NewGene (Archive)

NOTE TO VISITORS: NewGene will not be made available for download, nor will its planned successor platform, CowPlusOnline, be maintained.  This is because such software, including their precursor, EUGene, is no longer necessary and is actually inferior to alternatives.

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EXPLANATION: NewGene was a tool for teaching about and managing the types of data commonly used to quantitatively study international relations. It was designed as a successor to the popular EuGene Software originally developed by Al Stam and Scott Bennett (and still available here). NewGene was originally released in the mid-2010s (this 2017 video describes the process of creating that software, while this 2019 article describes the software more fully). We had even created this Youtube channel to post guides on using the platform.

 

In the early 2020s, the NewGene Software began a complete rewrite in order to make it a fully online platform (it was going to be called "CowPlusOnline", with the beta version of the site available here).  However, by late 2025, advances in Artificial Intelligence (specifically, Large Language Models) rendered the need for such a platform obsolete (to understand why, see this Slide Deck).

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This site will now be a repository of sources to help users make use of AI for data management. Please feel free to contact contact Paul Poast (e-mail: paulpoast@uchicago.edu) if you have questions.

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