This picture is one of my 'ex' bikes - i accumulated (built) several in a short period of time and had to finally get rid of some (still 2-3 more need to leave the household). This is a 2008-09 Pro Lite aluminum TT frame, built up with Ultegra gruppo, Oval Concepts bars, and Fast Forward wheels. I was riding a road frame built up as a TT bike (full aero) but started to feel somehow bad, that I did not have a 'proper' TT frame because "everyone else" seemed to have one. I rode this moderately uncomfortable bike for just over a season and replaced it with a new build, again using a road frame and stopped worrying (mostly) about what everyone else was riding. This may be a stretch but leads me to something I thought about the other day. Most of the various CAQDAS do not actually 'play' well together and I think only NVivo has server capability to easily allow for group projects (can't see how Atlas.ti could given how it handles data). So to work with others, or on other equipment, you need to have the software and pass around the 'right' copy of a file (or own the fairly expensive NVivo server). And of course there is no way to open an NVivo file in Hyperresearch or vice versa. This made me think of the increasingly proprietary nature of bicycle parts. Bicycle gruppos have come in different flavors for some time; when I started to ride in the early '00s, most people had either Shimano or Campy until Sram branched out into full groupsets. I had used Sram cassettes and chains with Shimano parts for a long time because I like the chains (special break away link) and the cassettes were cheaper than Shimano upper end and seemed to work just fine. I know that people have made "Shimagnolo" or "Campano" bikes with creative fixes. But I guess that the parts thing never really bothered me, other than the pain of having multiple tools if you have different gruppos on different bikes.I could go on along these lines for several more paragraphs but I do want to get to the point.
It is the proprietary frames and frame parts that drive me crazy, such as tapered steer tubes, BB shells that only accept one type of BB, even the early integrated headsets were sort of a shock, because you no longer could swap things between bikes (not to mention tube size differences). I used to have 4 different frames that took about 4 different seat post sizes. Now one of my frames (Giant) will take only a specially shaped Giant seatpost, and replacements are not cheap. This is how I view most of the CAQDAS. I realize that it is sort of 'forced' brand loyalty but why shouldn't a consumer be able to ride a Trek bike and use a 3T fork? Or a Giant seatpost, for that matter. I know that cars are the same way as are computers. But, just consider, an open source, open access CAQDAS that worked on any platform and was freely open to add ons created by users and shared all over (yes, that describes "R" which I am just completely infatuated with these days). Even the Dedoose model - web-based software you buy a limited subscription to when you need it- makes a lot more sense than owning a product that is on its way to obsolescence as soon as you buy it. In addition, when new versions arrive, they sometimes have been rushed to market, require multiple updates right away and last about 1-2 years before you are forced to pay an upgrade fee for a newer version because your projects eventually will not be usable and support will be cut off one of these days for the 'old' versions. I don't mean to pick on CAQDAS because everything, including operating systems, seems to work this way. I have an older iMac and, more and more often, I am encountering things built for Mountain Lion that I can't use on it. Back in the 'old' days, electronic musical instruments manufacturers came up with and agreed to use a standard (MIDI) so that things from different places could work together. Wouldn't it be great if some of the software products could do the same?
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AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
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