NVivo 10 launched
Started by Dr Andus
on 6/27/2012
Dr Andus
6/27/2012 12:14 am
NVivo is a qualitative data analysis software geared towards the academic (and other) social science research markets. It's mainly for "coding," which in qualitative analysis lingo means "categorising data." It is a supercharged categoriser of disparate data in a variety of formats. Its strength however was its main weakness for me. I found that I ended up with so many categories that I started going off-track and losing the big picture.
I used NVivo 8 for a while and then abandoned it for ConnectedText, as I found that CT could replicate most of its basic functions and that the wiki environment brought some additional benefits. CT offered more freedom to design my own work flow and maintain focus on the central developing themes.
NVivo 9 didn't offer enough new features for me to be tempted back. However, NVivo 10 seems to have a lot of interesting new features, including website capture and Evernote import. I recommend watching the video, as it shows a lot of features that have been discussed in relation to various PIMs on this forum. I think PIM and outliner developers can learn a few tricks from NVivo 10:
http://youtu.be/D8YT6150fLA
The downside is that NVivo single licence is very expensive ($670). The student licence is cheaper ($215) but it expires after 1 year. If you're lucky, your university or organisation may have a site licence.
I don't think I'll be rushing to get NVivo 10 because of my NVivo 8 experience. It's such a resource-sucking software that I had to buy a brand new top-of-the-range PC to be able to run it. Plus they haven't resolved the main issue for me. NVivo basically operates on the principle of a wiki, in the sense that the various features are all based on the creation of links between different entities. However, they managed to force this wiki functionality into a hierarchical straight-jacket, so it only works in the background and can't be used to visualise things or combine them as CT lets you do.
Nevertheless, I have to admit NVivo 10 does look very good in the video at least. I'll have to send this link to Eduardo, perhaps he will get some ideas from this... :)
I used NVivo 8 for a while and then abandoned it for ConnectedText, as I found that CT could replicate most of its basic functions and that the wiki environment brought some additional benefits. CT offered more freedom to design my own work flow and maintain focus on the central developing themes.
NVivo 9 didn't offer enough new features for me to be tempted back. However, NVivo 10 seems to have a lot of interesting new features, including website capture and Evernote import. I recommend watching the video, as it shows a lot of features that have been discussed in relation to various PIMs on this forum. I think PIM and outliner developers can learn a few tricks from NVivo 10:
http://youtu.be/D8YT6150fLA
The downside is that NVivo single licence is very expensive ($670). The student licence is cheaper ($215) but it expires after 1 year. If you're lucky, your university or organisation may have a site licence.
I don't think I'll be rushing to get NVivo 10 because of my NVivo 8 experience. It's such a resource-sucking software that I had to buy a brand new top-of-the-range PC to be able to run it. Plus they haven't resolved the main issue for me. NVivo basically operates on the principle of a wiki, in the sense that the various features are all based on the creation of links between different entities. However, they managed to force this wiki functionality into a hierarchical straight-jacket, so it only works in the background and can't be used to visualise things or combine them as CT lets you do.
Nevertheless, I have to admit NVivo 10 does look very good in the video at least. I'll have to send this link to Eduardo, perhaps he will get some ideas from this... :)
Dominik Holenstein
6/27/2012 7:33 am
Dr Andus
Many thank for the hint to NVivo, a very interesting tool.
The price for a commercial licence of v10 is $2,345.- , quite hefty.
Many thank for the hint to NVivo, a very interesting tool.
The price for a commercial licence of v10 is $2,345.- , quite hefty.
critStock
6/27/2012 7:33 pm
Incidentally, since this genre of software has come up, I note that the newest version of the one I use, Atlas.ti 7, has just come out, also: www.atlasti.com
Cassius
6/27/2012 9:29 pm
Well, it looks like there are some statistically oriented people in our group. Not having done work in the area of categorizing data, I can only guess that the software discussed uses cluster analysis.
Those interested is such topics might wish to look at the free "R" statistical system
( www.r-project.org ). R began as an open source version of S+ and has grown remarkably.
-cassius
Those interested is such topics might wish to look at the free "R" statistical system
( www.r-project.org ). R began as an open source version of S+ and has grown remarkably.
-cassius
Dr Andus
6/27/2012 9:41 pm
Cassius wrote:
Actually both NVivo and Atlas.ti are primarily qualitative research tools, so categorising is mostly done on a textual basis (the user coming up with categories based on the meaning of textual segments). Although there are some features in NVivo that try to quantify some qualitative information, such as the frequency of words or summarising qualitative questionnaire results.
Well, it looks like there are some statistically oriented people in our group. Not
having done work in the area of categorizing data, I can only guess that the software
discussed uses cluster analysis.
Actually both NVivo and Atlas.ti are primarily qualitative research tools, so categorising is mostly done on a textual basis (the user coming up with categories based on the meaning of textual segments). Although there are some features in NVivo that try to quantify some qualitative information, such as the frequency of words or summarising qualitative questionnaire results.
Dr Andus
6/28/2012 1:39 am
critStock wrote:
Just saw this blog post that compares NVivo and Atlas.ti, albeit the previous versions:
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/ahariri/entry/atlasti_6_vs/
Incidentally, since this genre of software has come up, I note that the newest version
of the one I use, Atlas.ti 7, has just come out, also: www.atlasti.com
Just saw this blog post that compares NVivo and Atlas.ti, albeit the previous versions:
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/ahariri/entry/atlasti_6_vs/
Cassius
6/28/2012 5:02 am
Dr Andus wrote:
Interesting. Do these applications try to do it all automatically, or is the user deeply involved in determining the categories and judging what belongs in a category and what does not? I expect that a fair amount of judgment and intuition would be involved because much of the analysis often would include a fair amount of subjectivity.
Actually both NVivo and
Atlas.ti are primarily qualitative research tools, so categorising is mostly done
on a textual basis (the user coming up with categories based on the meaning of textual
segments). Although there are some features in NVivo that try to quantify some
qualitative information, such as the frequency of words or summarising qualitative
questionnaire results.
Interesting. Do these applications try to do it all automatically, or is the user deeply involved in determining the categories and judging what belongs in a category and what does not? I expect that a fair amount of judgment and intuition would be involved because much of the analysis often would include a fair amount of subjectivity.
Dr Andus
6/28/2012 11:24 am
Cassius wrote:
Primarily it is the subjective judgement of the user, although usually the user is guided by a theory he or she had chosen that guides the attention and recognition of categories. These software work like this:
1. I'm reading a long document (e.g. a transcript of a 2-hr interview).
2. As I read, I highlight sections of text that contain interesting information or answers to my research question and mark them by giving them a "code" (a category that describes them).
3. The software aggregates all the quotes with the same "code" into their own separate documents, which can be further analysed.
So these software are in a way for aggregating and organising quotes. The purpose is to discover new patterns in the material, the existence of new entities (categories) or new relationships between entities.
Interesting. Do these applications try to do it all automatically, or is the user
deeply involved in determining the categories and judging what belongs in a category
and what does not? I expect that a fair amount of judgment and intuition would be
involved because much of the analysis often would include a fair amount of
subjectivity.
Primarily it is the subjective judgement of the user, although usually the user is guided by a theory he or she had chosen that guides the attention and recognition of categories. These software work like this:
1. I'm reading a long document (e.g. a transcript of a 2-hr interview).
2. As I read, I highlight sections of text that contain interesting information or answers to my research question and mark them by giving them a "code" (a category that describes them).
3. The software aggregates all the quotes with the same "code" into their own separate documents, which can be further analysed.
So these software are in a way for aggregating and organising quotes. The purpose is to discover new patterns in the material, the existence of new entities (categories) or new relationships between entities.
Cassius
6/28/2012 12:11 pm
Dr Andus wrote:
Thank you for the explanation. Considering the price of the software, isn't there more to it?
-cassius
Cassius wrote:
>Interesting. Do these applications try to do it all automatically,
or is the user
>deeply involved in determining the categories and judging what
belongs in a category
>and what does not? I expect that a fair amount of judgment and
intuition would be
>involved because much of the analysis often would include a fair
amount of
>subjectivity.
Primarily it is the subjective judgement of the user,
although usually the user is guided by a theory he or she had chosen that guides the
attention and recognition of categories. These software work like this:
1. I'm
reading a long document (e.g. a transcript of a 2-hr interview).
2. As I read, I
highlight sections of text that contain interesting information or answers to my
research question and mark them by giving them a "code" (a category that describes
them).
3. The software aggregates all the quotes with the same "code" into their own
separate documents, which can be further analysed.
So these software are in a way
for aggregating and organising quotes. The purpose is to discover new patterns in the
material, the existence of new entities (categories) or new relationships between
entities.
Thank you for the explanation. Considering the price of the software, isn't there more to it?
-cassius
Dr Andus
6/28/2012 12:49 pm
Cassius wrote:
Well, yes, of course, there are other features (such as the automating of analysis of survey results) and various other ways of linking and organising documents (video, sound, image etc.) and snippets. But the aggregation of quotes is the heart of it.
The price I think is indicative of the fact that the educational market (universities, post-graduate students) is a bit of a captive market. The software is mostly bought by institutions. There is a great deal of inertia there. If all the other PhD students around you are using NVivo or Atlas.ti, there are workshops on a monthly basis telling you how to use them, your supervisor tells you to use one or the other, then you are generally not going to be exploring other options because using one or the other becomes a sort of a seal of quality. It makes your research sound more serious.
In fact in the past this process of coding used to be done manually, mostly by using index cards - which is why ConnectedText is well placed to substitute these expensive software because (as Manfred has often argued, http://www.connectedtext.com/manfred.php CT is an electronic form of an index card system).
Thank you for the explanation. Considering the price of the software, isn't there
more to it?
Well, yes, of course, there are other features (such as the automating of analysis of survey results) and various other ways of linking and organising documents (video, sound, image etc.) and snippets. But the aggregation of quotes is the heart of it.
The price I think is indicative of the fact that the educational market (universities, post-graduate students) is a bit of a captive market. The software is mostly bought by institutions. There is a great deal of inertia there. If all the other PhD students around you are using NVivo or Atlas.ti, there are workshops on a monthly basis telling you how to use them, your supervisor tells you to use one or the other, then you are generally not going to be exploring other options because using one or the other becomes a sort of a seal of quality. It makes your research sound more serious.
In fact in the past this process of coding used to be done manually, mostly by using index cards - which is why ConnectedText is well placed to substitute these expensive software because (as Manfred has often argued, http://www.connectedtext.com/manfred.php CT is an electronic form of an index card system).