[Air-l] Tool for analyzing chat logs

[Lois Ann Scheidt]

The best software to use really depends upon your research questions.  
If you are doing text only work on general questions then Atlas.ti, 
MAXqda or NVivo (and its descendants) will all work.  All are fairly 
pricey.

If you are looking at text, and any type of multimedia data (sound, 
film, graphics, pics, etc) then you really only have one 
choice...Atlas.ti.

If you are looking for concordance software there are a variety of 
tools available.  Because my work often has an emotional component to 
the question I use LIWC - Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 
(http://www.liwc.net/) which has a very good set of dictionarys and 
allows me to create my own as well.

I just got a new book, hot off the presses, that you and other list 
members might find helpful.

Lewins, Ann & Silver, Christina (2007). Using Software in Qualitative 
Research:  A Step-by-Step Guide. Los Angeles: Sage.

I learned about the book at qualitative software session at ICQI 
(http://www.qi2007.org/) and immediately ordered a copy.  So far I have 
been very pleased with the way the authors worked through helping a 
reader select which software is appropriate for their project.

Hope that helps.

Lois Ann Scheidt

Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana
University, Bloomington IN USA

Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and
IUPUC, Columbus IN USA

Webpage:  http://www.loisscheidt.com
Blog:  http://www.professional-lurker.com


Quoting Åsa Rosenberg <asa.rosenberg at sociology.gu.se>:

> Hello,
> I'm looking for software to use for qualitative analysis of chat logs.
> I have searched the lists but not come up with anything relevant
> (perhaps I'm not using the right words?).
> I'll keep searching but if anyone has suggestions that would be great.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Åsa Rosenberg
>
> Åsa Rosenberg
> Department of sociology
> P.O. Box 720
> SE 705 30 GÖTEBORG
> asa.rosenberg at sociology.gu.se
> SL-Name: Kid Kuhn
>
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