Re: [change] [TIER] Qualitative research tools
I've done a small amount of interview recording. Most recently the Android app Smart Voice Recorder did a really good job of picking up conversation at a table in a crowded and loud restaurant. That's on a Samsung Galaxy S running Android 4.2. I had abysmal results with the voice recorder app that came standard with the phone two years ago (probably Android 2.3 then?). To transcribe I just played the audio back in Windows Media player - after my first experience transcribing a few years ago (a huge pain) I decided just to keep the audio files and only transcribe the portions of an interview that I'll use as quotes. Of course I make notes that I can use to understand the gist of the conversation and avoid taking things out of context. Regards, Fritz On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 9:14 PM, Nicola Dell nixd...@cs.washington.edu wrote: Hi everyone, We are doing some work on qualitative research tools and would very much appreciate if you could take 1 min to answer the following questions: (1) Have you ever voice recorded interviews with participants? (2) If so, what tools did you use to do the recording? (3) What tools did you use to playback/decode the audio? Please include hardware (like phones, tape recorders) and any software packages. Thanks very much! Nicki ___ TIER mailing list Website: http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu t...@tier.cs.berkeley.edu https://www.millennium.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tier ___ change mailing list change@change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change
[change] $35 touchscreen tablet launched in India
from the roof. My belief is that: 1. TV's are dead simple to operate -- turn them on and they work. If you can't navigate your magical tablet's touchscreen, you have a magical paperweight. 2. There's decent infrastructure in place (in India) to get a direct-to-home subscription. I've been to some pretty remote places in India (places that are accessible only using off-road vehicles and are completely cut-off for three months during winter) and nearly all these houses had dish antennas. AFAIK, 3G-based data plans aren't that ubiquitous yet (you could only get them in certain cities in India last time I checked -- about 2 months ago). The battery question is an interesting one -- I read a review which stated that the battery life is two hours. I've observed in urban slums that (illegally) hooking up wires to overhead electricity supply cables (a dangerous practice, to be sure) is common. I'm not claiming that this is the norm everywhere, but financial pressure often eliminates batteries anyway :) I'm going to keep on harping on the poor but intelligent/talented student angle. These are the people who'll benefit the most from such a device. Imagine being able to read textbooks on this! Btw, I also discovered in the review that the App Store / Marketplace is disabled, which is *not cool*. Maybe they don't expect the target users to have connectivity, but this severely limits the platform. There are a ton of free apps out there which the users cannot get, and now custom delivery platforms will have to be built for every project (I'm thinking of textbooks, telemedicine, the fieldwork apps like the Verbal Autopsy stuff, etc) I've rambled enough here. My summary would be that this is a giant step forward, but the poorest of the poor (think indigent poverty) won't magically lift themselves out of poverty using this one device. However, it does generate lots of exciting possibilities for slightly-better-off segments and it can be an enabling device for several projects on a shoestring budget. -- Rahul On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Fritz Meissner fritz.meissner at gmail.com wrote: Just brainstorming a hypothetically compelling reason: consumption of locally-made movies, which I'm given to understand currently happens wholesale on cellphones in India. Would the move to tablet form, i.e. bigger screen and (one would hope) better sound, make for a massively improved experience? The Aakash could be a better investment than a TV / DVD player, given the greater capacity and reusability of USB or SD cards compared to DVDs. Of course, the TV has a bigger screen, but it doesn't run on batteries. How much would a TV cost? Fritz On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 3:15 PM, Jerome White jerome at cs.caltech.edu wrote: However, there is a rural/poor segment that could afford this: those making between 5 and 10 thousand Rupees a month. In fact it's what some spend on a mobile phone. However, with the mobile, there is very compelling reason to make such an investment. A similarly compelling reason, from their perspective, to own this device isn't clear to me. But, at least we've got another device to help us generate publications :) jerome On 06-Oct-2011, at 4:11 PM, Fritz Meissner wrote: How much is $35 to the poorest of the poor? I recall an economics study that paid Indian workers the equivalent of a monthly salary, I think that was 50USD... 35USD is beyond cheap in the West but perhaps still not affordable in that context. OTOH if the tablet is locally made, perhaps just the work that the manufacturer provides will be beneficial. Fritz On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 1:32 AM, Joyojeet Pal joyojeet at gmail.com wrote: I agree with Yaw on this -- sure, it is great that this technology is so cheap, and one can argue that similar such efforts have brought up new technology innovations (Netbook etc) and various other benefits, what is deeply problematic is the idea that this will solve the issues of development in India, and Indian minister Kapil Sibal's announcing the project as being some kind of a dig out of exclusion ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/india-announces-35-tablet-computer-to-help-lift-villagers-out-of-poverty/2011/10/05/gIQAPT8PNL_story.html ) If you look at UNDP's latest HDI report on India, you may find that someone should find this claim at least quixotic, given that the country ranks 119th in the world for what ranks are worth. India as a state spends among the lowest on education (3.6%) and healthcare (1.1%) and has an income inequality problem that is by all measure growing yearly, gender inequity is 0.748 (on a scale of the 'best' at 0.212 and 'worst' at 0.814). the average Indian spends 4.4 years in formal schooling.. the list goes on and on. i'm not saying this is not a significant achievement, my
[change] [SPAM] $35 touchscreen tablet launched in India
Just brainstorming a hypothetically compelling reason: consumption of locally-made movies, which I'm given to understand currently happens wholesale on cellphones in India. Would the move to tablet form, i.e. bigger screen and (one would hope) better sound, make for a massively improved experience? The Aakash could be a better investment than a TV / DVD player, given the greater capacity and reusability of USB or SD cards compared to DVDs. Of course, the TV has a bigger screen, but it doesn't run on batteries. How much would a TV cost? Fritz On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 3:15 PM, Jerome White jerome at cs.caltech.edu wrote: However, there is a rural/poor segment that could afford this: those making between 5 and 10 thousand Rupees a month. In fact it's what some spend on a mobile phone. However, with the mobile, there is very compelling reason to make such an investment. A similarly compelling reason, from their perspective, to own this device isn't clear to me. But, at least we've got another device to help us generate publications :) jerome On 06-Oct-2011, at 4:11 PM, Fritz Meissner wrote: How much is $35 to the poorest of the poor? I recall an economics study that paid Indian workers the equivalent of a monthly salary, I think that was 50USD... 35USD is beyond cheap in the West but perhaps still not affordable in that context. OTOH if the tablet is locally made, perhaps just the work that the manufacturer provides will be beneficial. Fritz On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 1:32 AM, Joyojeet Pal joyojeet at gmail.com wrote: I agree with Yaw on this -- sure, it is great that this technology is so cheap, and one can argue that similar such efforts have brought up new technology innovations (Netbook etc) and various other benefits, what is deeply problematic is the idea that this will solve the issues of development in India, and Indian minister Kapil Sibal's announcing the project as being some kind of a dig out of exclusion ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/india-announces-35-tablet-computer-to-help-lift-villagers-out-of-poverty/2011/10/05/gIQAPT8PNL_story.html ) If you look at UNDP's latest HDI report on India, you may find that someone should find this claim at least quixotic, given that the country ranks 119th in the world for what ranks are worth. India as a state spends among the lowest on education (3.6%) and healthcare (1.1%) and has an income inequality problem that is by all measure growing yearly, gender inequity is 0.748 (on a scale of the 'best' at 0.212 and 'worst' at 0.814). the average Indian spends 4.4 years in formal schooling.. the list goes on and on. i'm not saying this is not a significant achievement, my concern is tying this to development in such a way, in fact specifically in the perception that this could be the state's part in providing development in india. i think it hurts the cause of folks working in this space at the very least. On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 7:03 PM, Yaw Anokwa yanokwa at gmail.com wrote: the hype around this tablet is terrible. i think it's great to have cheaper technology, but android tablets, even cheap $35 android tablets, will not lift villagers out of poverty. i wish it were that easy... On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 15:49, Rahul Banerjee banerjee at cs.washington.edu wrote: Sorry for the spam, but I couldn't resist sharing such wonderful news: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/India-announces-35-tablet-computer-for-rural-poor-2203509.php (Actually, the government is subsidising its price (which would be closer to $50), but it's still pretty amazing that something like this exists at all) -- Rahul ___ change mailing list change at change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change ___ change mailing list change at change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change ___ change mailing list change at change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change ___ change mailing list change at change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change ___ change mailing list change at change.washington.edu http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/private/change/attachments/20111006/6c90c01f/attachment.html
