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Haitham, Look to your methodology to guide your choice of software and (more importantly) your use of the software tools. I think that Nudist and Decision Explorer have two very different underlying methodologies. Very broadly (and thus on a somewhat simplistic level), Nudist is one of a group of qualitative data analysis programs that basically follow a code-and retrieve metaphor. You apply indexing terms to your document text, according to your research need. Then, you can retrieve all text coded to those terms for additional reflection and analysis. Nudist's strength is its search tools, which allow you to look for various index combinations, as well as searching document text. (Its newer sister-product, NVivo, provides other ways of linking related data, and there are other qualitative data analysis programs that offer similar features.) For more information, the CAQDAS networking site provides a bibliography of reviews and articles, plus links to developers' web sites. (http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/caqdas/) Decision Explorer is a concept-mapping program, commonly used in management and business. From what little I've seen of it, there seems to be a causal assumption underlying the methodology -- looks like its intended to model systems. Web site is http://www.banxia.com/ Note that Nudist can export/import coding to Decision Explorer for modelling. Clare Tagg has posted a very nice article on how to combine the two at http://www.taggoram.co.uk/nudist/nudinsde.html. This might be a good place to start getting a sense of how the two differ. I am not at all familiar with Enquire Within, and would be interested in any references you can supply. Last advice: Whatever program you use, attend a training program on it. Even if you are a highly competent computer user and researcher, a class will help you understand how to integrate the software with your methods. Good luck with your project! Linda Gilbert University of Georgia [log in to unmask] > Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 03:51:48 PST > From: "Haitham Ajeenah" <[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: I need some help please > Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> > > > Hi... > > I am a Ph.D. student in Bournemouth University. My study is concerned with > investigating about strategy deployment in large companies. I am required to > interview managers at different levels of management. In particularly, I > need to use one of the most efficient software programs in order to gain > managers' insights. I have been looking at three different qualitative > software, Enquire Within, NUDIST, and Decision Explorer. The problem is that > I really need to fined out what is the different between these three > programs in order to decide which one is the most appropriate for my study. > I am interested in Enquire within software because it is a new program, but > in fact I need to say why I have selected this software in particular. > Please if any one has experienced or even know about these software, do not > hesitate to help me with some information because I really need them to > complete my investigation. > > With many thanks, > Haitham M. Ajeenah. > > 169 Cpstone Road > Charminister > Bournemouth > BH8 8RZ > Tel: (01202) 529155 > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%