[thelist] Fwd: RE: IT in Africa: DC - Chumpsoft phpQuestionnaire

[tobias at kabissa.org]

Hi all, 

I've been lurking on this list ofr a while - greatly appreciating the 
information being shared. I was wondering if some of you on this list might 
want to weigh in on this conversation on survey software. 

Cheers,

Tobias

----- Forwarded message from tobias at kabissa.org -----
    Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 06:35:41 -0600
    From: tobias at kabissa.org
Reply-To: "NETWORK: IT in Africa Circle in the Washington DC area" 
<itinafricacircle-dc at kabissa.org>
 Subject: RE: IT in Africa: DC - Chumpsoft phpQuestionnaire 
      To: "NETWORK: IT in Africa Circle in the Washington DC area" 
<itinafricacircle-dc at kabissa.org>

Hi Ted and Laura, 

This is an interesting subject, dunno how relevant for IT in Africa - if 
someone disagrees, please complain and we'll move the conversation off-list. :-)

Kabissa needs to do surveys too - we tried two methods so far: 

- formmail (which is actually free - not $90 as you put in your table?) 

- custom php script written by schnippy plus www4mail - also free for us. 

Using formmail really isn't recommended - it's very time consuming to put the 
data into a usable form. The php script we used was nifty, but would require 
customization every time - and the reports and the input form has to be hand-
coded every time. 

It was neat using www4mail for it - we requested the web page by email using 
www4mail, then sent out the www4mail-enabled web page out to everyone as a file 
attachment. They could then open it, complete it offline and then submit their 
results via email. Downside is that not everyone has an email client that can 
handle www4mail. 

What's cross tabulation? 

Best wishes, 

Tobias

Quoting Leslie Zucker <>:

> Ted, 
> What a coincidence!!   I just spent the majority of today researching
> the exact same thing!  I also need an inexpensive web survey program to
> use with Latin American microfinance institutions over the next couple
> of years. 
> 
> So, thanks to many phone calls and testing downloads today, I can add to
> your matrix of 4 options, the following: 
> 
> 1) Web Surveyor ($500/survey or $1,500 for an annual license) = gets
> high recommendations from a friend and loyal user, but is out of my
> budget.
> 
> 2) InfoPoll: ($750/30 days for their usual "high usage" or $99/survey up
> to 50 responses for "low usage") very robust technology. 
> 
> 3) Perseus (non-ASP, $495 one-time software fee, + $99/yr for technical
> support) I was recommended against this alternative for a small company
> without a lot of IT knowledge or infrastructure. 
> 
> 4) Other much more expensive options. 
> 
> Between the usual suspects of Zoomerang and Survey Monkey, a P.h.D in
> distance learning recommended Zoomerang to me. She said she had a lot of
> complaints from Survey Monkey users while testing it for her
> dissertation.
> 
> It still seems to me that Zoomerang is my best option.  Does anyone have
> an opinion about it? (good or bad) and of course, I'm interested to see
> the feedback on Ted's posting re: Chumpsoft too. 
> 
> Thanks! 
> Leslie Zucker
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: itinafricacircle-dc-bounces at kabissa.org
> [mailto:itinafricacircle-dc-bounces at kabissa.org] On Behalf Of Ted
> Johnson
> Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 4:09 PM
> To: 
> Subject: IT in Africa: DC - Chumpsoft phpQuestionnaire 
> 
> 
> Hey folks,
> 
> I have a client who wants to be able to conduct surveys by e-mail or on
> their Web site.  I've done some research and found the usual suspects:
> SurveyMonkey, Zoomerang, and a few others that seemed either overpriced
> or inferior.
> 
> I also came across this non-ASP solution called phpQuestionnaire by
> Chumpsoft, which is software you buy for your site.  Chumpsoft can
> install and support it for you for only $149.00.  (A Perl version is in
> the works.)
> 
> http://www.chumpsoft.com/
> 
> It's cheaper than both reasonable alternatives, and is only lacking one
> crucial feature of Zoomerang (cross tabulation).
> 
> Does anybody have any experience with this product, good or bad?
> 
> If you're interested, this is chart with the four options I compared for
> my
> client:
> http://www.technologyworks.org/newsletter/200303/survey_options.pdf
> 
> I've never said this before: Excuse the cross postings.
> 
> Ted Johnson
> Technology Works for Good

> 
> ---
> ITinAfricaCircle-DC is hosted on Kabissa - Space for change in Africa To
> post, write to: ITinAfricaCircle-DC at kabissa.org
> Website:
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----- End forwarded message -----