Have you backed up recently? Time Machine and MobileMe

Computer crashes, hardware failures, outages, obsolescence, theft, breakages — we don’t plan for any of these unfortunate situations to throw a wrench into our research and writing, but they do happen.  Perish the thought that the work that we’ve sweated blood into disappears without a trace.

So have you backed up recently?

I have two backup systems in place for use on my Macbook, both of which work very well and neither of which requires much attention at all.

1. At home I have an external hard drive assigned to Time Machine.  Time Machine is a beautiful piece of work.  Once you set it up it will automatically back up your files at regular intervals. Even better, it preserves this information hour by hour, day by day, archiving rather than overwriting each subsequent back up.  Let’s say I want to see my system as it was saved on March 29, 2011.  It’s simply a matter of entering Time Machine, scrolling through the archived dates, and clicking on the one I want.  Maybe I want the 12:01 PM save or the 8:55 PM save? Not a problem.  (Hence the name “Time Machine”.)  When I’m at home working I back up every 15 minutes or so.  When I come home from a day of working away, I simply connect my laptop to the external hard drive and do one back up for the entire day.  Of course, if something happened to this external drive (if it was stolen, say, or violently shoved off the desk by my cat) I’d be in trouble so…
2. I also use MobileMe in combination with MobileMe BackUp to store data in the cloud.  The particular MobileMe account that I have gives me a limited amount of space, so I’ve only earmarked a few important files (my dissertation, for one) to be stored.  Every day at the appointed time, my laptop connects to MobileMe and pushes my files out to the cloud, where these files overwrite the ones from the previous back up. For this to be accomplished my laptop needs to be switched on at the appointed time, and it needs to be connected to the Internet.  This solution is much more limited than Time Machine, of course, but it provides me with a back up to my back up, if you see what I mean.

I recommend both Time Machine and MobileMe, just as I strongly recommend having multiple back up solutions.  Multiple solutions are especially important if you work in the field.  In my case I never travel with my external hard drive, so having a cloud-based back up for those periods when I’m collecting data is especially useful.

What back up tools do you use?

File conversion tool: Zamzar

My friend Peg recently introduced me to Zamzar, a free web-based tool for converting files.

Has anyone out there tried it?

I’ll post a review after I’ve tried it out.

Should you use TAMS?

Recently I’ve had a spate of emails from researchers interested in using TAMS Analyzer.  As with the adoption of any new tool, people wonder if they should take the leap and invest their time and energy into learning how to use it.

I’ve been using TAMS for nearly a year now, and am happy with it.  I have used it to analyze a large data set comprised of interview transcripts, lesson transcripts, forum posts, text-based chats, and articles.  Using TAMS I have coded more than 4,000 segments of text.  I find TAMS an excellent tool for organizing and coding (first level, second level, etc.) my data.

Here are my reasons for using TAMS:

1. I found it awkward to switch back and forth between a Windows-based application and my native Mac apps and desktop.  When first shopping around for qualitative data analysis software, I really wanted to use AtlasTi.  AtlasTi is the tool of choice in my department and across my institution at large.  I bought a copy of it and ran it on my Mac using VMWare Fusion.  VMWare Fusion is one of a number of handy programs that allows you to run Windows-only applications on a Mac.  This setup worked just fine, but it hogged my laptop’s memory and thus slowed the application’s performance.  Also, I frequently needed to access information from my native Mac applications and desktop, and it was klunky switching back and forth between those and my virtual machine.
2. TAMS is written specifically for Mac OSX.  After the experience above, I decided that I only wanted to work with a tool that would run directly on my Mac.  There’s not a lot of choice out there, and…
3. TAMS is free.  It doesn’t get much better than that.
4. I’m doing this project on my own, so I don’t need a tool that facilitates collaboration.  As a Mac user, if I did ever want a tool that would ease the tasks of sharing, discussing, and analyzing data, I might opt for a web-based tool like Dedoose.  Note that TAMS does support collaborative projects — I just haven’t tried out those features myself.
5. I’m happiest working on my own machine, which I can easily carry around with me.  If I didn’t have a portable machine, or if was working on a number of machines at different locations, I’d probably use a web-based tool like Dedoose.

I’m not saying that TAMS is perfect.  Choosing a qualitative data analysis tool, however, is not about finding perfection.  Rather, it’s about selecting a tool that is well-suited to your circumstances and your needs.  You take into account your data set, your analytic approach, the equipment you’re working with, the people on your team, etc.  For my particular needs, TAMS has been a good match.

Platforms for online focus groups & meetings

What platforms do you like for conducting online focus groups and/or meetings?  I have been looking into GoToMeeting and Mikogo, as well as Skype’s conference functionalities.

The GoToMeeting website states that it can be used for up to 15 people, and that it works on Mac or PC.  Participants can call in via phone or a computer enabled with speakers and a microphone.  The meeting leader/organizer can show visual materials by opening them up on her desktop and clicking through them (it’s essentially a screen share function).  GoToMeeting does have a free 30-day trial, but after that you need to buy a monthly or annual subscription.  (USD $49 and $468, respectively.)

Like GoToMeeting, Mikogo is a platform for real-time voice-to-voice meetings.  It offers desktop sharing and the presenter role can be easily switched.  The free (yes, free!) version of Mikogo supports meetings of up to 10 people.  If you want to use it for larger meetings, then you’ll need to buy the company’s BeamYourScreen tool, which has additional features, like live customer support.

I like Skype and have blogged about using it for one-to-one interviews.  Some advantages of Skype are that Skype-to-Skype calls are free and the program is easy to use.  However, I do see a couple of potential drawbacks to Skype’s conference call functionality.  First, each person has to have Skype loaded on their machine, and it could be a hassle to get members of large groups to download and operate it.  Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it doesn’t seem to support the real-time use of visual aids, such as PowerPoint.

If you have used any of these please feel free to share your thoughts on their usefulness, strengths and weaknesses, etc.

Capturing activity on a Mac screen: iShowYou

I’ve just discovered iShowYou, a satisfyingly easy-to-use tool for capturing activity (including sound) on a Mac screen.  Captures are generated in movie (QuickTime) format.  I can see this tool being extremely useful for projects in which you need to record chat or user activity.

iShowYou would also be valuable for recording visual instructions for colleagues.  Imagine, for example, you wanted to train someone in how to use an online research tool, but couldn’t meet face-to-face.  You could record your own use of the tool, complete with verbal instructions, and send the recording to them.

iShowYou is very inexpensive – only USD $20 for the basic version, and is very user friendly.  I haven’t used it very much yet but so far I like it very much.

Other tools for capturing on-screen activity are FRAPS and Camtasia.  I haven’t used either of these.  If you have, please feel free to share your opinion on them.

DiscoverText for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

DiscoverText is a relatively new tool used for scraping and analyzing textual data from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, RSS feeds, etc.  It was created by Dr. Stuart Shulman, the same person behind Coding Analysis Toolkit (CAT).  (See my previous post on CAT here.)

Like many web-based analytical tools, DiscoverText works on a subscription model.  The Professional edition of DiscoverText runs at USD$25/month, but you can sign up for a free trial version of it for one month.  There is also a free Community edition with limited features.  Some organizations have an Enterprise license allowing all of its members to use it.  (The University of Washington has an Enterprise license for about one year, so any of you researchers at UW should check it out ASAP.)  You can learn more about the pricing here.

I have not used DiscoverText yet but am attending a webinar about it this week, so I should have some first-hand information on it soon.

New documentation for TAMS Analyzer

I recently completed a short “how-to” guide for getting started with TAMS Analyzer.  This documentation will shortly be linked to the CSSCR Documentation and Handouts page here.  You can also email me directly for a copy.  Feel free to send me any feedback or suggestions on making the documentation easier to work with.

UPDATE 04/13/2011:  I’m currently working on a revision of this documentation that will reflect the most recent updates in TAMS. It should be ready within a few weeks.  In the meantime, if you want the old documentation (which will help you get started with TAMS) just let me know and I’ll send it to you right away.

Team Viewer for remote access & desktop sharing

My new favorite tool for remote access and desktop sharing is TeamViewer.  It’s free, it’s easy to use, the UI is nice, and it works like a charm.  There are versions for Mac, Windows, Linux, the iPhone, the iPad, and Android.  So far I’ve only used it on my MacBook, and I was very happy with it.

Why would you want such a tool?  I can think of several scenarios for researchers in which TeamViewer would come in handy.

• You are remote-teaching a colleague how to use a computer-based tool (like TAMS, for data analysis).  As you speak together (on the phone, via Skype, etc.) you can watch your colleague’s movements on their desktop, and thus better assist him/her in the learning process.  I did this with a colleague of mine recently, and being able to see her desktop while explaining the program made things much easier.
• You want to observe a research participant’s use of a computer-based tool, but you can’t be there in person.
• You want to engage in collaborative coding of data with a colleague in real time, but can’t be there in person.

Have you used Team Viewer?  If so, what did you use it for?

More tools for recording phone interviews

I stand by my earlier review of using a combination of Skype + AudioHijack Pro for recording phone interviews.  If, however, you’re looking for alternate solutions, here are a couple that have recently been discussed on listservs like medianthro and anthrodesign.  I have not used any of these solutions myself.  If anyone out there has comments and/or feedback on them, please share.

Hardware Solutions

These devices get plugged into phone jacks and/or telephones:

Mini Recorder Control

THAT-1 Telephone Handset Audio Tap

Software Plug-In Solutions

I’ve mentioned Call Graph previously when discussing transcription services.  Call Graph offers a free software plug-in that you can use to digitally record Skype conversations.   The free version has ads on it, but there’s also the option to pay for a premier version that has no ads.  I imagine that Call Graph’s main motivation in offering this tool is to entice you to send your transcription work to them. You can see a tutorial on their plug-in here.

My software of choice is still AudioHijack Pro.

Platforms

FreeConference.com is a subscription-based platform that supports conference calls.  As part of the service you can have the calls recorded and archived (for a limited time) through the platform.

Google Voice is a relatively new (and mostly free) service, and it seems that it supports recording at any point during a call.  The only limitation is that you may only record calls that you receive, not calls that you initiate.  More information here.

Web-based collaborative qualitative data analysis tool: Dedoose

I’ve just recently learned about Dedoose, a web-based tool designed for collaborative qualitative data analysis.

Through browsing their website I found that Dedoose supports both qualitative and quantitative analyses.  Because it’s web-based it has certain advantages: analyses are updated in real time, there is no need to download any software to your computer, and all of your material is stored (safely?) in the cloud.  Provided you have Internet access you and your team members can work anytime, anywhere.

I can’t speak of the user interface because I  haven’t tried it out yet, however Dedoose has received positive reviews on a few of the mailing lists that I subscribe to.  Like SurveyMonkey Dedoose operates on a subscription model — you pay a monthly fee to use it.  You can try before you buy, though:  according to their website anyone can try Dedoose out for free for one month.

I’ll get to that *after* this dissertation is done.  In the meantime, if you have reviews of Dedoose please share them.