Hi Davina,
In short, I understood that you need a tool that will support all basic
coding tasks plus theory-building abilities. And it should work in a team
context. And you would prefer of having one instead of a number of
packages. Right?
I think ATLAS/ti would be a quite good choice for that purpose. It has an
excellent user interface; it has a flexible way of supporting coding tasks;
it allows for complex theory-building processes including a graphical
editor for semantical networks, various ways of editing memos linked to
different objects; finally, it supports teamwork by a) providing a complete
user administration (including selective right for different user to
certain analytical units) and b) by providing a special tool for the
integration of analytical units authored by different persons (allowing for
a variety of integration strategies according to different purposes and
constellations).
I don't know ALL other packages personally and in detail but as far as I
know, this specific combination of features is unique to ATLAS/ti.
However, it doesn't run on a mac - so put the Brussel tart away (at least
don't throw it) and join the realm of Bill Gates (is you aren't already a
loyal citizen of his) ;-)
All the best
Joerg
At 14:23 21.04.98 +0000, you wrote:
>>I am currently exploring the various CAQDAS in order to support a
>>qualitative study of the roles and responsiblities at the health and
>>social care interface. The study will be based on 8 case studies. A
>>case comprises a client and their surrounding web of carers - informal -
>>formal.- The research is being carried out in two different academic
>>institutions. I am currently looking into software in order to
>>support the project.
>>
>>My own experience has been with FolioViews (in the context of two
>>ethnographic studies) - and I have been very impressed with both the
>>ease of coding and the speed of its searches. However I have only
>>ever used this program on single researcher projects - where pen and
>>paper diagrams sufficed in the analysis stage - and so it's lack of
>>'theory-building' capabilities was never an issue. Given that this new
>>project would involve a number of researchers involved in the analysis
>>I thought it would be useful to look at packages where 'current
>>thinking' could be represented in visual form. I've spent some time
>>looking at the demos - Altasti, HyperResearcher, Ethnograph, Decision
>>Explorer - but I have to say that past experience has made me deeply
>>suspicious of demos.
>>
>>I just wondered if you could advise me as to whether any of these
>>alternatives would be most able to support the kind of work we have
>>in mind and be a better option than FolioViews.
>>
>>One option I did consider was to look at Decision Explorer to support
>>the analysis and thinking but use FolioViews for search and
>>retreival. Both packages seem to do both well - but to use two rather
than one
>>seems a bit cumbersome somehow.
>>
>>I'm interested to note how little FolioViews figures in discussion
>>of softward packages. ( Which is one of the reasons why I'm thinking
>about alternatives.) Is there any reason for this? To me it has
>>much to commend it - not least it user-friendliness!
>>
>>As you can see I am in a quandry. I would greatly appreciate any
>advice.
>>
>>
>>Davina Allen
>>Nursing Research Centre
>>School of Nursing Studies
>>UWCM
>>Heath Park
>>Cardiff
>>CF4 4XN
>>
>>Email:[log in to unmask]
>>
>>tel: 0122-743837
>>
>
>Davina Allen
>Research Unit
>School of Nursing Studies
>UWCM
>Heath Park
>Cardiff
>CF4 4XN
>
>Email:[log in to unmask]
>
>tel: 0122-743837
>
*******************************************************************
Dr. Joerg Struebing, Visiting Scholar at the
Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences
University of Illinios at Urbana-Champaign
501 East Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820, U. S. A.
Phone: ++1 217 244-1403 (home: ++1 217 344 0831)/ Fax: ++1 217 244-3302
Email: [log in to unmask]
After 3rd of Ausgust 1998:
Free University of Berlin, Institute for Sociology,
Babelsberger Str. 14-16, D-10715 Berlin, Phone ++49-30-85002-140/Fax-138
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
www: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~ifs/struebin/welcome.html
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