I have been offline and on leave and was surprised to come back to the
debate started by my Sociological Research Online article comparing
Atlas/ti and Nudist.
I am glad that some of you have found the paper and the debate sparked off
by it useful. I am sorry if others of you feel I have mis-represented
Atlas/ti.
My own problem in getting others to give me opinions on qualitative
software has been that most people are only qualified to speak about the
one package they themselves know as users. Or they are developers with a
particular view of their own products advantages over others.
Whilst I came clean in the paper about having more actual use of Nudist as
a user of several years, I felt that I knew more about two of the key
packages than many other researchers. This enabled me to get a feel for the
different personalities of the two packages and I gather from the comments
of users that I have not been wrong in this overall categorisation. Also
because I have trained others in how to use Nudist I have had to learn its
functions more thoroughly than if I had been the average user, so at least
I can offer a thorough view of that package. If I didn't give the
impression in the paper that my knowledge of Nudist was greater than that
of Atlas/ti then this was an error of communication.
If I have been innacurate on some of the features of Atlas/ti I apologise,
but I know Thomas Muhr is in the best position to put you right. That there
has been no flak coming from the Nudist camp suggests that I have done a
better job of presenting their package - not surprising as this is the
package I am most familiar with. It would have been lovely to spare the
time to have become equally familiar with Atlas/ti as it looks like a very
seductive piece of software and I hope to have the opportunity to do so
over the next few years, but the hectic life of a contract researcher with
heavy research commitments, working part time, does not allow this.
Yes I could have sent the paper to the developers of Nudist and Atlas/ti in
advance but I did not as I wanted to remain independent from the developers
and represent the standpoint of the research community. The reality is that
few of us have accurate representations of any software as we rarely come
to be expert users aware of every function, but I hope by providing some of
my own views this might be an impetus to others to find out more and decide
whether or not they agree with me.
It would be good to hear the views of an expert user of Atlas/ti speak up
about their view of the package and of my depiction of it. Also it would be
good to hear more about Winmax and the new version of The Ethnograph and
how their personalities differ.
Christine Barry
Research Fellow
Department of General Practice and Primary Care
Guy's, King's College and St Thomas's School of Medicine
5 Lambeth Walk
London
SE11 6SP
Tel: 0171 735 8881 x236
Fax: 0171 793 7232
Email: [log in to unmask]
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