Macooo says: Thank you Atlas-ti; big companies still have a heart!

In order not to allow my brain to stay inactive for too long, I love getting it working on translations, transcriptions, and now I am helping a friend of my daughter Katy with some of her Doctorate work. I had met H before and actually had been a participant for her Master’s thesis: a wonderful person very dear to me too.

Katy, knowing me well, had offered her my services last spring to transcribe interviews she had done for her thesis. I had never transcribed one word in my life, but that’s O.K.; Katy knows her mother will try anything once.

So I downloaded transcribing software, got myself settled and transcribed interviews. It kept me and my brain occupied for about 3 months. The interviews were most interesting to listen to, even if transcribing is a slow tedious process, I enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Now, my friend H has to do a qualitative analysis of all that. Have I ever done that? No, but it sounds interesting to me. We only live once right? And H seems very interested in my input because of my life experiences which fit with her topic and then she says she appreciates my wisdom …. You see age has its positive sides!  Qualitative analysis of a textual content is one of the hardest analyses to do; trust me we’re getting far away from my usual KISS Association mantra.

H had purchased a software, which she thought I could share with her to do the work. But I couldn’t get on it, therefore I wrote to Atlas-ti to tell them my problem. Atlas-ti is a big worldwide Software company based in Germany. They first said that the license was only good for one person; students could have them at a special rate with proof of being a student in a recognized University, otherwise you had to purchase the business license for over $ 1,000 and there too you had to give proof that you were a business.

I really wanted to work on that analysis; it is so stimulating! Therefore I wrote to them again, telling them my story. That I enjoyed helping students; didn’t belong to any university to be able to get a Student license but was willing to pay for a student license however not for business one since it was truly for a personal use to help out someone who already had purchased a license. I also gave them other options which I felt were fair as well as told them how important it was for me, how much I enjoyed helping students  while learning myself.

When I told people of my letter, they laughed at me, they were cynical, they thought I was pretty naive…. But three days later, I did get an e-mail from them offering me a student license for FREE. All they asked is that I  do not use it for commercial purposes and that I write them an e-mail which they could use for marketing purposes.

It reinforced several of my beliefs, that: 1. Nothing ventured nothing gained. 2. Honesty still pays and last but definitely not least 3.Corporations still have a heart… and credit must be given when credit is due. That’s why I am saying: Thank You Atlas-ti.

Cheers,

 Mama Cool