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Bamboo DiRT was faster…

Few weeks ago, during a daily routine research after software for the  social science research process I stumbled upon Bamboo DiRT.  I had to hold in for a while and was looking back in the mind’s eye on what happened the last weeks and months. All these deprivations, looking after research software for hours, the lovingly and pixel accurate design, for several days searching a solution for the bug in the table design of the opera browser, all this appeared to be so senseless for a short moment looking at Dirt Directory, a waste of time.

DiRT in Dirt Directory stands for Digital Research Tools and it is a project effort of several universities in the english speaking countries:  http://www.projectbamboo.org. Their slogan is: Plant seeds. Grow ideas. On Bamboo DiRT you can find software for really any use case in the area the humanities. The website has a simple and nice design and everybody can register and participate in filling the database with new software.

Ergo sum, Bamboo DiRT grew to what SoSciSo somewhen wanted to be. Then went out of the beta stage in mid july 2012 and this date was not so convenient for us. But what can we do? In the beginning I was considering for a while to simply ignore their site and not to tell you.  In this way, I wouldn’t be able anymore to look straight in the eyes of this guy here and further one can not stop the diffusion of information in the days of G$$gle, Faceb$$k and Co. anyway.

Nevertheless, I will continue and maybe even add some programs in their Bamboo DiRT database. Or, one could also infiltrate their project somehow… ;)

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SoSciSo Info

Welcome at SoSciSo

A bit delayed though, we want to welcome everybody officially on SoSciSo . The page is still somehow under construction. There are still a few small bugs (Opera user may fogive us the not so small bug with our database). We try our best to fix the errors as soon as possible. Further, the database is not complete yet.

The database is the heart of the website. Along the social science research process all relevant software programs are listed according to the different phases. You are looking for instance for a program in qualitative data analysis? You will find it under Software > data analysis > Qualitative. Or a program for designing figures? Software > Publication > Diagrams. The database will be continuously updated. You are also welcome to participate. And we are also very happy about comments and suggestions.

How did we came up with the idea to this website? Since we find ourselves quite often somewhere in this social science research process, we are inevitably face with the question where, when and how which software might be useful. Since a while we are using Atlas.ti, JabRef, Latex, DIA, yED, F4, Dropbox or Google Scholar in our daily research projects. And since we often noticed that such knowledge about using such software is not evident, we would like to help others with this website.

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SoSciSo Info

OSiS – “OpenSource” for studies

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SoSciSo Info

Der Spiegel hel(ap)ps…