Sandbox. Her background also includes developing server-side applications using Flask and networking protocols, contributing to the advancement of open-source technologies. Leah holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Science with a minor in Information Systems from Suffolk University and is passionate about promoting innovation and interoperability in the technology space.

Emmett Coin

Emmett is the founder ejTalk Inc where he drives R&D for human-computer conversation systems, creating systems to do real-time intelligent and natural conversations with humans. These range from phone based, wearable embedded, and exploratory R&D systems. He has rich experience over the entire scope of the relevant technologies as well as electronics and bio-medical domains. He enjoys conceptually hard problems.

Diego Gosmar

Diego Gosmar serves as Chief AI Officer and AI Advisor, specializing in Artificial Intelligence with particular focus on Generative Conversational AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Sentiment Analysis, Conversation Analysis, AI Agent interoperability, Sustainable and Ethical Conversational AI. He is the author of a machine learning book published in 2020, as well as several papers on AI ethics and innovative AI approaches.

Olga Howard

Olga Howard ensures data quality and seamlessness in content discovery, aligning closely with the Open Voice Network to establish open standards for voice assistants. She is focused on crafting frameworks that integrate strategic opportunity analysis and empowers business leaders to foresee and navigate the evolving landscape of digital interaction and audience engagement.

Simon Kingaby

Father, Elder, Writer, Teacher, Artist, Student, Code Monkey, ETL Developer, Boy Scout, Reader, Speaker, Author, Miniatures Painter, Agile Champion, Voice UI Champion, Ambient Computing Enthusiast, Generative AI Explorer

Dirk Schnelle-Walka

Dr. Dirk Schnelle-Walka is an expert in voice-centric multimodal interaction for smart spaces. He currently works at Harman as a project manager in the audio domain while actively leveraging his expertise in speech technology through various research, open-source, and standardization efforts.

Previously, he led the Talk&Touch group at the Telecooperation Lab at TU Darmstadt until the end of 2014. He then transitioned into the automotive industry as Team Lead Speech at Harman (formerly S1nn) and later contributed as a research scientist at modality.ai and switch, bridging academic research and industrial applications.

Dr. Schnelle-Walka has authored over 60 book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers. He has also chaired several workshops at scientific venues, including the Workshop on Interacting Smart Objects. He is an active contributor to the Open Voice Network (OVON), helping shape open standards for voice technology. Additionally, he leads several open-source speech technology projects and plays a key role in the W3C Voice Interaction Community Group, working toward the standardization of intelligent personal assistants.

Noreen Whysel

Noreen is a NYC based researcher, information architect and teacher. She is COO of Decision Fish LLC and an Adjunct Lecturer at CUNY New York City College of Technology’s BFA program. She has facilitated workshops on mentoring, accessibility, search behavior and technology standards. Her recent research includes the effect of climate change on healthcare access by vulnerable populations, accessible science gateways and digital privacy and safety.

As a research consultant, Noreen works with technology companies on developing safe, trusted digital experiences. She serves on several standards working groups focusing on usability and accessibility at Internet Safety Labs, W3C, UXPA and Kantara Institute. She leads the Information Architecture Community Group at W3C and is a co-founder of the Information Architecture Gateway, providing IA and SEO services to the science gateways community.