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Understanding And Exploiting Web 2.0: Impact Analysis For Web Sites
Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of [email protected]
UKOLN is supported by:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/stimulate-2006/talk-impact-analysis/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/stimulate-2006/talk-impact-analysis/
About This Talk
This talk gives an introduction to impact analysis for Web sites and describes how Web 2.0 services can be used to support this work.
About This Talk
This talk gives an introduction to impact analysis for Web sites and describes how Web 2.0 services can be used to support this work.
This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)
Resources bookmarked using 'stimulate-2006-impact' tag
A centre of expertise in digital information management
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2
Contents
Usage Statistics• Strengths and weaknesses
Impact Analysis• What is it?• Impact analysis tools and techniques
Web 2.0 and Impact Analysis• Using Web 2.0 tools for impact analysis• Web 2.0 is impact
Sector Statistics• What is it?• Would it be useful?
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Usage Statistics
Exploit Interactive example:• EU-funded e-journal
funded from 1999-2000• Steady growth in usage
measured by Sitemeter & usage logs
Usa
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Sta
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Deeper analysis:• Popular article on
"Are You Linking To A Porn Site?", April 1999
Issues: Is popularity of Web site based on "wrong hits" and growth reflects growth in Internet usage? How can we aggregate usage data in a meaningful way?
Issues: Is popularity of Web site based on "wrong hits" and growth reflects growth in Internet usage? How can we aggregate usage data in a meaningful way?
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Usage Statistics
Usage statistics:• Can provide useful and valuable data …• … but can also be flawed
Implications:• Collect and use as they can be useful for
formative statistics e.g. has a new marketing campaign worked; what keywords do users use to find our Web site; …
But also:• Be honest about limitations and don't over-hype
statistics• Use as a part of a portfolio of metrics
Usa
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Impact Analysis
Usage statistics:• Data on who is using Web site and how they're
using it e.g. how many visitors are there?Impact analysis:
• Attempting to measure the impact of the Web site or the contents of the Web site e.g. how has the Web site visit affected the visitors
Challenges:• More difficult to measure than simpler 'visits'• Requires thought as to aims of Web site
Requires • Objective and subjective metrics e.g. 'possible'
indicators of impact• Automated and manual measurements
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Types Of Metrics
Automated:• Usage statistics • Link analysis• Search analysis
Manual:• Focus groups, surveys, etc.
Hybrid:• Blogs, RSS feeds, social bookmarks, etc.
Let's use a case study for the Institutional Web Management Workshop (IWMW) 2006 Web site – an annual 3 day event for University Web managers
Let's use a case study for the Institutional Web Management Workshop (IWMW) 2006 Web site – an annual 3 day event for University Web managers
Imp
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Link Popularity
Why link popularity?• A link to my Web site is an
indication that A We b author felt strongly about the resource
• Links help drive traffic (and so can boost usage statistics)
• Links enhance Google rating (and so can boost usage statistics)
http://www.linkpopularity.com/http://www.linkpopularity.com/
Note that you can receive a monthly email report, which can provide information on trends
Note that you can receive a monthly email report, which can provide information on trendsIt may be desirable to remove links from your own Web site, otherwise growth may just reflect growth in your site
It may be desirable to remove links from your own Web site, otherwise growth may just reflect growth in your siteMany site analysis tools now provide RSS feeds. This can help Web managers in their monitoring activities
Many site analysis tools now provide RSS feeds. This can help Web managers in their monitoring activities
A centre of expertise in digital information management
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Search Analysis
Why search engine analysis?
• Search engines help drive traffic (and so boost usage statistics)
Imp
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Technorati:• There's more to search
engines than Google• Searches Blogs, RSS
news feeds, etc.• Use of tags can help
searching social networking services such as Blogs, Flickr, etc
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Talking To Users
Impact analysis can be carried out by talking to / listening to the user community:
• Focus groups• Visitor books• Evaluation forms• Anecdotes• Media watch• …
Such techniques are well-known – but how can technologies be used to support such activities?
Imp
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Man
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Impact Of Blogs
University of Warwick Blog service was first in UK
It has proved very popular:• 4,293 Blogs• 76,987 entries• 174,106 comments
Impact:• People willing to post &
even more willing to respond (average over 2 comments per posting)
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/
Impact can be measured by size of community, nos. of entries, nos. of responses, impact in real world, etc. (see talk at ILI 2006 )
Impact can be measured by size of community, nos. of entries, nos. of responses, impact in real world, etc. (see talk at ILI 2006 )
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Using Blogs
Blogs can make it easier to gather quotes & other impact measures:
Imp
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Blogs provides good indication of user satisfaction and of impact analysis of event "I've come back with ideas to …"
Blogs provides good indication of user satisfaction and of impact analysis of event "I've come back with ideas to …"
• Finding Blogs (e.g. tags, Technorati)
http://j4.livejournal.com/2006/06/19/http://j4.livejournal.com/2006/06/19/http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2006/06/10_years_of_the.html
http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2006/06/10_years_of_the.html
• Blogs associated with Web site
Official Bloggers has proved useful: set a standard for others; claimed a tag in tag space; shown benefits of trust; …
Official Bloggers has proved useful: set a standard for others; claimed a tag in tag space; shown benefits of trust; …
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Being Open
The impact of ideas can be maximising by allowing the ideas to be used freely:
• Open source software
• Open standards• Creative Commons
licence for contentCC licences for IWMW 2006 resources allows:
• Info about event to be used by others
• Blog articles, news, etc. to be syndicated
Imp
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http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/publicity/
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/publicity/
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Imp
act
An
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isProviding Mashups
You can maximise the impact of your Web site by allowing others to make use of your content e.g.
• Syndication• News feeds• Third party
applications• …
Note CC licence for event details permits such reuse
http://upcoming.org/event/69469/http://upcoming.org/event/69469/
A centre of expertise in digital information management
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Building A Community
Building a community for your Web site can:
• Maximise impact by allowing interested parties to discuss their shared interests
• Provide you with feedback & ideas
• Allow you to provide targetted information
http://www.frappr.com/iwmw2006http://www.frappr.com/iwmw2006
Web 2.0 services such as Frappr, Blogger, MySpace, etc. allow Web communities to be easily set up (and may be particularly valuable to the 'Net Generation')
Web 2.0 services such as Frappr, Blogger, MySpace, etc. allow Web communities to be easily set up (and may be particularly valuable to the 'Net Generation')
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Sharing Resources
Social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us:
• Provide an indication of impact (others have felt Web page worth bookmarking
• Support community building (finding others with similar interests)
http://del.icio.us/lisbk/iwmw2006-parallel-kelly-phippshttp://del.icio.us/lisbk/iwmw2006-parallel-kelly-phipps
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Maximising Impact & Web 2.0
We have seen how Web 2.0 technologies (Blogs, RSS feeds, syndication technologies, third party services, etc) can:
• Maximise impact by providing additional access mechanisms for users
• Minimise resource effort needed by making use of 3rd party services
• Be used to measure the impact of our Web services
Imp
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The Bigger Picture
Usage analysis and impact analysis aren't self-contained, but form part of a bigger picture
Usage analysis
• Who's accessing Web site?
• How are they finding site?
• What's popular?
User testing• How do users
navigate site?• What's difficult
to find?• Have they
achieved their aims?
Impact Analysis• How has Web site
influenced the users?• What do the users
find interesting?• What changes do
users make as a consequence?
These areas are complementary and should be addressed as part of a strategy for ensuring user needs are being satisfied. The strategy should be hybrid, covering software and processes, real world interaction, etc.
These areas are complementary and should be addressed as part of a strategy for ensuring user needs are being satisfied. The strategy should be hybrid, covering software and processes, real world interaction, etc.
Big
ger
Pic
ture
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Sector Statistics
Another aspect of the 'bigger picture' is statistics for the sector:
• What are the characteristics of the sector?• What legitimate assumptions can we
make?• What are the benefits to be gained by
sector statistics?
Big
ger
Pic
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UKOLN has worked with Nedstats who have provided sector statistics based on 22 higher educational institutions who were willing to host their (invisible) counter.
Summary based on > 25 million page views and > 4 million visitorsSee <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/sidhu/>
UKOLN has worked with Nedstats who have provided sector statistics based on 22 higher educational institutions who were willing to host their (invisible) counter.
Summary based on > 25 million page views and > 4 million visitorsSee <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/sidhu/>
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Overall:Accept 95.93%Decline4.07%
2006 Average Accept 96.8%Decline 3.2%
External:Accept 94.64%Decline 5.36%
Internal:Accept 97.90%Decline 2.10%
Taken from <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/sidhu/>
Taken from <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/sidhu/>
Visitors Accepting Cookies
Big
ger
Pic
ture
Cookies needed to monitor user trails
Cookies needed to monitor user trails
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How do people find my site?
Overall
56.29%
20.93
28.66
Three basic ways
Direct Entry
External Referrer
Search Engines
External
39.98
21.62
38.38%
Taken from <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/sidhu/>
Taken from <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/sidhu/>
Big
ger
Pic
ture
A centre of expertise in digital information management
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Number of visitors per day
Perc
en
tag
e o
f vis
itors
fro
m
searc
h e
ng
ines
Visitors from search engines – Number of visitors
University General
Cass
CCCU
Aberdeen
TVU
UCL
Sheffield
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Conclusions
To conclude:• Usage statistics should form a part of an impact
analysis strategy• A more comprehensive impact analysis strategy is
needed• This should be part of a user-satisfaction strategy• Web 2.0 technologies can help• Embedding Web 2.0 culture (openness, trust,
etc.) can help the impact of Web sites which aim to maximise engagement with its user community
• "Impact Analysis For Web Sites", QA Focus briefing document no. 99, provides further advice – see <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/briefing-99/>
• Would sector statistics be useful for your sector?