Access Grid and Access Grid Support Centre 
The Access Grid (AG) is an advanced, highly-scalable, video conference system. AG nodes feature very large displays and a number of video feeds per site in order to support group-to-group collaborations across the grid, in pre-arranged 'virtual venues'. The Access Grid is used for large-scale distributed meetings, collaborative work sessions, seminars, lectures, tutorials, and training.  The aim of the inventors of AG, at the Futures Lab, Argonne National Laboratory, was to implement a technology that could support productive meetings between remote participants that are as effective as face-to-face meetings — all using industry standard codecs and commodity hardware such as projectors, cameras, microphones, etc. This session will demonstrate the Access Grid environment alongside some AG shared tools for recording, bridging to standard video conferencing (h.323) or sharing presentations.

ATLAS.ti 
From its inception, ATLAS.ti has set standards in computer-aided qualitative data analysis and has quickly become the "knowledge workbench" of choice for a great many researchers worldwide in the past decade.

We were the first to introduce concepts such as interactive coding, semantic networks, "paper and pencil" look & feel (fully interactive margin area), fine-grained multimedia coding, XML-based data interchange, and team work options to qualitative data research.

ATLAS.ti has played a key role in opening doors for computer-aided qualitative data research in a variety of sectors, and has helped to convince tens of thousands of users of the benefits of applying technology to "soft" data. Among our loyal users are governmental agencies, a vast number of academic institutions, and many leading Fortune 500 corporations across the globe.

At this year’s CAQDAS conference, we will demonstrate some key features that have contributed to ATLAS.ti’s continuing success and popularity.

We are also proud to present a preview of some of the exciting new features which will appear in our next major release, ATLAS.ti 6. They include the integration of Google Earth locative data and our new support capability for the Adobe PDF format, enabling direct coding and analysis of PDF documents.

Still, technical innovation constitutes only one aspect of the usefulness of a software product in real life. We consider reliable support, regular availability of updates, and flexible licensing conditions to be just as important. In addition to setting technical standards, ATLAS.ti continues to define and expand on the standards in these areas as well.

f4 transcription software : quick and easy transcription
At the preconference we will show you how f4 helps you transcribe audio data such as interviews or dictation.The main functions include the variable playback speed, the rewind interval and operation via the f4 key or a footswitch from any computer programme (e.g. Word). New functions are the sync-mode and time-marks. The sync-mode is used when proofreading or analysing a transcription. Through the use of (automatically or manually placed) time-markers which you add to the text, it allows the text to automatically scroll along with the part of the recording it belongs to. Time-markers are an important aid to orientation around a transcript, allowing you to quickly consult the original source. If you click on a time-marker in your text, the audio data will be played at that particular point. This function works in f4 and almost all other programmes (such as Word, MAXQDA2007, ATLAS.ti etc.). Furthermore we will discuss questions towards digital recording of single- or groupinterviews.

Framework
Framework is a matrix based tool for qualitative data analysis (QDA) developed by the Qualitative Research Unit (QRU) at the National Centre for Social Research in the UK . Key to the approach is that it organises data into a series of matrices from which it is possible to conduct case based and thematic analysis. It facilitates the systematic analysis of all qualitative data sets from the straightforward through to the more complex.

Our pre-conference walk through of the software will demonstrate core functions of the package including:

•  The development of thematic matrices with ‘drag and drop' flexibility

•  Data indexing

•  The creation of summaries of verbatim data

•  The display of summaries in a matrix structured by theme and case

The team will also discuss the note function, thematic pattern searching, the software's audit trail capability and how the software can be used by teams of researchers.

MAXqda
Being one of the pioneer packages for Qualitative Data Analysis, MAXQDA has been around since 1988 and has ever since been the first choice for several thousand individual researchers, universities and research institutions all over the world. MAXQDA stands for an excellent, stable, reliable, and constantly developing QDA software.

Our software demonstration will provide a close look at the basic functions and the architecture of MAXQDA 2007, the newly released new version. We would like to make you understand why MAXQDA is especially renowned for providing the rare combination of extraordinary user friendliness and being a state-of-the-art tool for professional scientific text analysis.

In detail we will demonstrate how MAXQDA supports your analysis by

HyperRESEARCH and HyperTRANSCRIBE

HyperRESEARCH and HyperTRANSCRIBE Demonstration

We provide specific examples on how to integrate software into your analysis of qualitative data ( text, audio, video and graphics) from the data gathering stage to the data analysis and interpretative stage. Using HypeTranscribe, we will show you how you can easily transcribe your audio and video data just using your computer and using the computer software program without needing a transcription machine. HyperRESEARCH will demonstrate the coding process, memoing , and other strategies  to make sense of your data. 

We will demonstrate how to use software to perform analytical induction ( grounded theory) as well as how to analyse mixed methods studies.

This is NOT a hands on session, but you will be given a  range of workshop materials to take home with you to apply to your own analysis and specific research projects. 

Smaller Demo I

Analysing Multi-media Data Using HyperRESEACH

You will learn how to code a range of multi-media data-- audio, video and graphics. We will explore some aspects of multi-media analysis as well. 

How do you analyse moving images? What to capture and what to analyse?

How do you analyse the content of still images? 

Smaller Demo II .

Grounded Theory Analysis and HyperRESEARCH

Learn how to do grounded theory with HyperRESEARCH

Learn how to test out your ideas/theories with HR's hypothesis tester and theory generator

inSORS
The inSORS Grid software, based on the Access Grid technology, is a production level advanced collaboration software product.  The inSORS Grid scales from auditoriums and executive conference rooms to handheld computers and everything else in between.  Further, the IG software is designed to scale to large robust networks to DSL and Cable connections from home, all within the same meeting. The power of the inSORS Grid is realized in its easy to use interface and enhance toolsets, including h323 and phone call integration, file transfer, text chat, data sharing and recording.  The IG also has added features of h264 high quality video, presence management, and integrated scheduling. T his session will highlight these features and also tell some fascinating stories of how the inSORS Grid is being utilized in both industry and educational environments.

QDA Miner
Despite being a newcomer in computer-assisted qualitative data analysis, QDA Miner has quickly acquired a strong reputation for offering easy-to-use and robust tools for qualitative coding of textual data and for incorporating data analysis and visualization tools for mixed methods research.
Our demonstration will show some of those unique tools for performing comparisons, identifying coding sequences and co-occurrences, insuring coder reliability, and managing teamwork. This introduction will be followed by a presentation of several of the new features that will be introduced in the next major revision of QDA Miner (version 3.0) that is scheduled for release in summer 2007. We will demonstrate many innovative tools that further enhance the usability and efficiency of the software for coding and retrieval tasks, increase the rigour and transparency of the analysis process, provide new visualization methods to identify patterns and relationships in coded data, and offer advanced support for managing, reporting, and presenting qualitative results. We will also offer a glimpse of the new functionality for the coding and analysis of digital images.

QSR NVivo and XSight

NVivo 7
Our live demonstration will introduce you to NVivo 7's features and what they mean for the qualitative researcher. Released in February 2006, NVivo 7 is designed to handle rich information, where deep levels of analysis on both small and large volumes of data are required.

We'll use a real research project to illustrate NVivo's world first features; like multi-level undo; the flexible user interface based on Windows XP guidelines; and the ability to analyse data in virtually any language.

You'll never use highlighter pens again once you see NVivo's unique coding stripes and we'll also demonstrate state-of-the-art query and search functions and the ability to explore your data visually using models.

And in an exclusive for CAQDAS 2007, we'll reveal the innovations you can expect to see in the next release of NVivo.

XSight
For the first time at CAQDAS, QSR will be demonstrating our innovative qualitative research software, XSight. It's a sophisticated workspace with tools to help you structure your information, organise your thoughts and build on your theories.

Released in October 2006, XSight is helping organisations like the University of Southampton and market research firms like Ipsos-MORI and GfK NOP to get from information to insight faster.

We'll use real project data to show you how XSight can add value at every stage of your research: See how to organise your thoughts using maps (it's just like a flip chart or whiteboard), and “tag” and track important information. We'll demonstrate how the software's browse and query functions can help you to develop and refine your ideas and then we'll show you how to share your findings by building presentations and reports.

Sequence Viewer
In the demonstration we will give an overview of the wide variety of possibilities of the Sequence viewer p rogram. First, we will give an overview of how the data in the program are organized. Such data (which can originate from video, audio and/or text) can be behavioural data (e.g., verbal behaviour in interviews or other conversations, animal behaviour, etc.), but also other types of data (e.g., newspaper articles, job histories). Next, we will give an overview of the possibilities of the program with respect to data-manipulation (i.e., coding and auto-coding, labelling, fuzzy text search, editing text, and linking audio and video), and analysis. We will show the graphical options that are useful to interpret data qualitatively as well as quantitatively, and how this can be used to convert qualitative data into quantitative data. We will end with one of the key features of the program: sequential analysis. This analysis is based on the essential idea that a particular event (an utterance by the interviewee, a paragraph in a newspaper article) partly depends on preceding events. In this way, Sequence viewer enables researchers to study relations between events at different time points and between events of different types.

Tinderbox
Tinderbox (http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/) is a personal content management assistant, a tool for organizing, analyzing, and sharing notes.  Tinderbox combines key insights from the hypertext research community, from agile programming practice, and from contemporary critical theory to make new tools available for reflective, qualitative analysis.

The central problem Tinderbox addresses is premature commitment and the elucidation of incremental structure.  How can we design an outline for conclusions we have not yet begun to reach?  How can we encode and organize data when our preliminary vision may be incomplete and incorrect?

Tinderbox explores a range of promising new technologies to facilitate discovery and incremental formalization, including:

- spatial hypertext tools that help express tentative and contingent relationships
- facile linking through direct manipulation
- prototype inheritance that supports _ad hoc_ typing and dynamic reinterpretation of types
- active agents and adornments help propose codes or enforce coding constraints
- tags (set attributes) as well as numeric, string, and date attributes
- flexible data sharing through XML and HTML

Transana
By combining transcription, coding, and analysis functions, Transana provides unique tools for the qualitative analysis of video and audio.  Nicolas Sheon will demonstrate three key features that differentiate Transana from other CAQDAS packages.  

Synchronization: Transcripts can be synchronized with the media file so that you can constantly compare and edit the transcript to match source video or audio files.  More than one transcript can be associated with each media file, thereby allowing for different styles of transcription and analysis by members of an interdisciplinary team.  Synchronization of transcripts and media files keeps the analysis close to the source data and keeps analytic data segments situated in their original context.  

Coding Charts: Transana 2.20 can generate charts that display coded segments as colored bars along the entire timeline of the source data. The colored bars allow users to visualize patterns in the sequence and distribution of selected codes within a single case or to compare patterns across multiple cases. The charts provide a bird's eye view of the entire dataset and are interactive.  Clicking on a colored bar plays that video or audio segment and displays the associated transcript or notes.  The colored charts provide an intuitive way to visually assess inter-coder reliability, coding density, and the co-occurrence and distribution of selected codes. 

Team Analysis: Transana's multi-user version facilitates collaborative analysis between colleagues.  It allows any number of users to work from the same centralized database simultaneously, even from distant locations via the Internet.  All researchers see the changes others are making automatically, in real time.  This facilitates the training of coders and eliminates the need to manually merge and redistribute updated project files to team members.