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15 reasons why you “MUST” visit the 17th International Blaise Users Conference (IBUC) (even when you are not currently a Blaise user)

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The 17th International Blaise Users Conference (IBUC) will take place from 4-6 October 2016 in The Hague in the Netherlands. In a very large sense IBUC 2016 is about coping with the challenges of the modern survey world, going far beyond Blaise as a system, so anyone who operates in this field should take this opportunity to learn, meet and share their experiences and discuss the challenges arising from a rapidly changing survey world.  

 

  1. This is not just a regular IBUC, but also the celebration of 30 years of Blaise. Not many software developers in the world can say that they exist for 30 years, but we can. Why? Because it is the industry standard, which it has been for many years now, and it is a good and stable product.
  2. The conference will be opened by our deputy Director General dr. Bert Kroese.
    The key-note speakers are:
    • Jim Smith CEO of Westat (Westat is one of the foremost professional service corporations of its kind—the gold standard of social science research, statistical analysis, and evidence-based communications).
    • Jelke Bethlehem, former head of Blaise, currently Professor in Survey Methodology at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of the Leiden University (with a focus on online data collection).
  3. The survey world is changing rapidly. New IT technology and new methodological insights have changed the way surveys are conducted. Multimode surveying, such as combinations of CAWI, CATI, CAPI, CADI, and CARI remains an important but evolving capability. The use of the internet and mobile devices (CAMI) with all their variety of screens and operating systems create great possibilities and pose considerable challenges at the same time. Last but not least, multicultural surveys, which go far beyond conducting surveys in multiple languages, represent new and difficult challenges. We will address these challenges.  
  4. We will explain why we think that at least for the next ten years or more Web based questionnaires need a CAI tool like Blaise 5. And maybe now even more than before.
  5. IBUC 2016 features a strong program showing the uses of the emerging Blaise 5. Blaise 5.1 will be introduced in a special way. Blaise 5 is not just an update of B4, but an almost complete redesign. We will show what it is capable of and users of B5 will show how they already use it in real production environments. We will demonstrate that it is designed to operate on smart phones, tablets, browsers, and Windows computers. Also, that it is compatible with Windows 7, 8, and 10, how it works with iOS and Android apps, that it can work off- and on-line, and how it presents questionnaires on phones, tablets, and computers.Network
  6. The conference will bring together a variety of survey practitioners including developers, system staff, survey methodologists, survey operations personnel, and their managers. The IBUC 2016 is therefore not only intended for just Blaise users. Keynote speakers will describe the state of survey taking, technological and methodological challenges, and we will present the latest studies of methods of data collection on portable devices.  
  7. The Blaise team has invested in making B5 easier to use, so we will demonstrate that B5 can also be used with almost no programming experience needed (a kind of Blaise Basic/Light) for the more simple questionnaires.  
  8. Most users still use Blaise 4 because it is a stable and good CAI. We will of course also address B4 during this IBUC.
  9. We will talk about and show the conversion (tools) which minimizes the transition time and investments going from B4 to B5 (and even when you still want to wait a while with this transition, it is still interesting to hear about this at this time).
  10. Team Blaise and Blaise users around the world will present solutions. There will be a range of instruments that will demonstrate the full capabilities of B5 including real governmental survey examples. These include multicultural, multi-device, multilingual, multimodal, multinational, multi-operable, multi-platform, multistructural, and multi-version examples (the 9 multiples), with one questionnaire and one database; respondents can move seamlessly between modes; data and survey management are made easier. These examples include social and economic surveys and special demonstration instruments, which between them, will illustrate well over 100 data collection structures.  
  11. We will show how Colectica (DDI) will be connected to Blaise 5 as a design tool and we will explain why the use of DDI is important for NSI’s.
  12. We will present how we as CBS are renewing almost all our Data collection tools in our data collection redesign program called Phoenix.
  13. We will talk about the utmost importance of the capturing, the use and transforming of Paradata and audit trails.
  14. There will be a talk from the Methodology side: The ultimate design for Collection on mobile Devices by University of Utrecht.
  15. We will talk about the idea of setting up a Blaise-store (comparable to the Apple store) in which all our users can share their own build Blaise applications and templates, etc., so that each user does not have to build everything from scratch. Thus, “expensive and rare” knowledge is shared among all users. The IBUC 2016 has a pragmatic setup resulting in a really practical approach. It is not about the theory, but about how to use it in your own organisation. We promise you a high Return on Investment.


You will find the full preliminary conference program on the IBUC 2016-site. (On Monday 3-10 there will also be a special Pre-conference day with several interesting training sessions)

And you can register here for the IBUC. We look forward to meeting you in The Hague in October!

 

If you require further information, please feel free to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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