Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ti
The Knowledge Workbench
Scientific Software Development - Copyright 2001 Thomas Muhr
ATLAS.ti®
graphics, audio & video materials
VISE: Visualization, Integration, Structures: Weaving semantic
Serendipity and Exploration
networks
Users: from Sigmund Freud to Hypertext: What codes can’t do for
Sherlock Holmes
you
The main concepts: of Hermeneutic Retrieval: Using Boolean, Semantic
Units, Families and other species
and Proximity operators
Strategies: Textual and Conceptual
Super Codes: Intensional codes or
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level
frozen hypotheses?
The user interface: Keep focused on Cooperation: Merging projects
the data
Back to the future: The Paper &
Interfaces: ASCII/ANSI, SPSS,
Pencil look & feel HTML, PROLOG, WMF, XML
Basic Procedures: Coding,
Miscellaneous: Data safety,
commenting, retrieving, printing, memo outsourcing, text
management, setup, capacities
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preparing,
4 Basic Principles: VISE
Visualization
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Use adequate tools for handling complexity and stay focused on the
data
Integration
Bundle all relevant data and interpretations into a unique project: the
“Hermeneutic Unit”
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Serendipity
Make relevant discoveries without searching...
Exploration
Traverse the “interpretative threads” between data, codes, and
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memos
Areas of Application
Marketing Research
ATLAS.ti®
Literature Education
Medicine
Public Health
Social Sciences
& Humanities
Theology
Astronomy
Criminology
Textinterpretation as Text-to-Text
ATLAS.ti®
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ATLAS.ti®
Code family uses uses
Super Codes uses
Families
causes
Networks
isa causes
isa
Codes
indicated-by
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indicated-by
indicated-by
Quotations supports
contained-in contained-in
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Primary
documents
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© Scientific Software Development, Berlin, 2001
ATLAS.ti®
Industry Standards supported
by ATLAS.ti 4.2
SGML
ASCII
ATLAS.ti®
XML 1.0
TIF, JPG, Kodak PCD, SUN Raster... Currently memos and codes
WMF Exported
BMP ANSI Imported
PCD Im- & Export
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RTF APN
Will be supported in 5.0
SPSS
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Presentation Representation
Inter-Application Data Exchange
Text can be dragged from
WinWord or any other text
ATLAS.ti®
processors (capable of OLE-
2 drag & drop) into ATLAS/ti.
Text import is also available
via Copy & Paste.
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ATLAS.ti®
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ATLAS.ti®
Dropdown fields for
Primary Document Primary Docs,
area Quotations,
Codes and Memos
Margin area
Selected Quotation
Splitter bar
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to resize panes
Context menu
Detached
code list
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Network Editor
ATLAS.ti®
Hypertext - what codes cannot do
Code
CodeAA
While codes describe similarity of the
ATLAS.ti®
Q1
coded segments, it is hard to represent
relations (beside the equivalence
relation) between individual segments.
Only direct links (“hyper-links”) between
segments enable the representation of
such local knowledge.
contradicts If one would establish a link between the
codes in the example to emulate a hyper
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Code
CodeBB
Q3
The QueryTool
The QueryTool retrieves data segments by their attached codes using Boolean,
proximity and semantic operators. Queries are entered in RPN calculator style.
ATLAS.ti®
Stack manipulation
Clear stack
Swap the two
topmost elements
OR Push - duplicate
Boolean Families topmost element
XOR
operators AND Term stack Recalculate results
NOT Undo last operation
SUB Redo last undone
Semantic operation
operators UP
Feedback pane
SIB
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Follows/Precedes
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distance control
Retrieval Methods I - Boolean Retrieval
Boolean retrieval is purely set based. Elements are assumed to be independent.
No property of a retrieved segment other than being coded with codes A,B,..X
is taken into account.
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Overselectivity: AND (A1, A2, ..., An) fails even with n-1 matching terms.
Underspecified: OR (A1, A2, ..., An) succeeds with everything from 1 to n
matching terms. A segment coded with only one code is treated equal to one
coded with all of them.
ATLAS.ti®
Primary document P1 In addition to the Boolean
conditions described above, the
A following proximity relations hold:
1
Q1
2
3 B overlaps A -> {Q3, Q4}
4 Q4 A overlapped by B -> {Q1, Q2}
5 C overlaps B -> {Q5}
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6
7 A overlaps C -> {Q3}
8 Q5 C follows A -> {Q5}
9 B overlaps C -> {Q3, Q4}
10 Q2 etc.
11 B Note, that proximity operators are
12
13 Q3 non-commutative:
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ATLAS.ti®
Example queries using the semantic operator SUB While the extension of sub (Positive
on the terminology network below: Attitude) and or (Love, Kindness) is
sub (Positive Attitude) -> {Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5} identical for the example below
sub (Negative Attitude} -> {Q6, Q7, Q8} {Q1,..,Q5}, the intension is different.
sub (Attitude) -> {Q1,.., Q8} The former query will - unaltered! -
Q1 yield different results with another
subterm of Pos. Attitude. The latter
Attitude
Attitude query will not ecognize this new fact
isa isa
and has to be reformulated.
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Positive
Positive sibling Negative
Negative
Attitude
Attitude Attitude
Attitude
isa isa isa isa
Love
Love Kindness
Kindness Hatred
Hatred Anger
Anger
indicated by Domain level
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Document level
Q1
Q1 Q3 Q4 Q6 Q7 Q8
Q2 Q3 Q5
Q2
QueryTool: Building Queries
Boolean, proximity and semantic operators are combined using the “click-
language” par excellence: the Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) by
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Lukasiewicz1.
RPN is a parenthesis-free postfix language: operands first, then the operators.
The main ingredience of the RPN query processor is the Stack, a data
structure, that is very similar to a pile of plates: It can only be accessed from
the top: new plates are put on the pile, plates can only be removed from the
top. Old HP 29C RPN calculator
in formal infix notation: SUB Pos. Attitude AND NOT Kindness Number of arguments
Step: 1 2 3 4 5
Enter: Pos. Att. SUB (1) Kindness NOT (1) AND (2)
Note, how every operator takes (“pops”) its appropriate number of arguments from the stack and “pushes” the
resulting term back on the stack. Every entry, operand or operator generates a result. No “syntactic sugar” is
needed as in “infix” notations (eg. parentheses).
1
Born 1878 in Lvov (now Ukraine), died 1956 in Dublin, Ireland.
Polish Minister of Education in 1919 and professor at Warsaw University from 1920 to 1939)
The QueryTool: Super Codes
A well constructed, non-trivial query is often the result of a considerable
amount of work and ways to make a query reusable are needed: Super Codes.
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Super Codes are also an important tool for theory construction as they capture
hypotheses for repeated validation against the data.
Normal codes store direct quotation references, super codes store queries.
Although the visible “clicking behavior” of a super code resembles that of normal
codes, there is a considerable difference of “how” each generates its references:
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A number of stock merge strategies permits efficient
control over the resulting project. Strategies can be freely
adapted to fit specific needs.
Team A‘s
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All teams‘
combined project
Team B
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Team B‘s
combined project
Merging Projects II - Strategies
Merging proceeds as subsequent and repeated merging of partial projects into a target project.
A merge strategy controls the method of how the different object types (e.g. primary docs,
ATLAS.ti®
codes) from the source projects migrate into the target project.
Examples:
A Different data sets, same codes
This strategy supports an economic handling of large primary data in a top-down
approach.
B Same data, different codes
By applying this method, different aspects of a theory can be applied to the same data
sets.
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ATLAS.ti®
WYSIWYG - printouts of primary texts plus margin
Media - fine-grained segmentation and coding of video and
audio files (incl. MP3!)
Improved Margin Area
Networks - vector export to drawing software, Word® etc.
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