Firm adds ABS to phone sampling technique
Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., research company, has integrated address-based sampling (ABS) into KnowledgePanel - an online panel for custom research. By using dual-frame recruitment (ABS and random-digit dialing), Knowledge Networks aims to further its ability to represent cell phone-only households, Hispanics and other groups.
Knowledge Networks’ dual-frame sampling approach is designed to address the trend of “cord cutting,” in which households drop landline telephone service in favor of exclusive use of cell phones. Among those most likely to discontinue (or never establish) landline service are teenagers and adults under 35. Due to cord cutting and other factors, the landline-only telephone frame used by many survey researchers now covers, on average, 74 percent of U.S. households; by contrast, the KnowledgePanel dual-frame approach intends to represent 99 percent of the U.S. population by the end of 2009. KnowledgePanel is designed to meet the criteria of government and academic research studies. For more information visit www.knowledgenetworks.com.
GMI improves its sampling technologies
GMI, a Seattle, Wash., research company, has enhanced its sampling and quality technologies in the context of the GMI X vision, a set of technologies and business processes that, along with its global panel, are designed to deliver accurate and timely information.
By combining existing technologies with GMI’s knowledge of sample construction and panelist behavior, GMI aims to develop new ways to enable clients to tap into 1.4 billion Internet users worldwide with interactive surveys when they want and on the device of their choice.
GMI has launched a set of technologies that may help provide identified online respondents from around the globe by evaluating their authenticity - starting at registration and continuing throughout the study life cycle. The process combines respondent self-declared information with observed online behavior through the panelist’s life.
The first step toward the GMI X vision is a series of enhanced panel quality initiatives. Key elements include a higher-quality bar for new panelists, including enhanced respondent source validation, fraud and location detection, and duplication prevention at panel registration level; expanded respondent profiling; strengthened in-study quality controls; and enhanced panel management with improved incentive redemption monitoring to better identify undesirable respondents and remove them from the panel. For more information visit www.gmi-mr.com.
SPSS rebrands its software portfolio
SPSS Inc., a Chicago research software company, has introduced newer versions of its data mining workbench and text analytics software. PASW Modeler 13 (formerly Clementine) and PASW Text Analytics 13 (formerly Text Mining for Clementine) are designed to extend and automate data mining and text analytics to the business user while enhancing the productivity, flexibility and performance of the analyst.
Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) is the new name for the complete portfolio of SPSS predictive analytics products. David Vergara, director of product marketing for SPSS, explains that the name change was intended to help customers and prospects understand what the products are doing and how each offering fits within the broader portfolio.
The entire SPSS software portfolio will carry the PASW naming standard beginning with the releases of PASW Modeler 13 and PASW Text Analytics 13. New naming will be introduced at each release of the other SPSS products, including: PASW Statistics (formerly SPSS Statistics), PASW Data Collection (formerly Dimensions) and PASW Collaboration and Deployment Services (formerly Predictive Enterprise Services).
PASW Modeler 13 has enhanced its functionality to include automated data preparation designed to simplify the data mining effort and conditions data by detecting and correcting quality errors and imputing missing values. It also provides a report with recommendations on which data to use. For example, if large amounts of data are missing from a data set it will make a “Do not use” recommendation. The comments feature also allows users to post quick notes directly into the model stream. Auto Cluster gives users a way to determine the best cluster algorithm for a particular data set. Modeler 13 has also been integrated with PASW Statistics so that all models and functionality can be used directly within Modeler 13 to conduct statistical analysis without having to switch between applications.
PASW Text Analytics 13 uses the insights and sentiments locked in unstructured data - including call-center notes, open-ended survey responses, blogs and wikis - in hopes of improving model accuracy. The new version includes prebuilt categories for satisfaction surveys, advanced natural-language processing techniques and more comprehensive language support. Prebuilt text analysis packages (categories and dictionaries) can be used out of the box to save time and can be shared and reused for specific types of surveys, such as employee, product and customer satisfaction. Text Analytics 13 offers a variety of natural-language processing techniques (i.e., multilingual sentiment extraction and semantic classification to analyze opinions and categorize any unstructured data such as surveys or Web 2.0 data). The product supports seven languages natively and an additional 30 languages through automated translation powered by Language Weaver. Users who purchase this option can translate data into English for analysis. For more information visit www.spss.com.
OTX updates its GamePlan
Los Angeles research company OTX has debuted its new business intelligence tool and tracking service GamePlan, which aims to aggregate detailed consumer data on hundreds of games on a weekly basis and project forward-looking consumer behavior surrounding those titles. OTX has partnered with game-rental company GameFly and eBay transaction data provider AERS (whose data will be combined with internal data from OTX’s own GamePlan Consumer Tracker). The results aim to allow publishers and other interested parties to analyze metrics such as what games are most desirable to rent and own, and which titles gamers plan to rent or own in the future. For more information visit www.otxresearch.com.
Research-at-home: by the people, for the people
New York research start-up agency MR Junction has launched gLL (gLobaLocalised), a method designed to supply survey data which has been collected locally by home-based, native-language speakers around the world. It is designed to make CATI research local within a global context by tapping into a network of on-demand survey interviewing agents working independently, remotely and worldwide to ensure market research data is collected within the most local context (with the local population, by the local population) while still being monitored and supervised. The data is collected on a central secure server in real time.
Using the system, self-employed interviewers, supervisors and project managers are able to conduct, monitor or supervise phone surveys from home using a computer and high-speed Internet connection. For more information visit www.mrjunction.com.
NeuroFocus debuts NGame development suite
NeuroFocus, a Berkeley, Calif., research company, has introduced a suite of brainwave-based tools designed to enhance video game development and players’ enjoyment. The firm estimates the tools can shave years off the game development timeline and save millions in costs. The NGame suite of products and services is intended to accelerate the development process and improve game design and players’ enjoyment. By measuring players’ neurological reactions to games, the suite determines how gamers interact with and respond to avatars, storylines, realism, game scenarios, in-game advertising and sound effects. Specifically, the tools can provide user-group analysis, along with design, implementation and marketing recommendations. They can also be used to examine multiplayer, social gaming and multisensory gaming effectiveness. For more information visit www.neurofocus.com.
Harris taps into kids’ Brainwaves
Rochester, N.Y., research company Harris Interactive has launched Brainwaves, a new methodology created to enable children and teenagers to participate in the co-creation of new products and services. The technique uses laptop computers to bring up to 20 participants together for brainstorming and co-creation. It blends qualitative brainstorming and facilitation with quantitative voting and survey tools.
Sessions are run online and offline with children as young as nine years, and the firm also organizes 90-minute sessions in school classrooms at the end of the school day. Feedback is anonymous and all participants are able to influence proceedings equally.
Through open-text input, the data identifies issues, which are then categorized into themes, which can then be explored, ranked, polled or voted on to understand relevant and motivating areas to pursue through further questioning. For more information visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
Briefly
St. Louis communications company ej4 has released Instant Video Presenter, a software application that allows users to create newsroom-style videos quickly. The application is a video capture application, so no post-production process, compression or editing is needed. When the video is done being recorded, the file is ready to be deployed through e-mail, uploaded to the Internet or burned to CD. Instant Video Presenter includes a green screen and sells for $259.99. A free trial version is available. For more information visit www.instantvideopresenter.com.
Feedback Partners, a new Philadelphia research bureau, has opened its doors and introduced a feedback management platform designed to provide real-time alerts, dashboards and analytical tools. On-demand reporting is delivered via a Software-as-a-Service Web portal. All reports are online; there is no software to install. For more information visit www.feedbackpartners.com.
Paris research company Ipsos has rolled out its Omnibus Tracker Series in the Middle East and North Africa. The service provides data and market indicators on the business sectors in the territory. It also offers ongoing syndicated multinational research, rolled out across three markets (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait), and three countries in the Levant and North African region (covering Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt). The tracker series offers six waves per year, using both CAPI and CATI methodology. For more information visit www.ipsos.com.
Maponics, a Norwich, Vt., software company has launched Maponics International Neighborhood Boundaries, a specialized spatial dataset that aims to include neighborhoods in approximately 100 cities in over 15 European Union countries by the end of 2009. Maponics International Neighborhood Boundaries is available for quarterly delivery in SHP, KML and other file formats. It can also be accessed via the Maponics Spatial API, for companies outsourcing data hosting and management. For more information visit www.maponics.com.
20/20 Research Inc., Nashville, Tenn., has launched QualAnywhere, a research tool that uses mobile devices (cell phones, PDAs, etc.) and text messaging to allow researchers to engage study participants in qualitative research essentially anytime and anywhere. Study participants are recruited and then, over a period of days or weeks, they receive predetermined questions at specified times and text back their responses. All responses are automatically gathered and sorted into the study transcript. For more information visit www.2020research.com.
New York research company Ziment has added SEGZ for channel optimization segmentation to its market segmentation suite. Channel optimization segmentation is an approach to market segmentation geared to optimizing marketing spend and channel strategy. The approach works by gathering information about targeted physicians and finding segments of physicians that differ profoundly in the ways they collect and interact with the information around them. Channel optimization segmentation can help indicate what messages to place where to influence certain physicians. For more information visit www.ziment.com.
HispanicBusiness Media, a Santa Barbara, Calif., media group, has released its latest HispanTelligence publication, The U.S. Hispanic Economy in Transition, 3rd Edition. The report is intended to provide a quantitative portrait of the growing Hispanic market and its implications for business and politics. It includes new projections on and metrics of the U.S. Hispanic economy. For more information visit www.hispanicbusiness.com/research/hispaniceconomy.asp.