I learnt how important it is for a QDA to be robustly designed from the very start and to avoid falling prey to the hype about the wonders of "cloud computing". Most of the world does not have access to the Internet and making open-source software as a cloud app defeats the purpose of trying to offer open source solutions to the masses and help with the democratization of access to good software. Catma has great potential, but only after its rewritten to be more robust and a cross-platform application.

It is open source which ensures the long-term development of the software. CATMA allows users to define codes and then tag documents with the codes. Each code can have a set of custom properties that include instance-specific values. Codes can be hierarchically arranged, a method that helps researchers find patterns in the document, assists with analysis and building models.

CATMA is currently a 'cloud' application which is quite problematic in many ways. Firstly, it requires an internet connection. Most computer users in the developing world simply do not have internet access, or if they do, its incredibly unreliable. During field research in mainland China, many western websites were blocked, coupled by the problem that Internet in rural areas disconnected often. Other users have complained about the sluggish response of CATMA because it is a cloud app. The developers have hinted at releasing a package for local installation. Until they do, the intriguing CATMA is of little use to me.