Topic view: Blog

We need to put coding in a different category

By Tim Macer on 22nd May 2013.

Speaking at Asribe’s user conference was a welcome soapbox for me, since I’ve long been critical of the dismissive approach market research takes to computer-based text processing, and its dogged attachment to manual coding the a ‘gold standard’ in finding meaning and truth in a pile of unstructured comments.

Has iTracks killed the online focus group?

By Tim Macer on 3rd Jul 2012.

So, iTracks has won its action against Artafacts over patent infringement, and Artafacts have paid over an undisclosed amount to borrow its ‘invention’ relating to online focus group messaging in real time. One the one hand, close examination of the patent shows that the US Patent Office, and now the recent upholding of the patent [...]

SODA adds a dash of mobile fizz to Confirmit platform

By Tim Macer on 12th Sep 2011.

The future for the SODA mobile interviewing package after Confirmit’s acquisition of Techneos.

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iPads and ZIP codes: a trap for the unwary traveller

By Tim Macer on 16th May 2011.

I took my iPad to the USA and tried to purchase a data plan there. You wouldn’t imagine you need to be USA citizen to indulge in a little cellular data communication from your iPad – but you would be wrong.

Industry taking a twin-track approach to social media research

By Tim Macer on 16th Mar 2011.

Social media research continues to be one of the hottest topics in research. I’ve just been reviewing the abstracts for this year’s CASRO Technology Conference in New York in June, which I will be co-chairing, and of all the topics, its the one with the longest string of submissions. Not only that, but there is [...]

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Research firms reveal nine month technology lag (and a secret affair with the Mac)

By Tim Macer on 14th Dec 2010.

It’s not the first time I’ve postulated that MR firms can be laggards with their technology. An interesting early finding to emerge from the 2010 Globalpark MR Software Survey, a survey among research agencies worldwide carried out annually by meaning, provides some supporting evidence for this by looking at the actual technology being used to [...]

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Online samples – where lighting a few fires might help

By Tim Macer on 31st Jul 2010.

Will a new and much-needed initiative to provide industry-wide tools to monitor online sample quality put fire into the hands of mortals?

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Her Majesty’s Cross-tabs

By Tim Macer on 12th Jul 2010.

I suspect market research is not often mentioned at Buckingham Palace. So it was pleasing to be summoned to the presence of the Queen’s representative in London, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, to a bit of modest pomp at a business part in North London, on the cleared carpet-tiled floor of  E-Tabs Ltd. We were here [...]

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How will iPad affect research?

By Tim Macer on 29th May 2010.

IPad has launched in the UK. Don’t believe the nay-Sayers, this is a gadget with a future and one that could have a positive impact on MR.

How to read software websites

By Sheila Wilson on 21st Feb 2010.

All MR software companies seem to have the most powerful, flexible, easy-to-use open software. So how to you tell them apart on the web?

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Bad data can mean more than bad research

By Tim Macer on 27th Jan 2010.

Are research companies being too naive in assuming their quality processes will detect errors in their data, or realising how serious the consequences of misleading research can be?

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Double standards, triple costs

By Tim Macer on 7th Jan 2010.

Avoid the temptation to develop systems from scratch, says Oracle, and they have a point.

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