Crepuscular Light » Education

Call to Action: The State of the Art of Web Analytics

Exxx — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:49:45 +0000

Survey Link: http://kulwebanalytics.autoempaques.com.mx/Fiche_personnelle.html

Four students at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Yury Ostashkov, Oscar Castillo Lara, Francisco Castillo Guerrero and Gayane Sedrakyan need your help with their Web Analytics project. As part of their studies, they are working on a project to determine the current state of web analytics. To take the survey, click on the link above. To read about their project and their intentions, see below for an interview with the students.

Why did you call your project “State of the Art of Web Analytics”?

Gayane >> To capture the evolution peak in web analytics as things are currently

Oscar >> In order to represent the most current status, trends and evolving topics that this relatively new field of expertise is going through.

What other parts are there to your project besides the survey?

Gayane >> History and development phases (possibly making prognoses for the future), web analytics in practice, analysis of challenges, the way they are addressed by various companies (may be extended), etc.

Francisco >> We want to understand the challenges web analytics is confronting, but also understand how different companies do web analytics.

How do you plan to present your findings?

Gayane>> By showing quantitative results and comparisons, along with a deeper qualitative analysis.

Francisco >> Publish the results on our website as well as include them as part of our research which will be available at the KULevuen.

How can readers help you with your research?

Gayane>> By answering our questions preferably with illustrative specific examples

Do you think that the Web Analytics industry is well-developed in Europe?

Gayane >> We think the field is still developing and many challenges still need to be addressed, such as recognizing visitors, respecting ethical and privacy aspects, integrating offline/online data, making the analytics more actionable (which means not only collecting but also taking effective actions upon the data)

Yury >> We think that Web Analytics as an overall industry has not yet reached its maturity. There are still a lot of challenges that need to be addressed like privacy issues, cookies, noisy data etc. On top of this there are still a lot of companies which already present on the Web but do not understand importance of Web Analytics.

Are any of your fellow students also doing projects on Web Analytics?

Gayane >> On social media analytics.

Francisco >> I think there are other web analytic projects but I don’t know anyone specific doing this kind of research right now

Do you hope to work in the Web Analytics industry in the future?

Gayane >> It’s quite an exciting field to have a career in.

Francisco >> I used to be part of a search team for General Electric, and part of the search implementation included Omniture web analytics. These implementations were really simple, but I considered them really interesting, so I would like to get more into this field, learning to use different tools, and helping different companies to select the best product for their needs.

Oscar >> I would like to get deeper knowledge within the field and in some point set up a Consultant Company

Yury >> I have found Web Analytics to be an interesting field with a lot of potential and I’ll be happy if I can be useful.

Who are the students?

My name is Francisco Castilloand. I was born in Mexico City, but later on, I moved with my family to Querétaro, Mexico, where I got my title as Computer Systems Engineer.

During my early stages of my career, I worked as DBA in the Finance Department of the State Government, where I collaborated on the creation of a tool capable of calculating the budget to be given to different municipal entities. Later on, I worked on another Governmental entity doing assessment systems in order to evaluate the new persons joining the dependency.

It was after 1 year, when I moved to Aguascalientes Mexico to be part of Softtek, one of the biggest outsourcing companies in Latin America. Here, I worked as consultant for a General Electric Project, by being part of a search team. During this time, I had the opportunity to collaborate with people from different countries: India, China, Mexico, US, and also, I worked during 9 months on a project in Connecticut, US. Here, in the search team I gained experience on the search engines area, by being exposed to Microsoft Fast, Google Search Appliance, and also, some research on IBM Yahoo Omnifind and Apache Solr.

In parallel to my consultantactivities, I also had some tasks assigned from my company, Softtek, where I couched team members, and also I was in charge of a Technical Committee, in charge of proposing and creating new tools for the team, as well as define standards to be used for documenting the systems, doing the testing, and also the guidelines to follow during the requirements assessment for new systems. On this stage, I realized that I would be a good manager, since I already had good technical skills, but one part was missing, which were managerial skills.

Therefore, I made a thorough research on all the universities having a managerial program, which combined the ICT part, and it was K.U.Leuven with the Master of Information Management, the perfect program for me, since I would be able to acquire that missing part I was looking for, in order to become a successful manager.

As part of my Information Management program, I started working with my team on a research on Web Analytics as part of our thesis. I find really interesting this field since it has a big future, especially in the European market, which is still evolving on this area. Once this research is finished, we will publish it in the university and will be available later for all the persons interested on it.

Oscar Castillo Lara is currently a Master student at KU Leuven, Belgium in the Information Management Program. A former BSc Industrial Engineer, he graduated with honors at ITESM, Mexico. He has had international exposures in Canada (Nipissing University, ON) as well as in Belgium (UCL) during his Bachelor Studies. Also acted as a Management Trainee within the oil industry in a transnational company at Mexico, besides participating on Entrepreneur Accelerator Program at ITESM and multiple Industry-Academia related projects.

Gayane Sedrakyan, is doing a Master in MIS in KUL, Leuven, Belgium. She is currently working as a researcher in the Department of Decision Sciences and Information Management of the Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences at KUL with a focus on automation of the platform generation based on the modeling tool output.

Prior to that she completed the following programs: 1. Master of Computer& Information Science with minor in Business Administration at the American University of Armenia 2. Master of Philosophy & Logic at the Faculty of Psychology, Philosophy & Sociology, Yerevan State University 3.Territorial Governance & Local Self-Government at thePublic Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia

In 2007, she was awarded by the President of Armenia sponsored by Synopsis Armenia in the nomination of Best Master’s student in the field of IT.

She has published several papers and articles, presented at conferences and she is the author of the book “Nederlands Basis” – a self-tutorial with audio content included.

Have worked in a variety of fields such as banking, government infrastructure, taught philosophy to foreign undergraduate students at Yerevan Engineering University.

Gayane also worked as a contractor for the World Bank and Eurasia Foundation projects, such as Assistant Chief Editor for the magazine FORUM Armenian Business Review, acting as responsible for the material preparation for government delegations and prior to that as an External relations coordinator in a NGO sector.

For the last 4 years has been working in the IT sector; first as a Technical writer and later as a Software Developer (3+ years of experience in soft/web development)

Other interests – musical composition: Winner of the Prize in the Nomination of Children Author’s Song

Composition – 3rd place, International Nile Song Festival(Organized by the First Ladies of Armenia and Egypt, under patronageof the President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, Cairo, Egypt 2008)

Yury Ostashkov is an aeronautic engineer, with 10+ years experience in the large international company, who has been busy with development, deployment and daily usage of various Marketing, Sales Management and other computer based information systems.

Make the tombstone your diploma

Exxx — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:12:02 +0000

I am a mentor in the Analysis Exchange and my last project with Kimmage DSC really showed me how much can be learned (not just by the student) during a project.

As I have mentioned previously, the Analysis Exchange allows students to get hands-on experience doing short-term web analysis for an organisation. So, there’s an obvious benefit for the student and the organisation, but what is in it for the mentor besides the self-satisfied knowledge that you’ve tried to help to bring the web analytics love to the world? That is where the Kimmage DSC website came in.

Kimmage DSC (KDSC) offers courses in Development Studies, and its mission is to promote critical thinking and action for justice, equality and the eradication of poverty in the world. It hopes to do this through training and educating individuals and groups working for social, economic and political change in society.

In my line of work, I don’t come across many sites built for non-profits. I see online stores, lead generation sites, information share sites. I have dealt with comparison sites and universities. I’ve analysed online shops selling shoes and those selling racy magazines. In my head, the basic principals of all these sites would apply to a non-profit – the need to build a customer base, share information, safely and securely take money from visitors etc. In short, as with any site, a non-profit site is still selling a product or service (where the product is “starving child” and the service is “feel better about yourself by donating money” – yes, this sounds cold, but it’s a logical approach if a site is to be successful, which is the desired end).

In the kick-off meeting with KDSC and subsequent conversations with the organisation, what was interesting to note was the required approach with respect to the site design and general approach. Students are typically from sub-Saharan Africa, often with limited access to the internet. KDSC develops links with other NGOs who will send KDSC students and/or spread the message about the existence of the courses. So, KDSC uses the internet to target those who sometimes have little or no internet.

Apart from the NGO partnerships, which gives them a sort of physical presence in their target region, the site itself also takes into consideration the needs of any students in the target region who may find the site themselves through internet search or prior knowledge. The site is very simple and takes into account the download speed of potential students. In addition, there is a navigational banner which has directional buttons located in an area defined by screen resolutions most commonly used in the target region. The site is built around the needs of the target student while also taking into account as many general design norms as possible (i.e. it doesn’t look like a throwback from the 90s, committing flashy-banner sins).

The KDSC site acts as an information portal not just to potential students but to NGOs in the interests of building links with organisations who will require the services of KDSC and can spread the word about the available courses. It is interesting to see the requirement to combine tracking data with usability/visitor requirements to such a degree and I feel as though Kimmage DSC and the Analysis Exchange have helped me to continue my education in the web analytics space.

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. ~Eartha Kitt

The Analysis Exchange – making angels smile

Exxx — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:15:40 +0000

I recently completed an Analysis Exchange project with Change for Kids and James Phelps. The purpose of the Analysis Exchange is to provide “on-the-job” training for those interested in web analysis while offering free analytical insight to non-profit organisations. Each project is made up of a triad of oozy giving; the student, who does the analysis; the mentor, who provides ongoing feedback and direction; the organisation – which benefits from gaining insight into current online efforts and getting recommendations for optimisation.

And the best part of all? It’s fun!

The process takes two or three weeks and begins with the goals for the project being determined between mentor and organisation. The student then steams ahead with an analysis based on these goals, tapping the mentor for advice and feedback along the way. At the end of the period, the findings are presented to the organisation and then everyone breaks for ice-cream before grading each other on their participation (a highly exciting back-to-school feeling).

Change for Kids works with New York City public schools to provide music, arts and literacy programs to underprivileged children. Colin Smith and Michael Quinzio, who participated in the project on the organisation side were engaged, enthusiastic and open, which made the project tick along very smoothly and James Phelps was always on hand to help.

So, if you’re a non-profit organisation and you want to get valuable insights FOR FREE – take a look at this page on how the Analytics Exchange could work for you.

If you’re a mentor, and you want to help budding analysts and the web analytics industry, then learn more here.

If you are looking for more experience in web analytics while working with good causes and making angels smile, then you need to read this.

Oh, and GIVE CHANGE FOR KIDS LOTS OF MONEY! That is all.

Help Change for Kids to win a grant to create a literacy center

Follow Change for Kids on Twitter

Find Change for Kids on Facebook

Follow James Phelps on Twitter

Is your bookshelf naked?

Exxx — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:35:37 +0000

I recently finished reading Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimise your Marketing Investment by Jim Sterne and it’s a thoroughly cracking read. It’s full of useful resources and case studies and observations on companies who have attempted to maximise their marketing potential by using social media (or soshal meedja, as we’d say in Ireland).

Chapters like “Getting the Message – Hearing the Conversation” may be especially important for those who are using social media because they think it’s the budget airline of marketing. I.e. you get the message out and you use the general public as sales reps and support teams (assuming you’re getting it right).

I indulge in some mild-mannered brand analysis and social “listening” regarding the product I work with (Yahoo! Web Analytics) and I have indeed found that being “heard” will assuage the fears or furies of most users of social media. For example, I can recall one Twitter exchange in which a customer was complaining about the user interface being down. Because I was looking out for tweets, comments etc, I was able to reach out and direct them to our status page and explain that we knew about the problem. The customer was delighted – which is great, considering that the problem still existed. But merely being heard and having the frustration answered made that customer feel better supported and less stabby-stabby.
I’ve also noticed that some people react to such reaching out with complete silence. I’m not entirely sure how to take that one. For example, if someone asks a general question and I answer it (in an official capacity from an official account) – it’s sometimes ignored. Is that “Don’t stalk me” or “I only speak to ‘real’ people” or “Well, I shouldn’t have had to ask in the first place”? It doesn’t give me sleepless nights, but I suppose it is human nature to look for a response in a conversation. Any theories?

This book also set me thinking about reputation management where social media is involved. I recently blogged about how much about “you” can be found in a simple search engine search, but what about having your profile hijacked? I’m not talking about having your account hacked and messages being sent out from your email account. Nor am I talking about your Facebook status being updated by someone else – I’m talking about the freedom that exists for others to use your name for a purpose you didn’t intend. For example, what’s to stop someone tweeting “RT @myname I’m not working right now” (or something more damaging)? What’s to stop one of my Facebook “friends” tagging a picture of someone blurry doing drugs with my name and having that appear on the newsfeed of all my “friends” and their 3,000 “friends”? And this can be extended to your company, so if you have a social media strategy, it needs to include vigilance.

Once I finished Social Media Metrics, I was hungry for more and I’m currently reading “Reading Virtual Minds, Volume 1: Science & History” by Joseph Carrabis which has caused me to miss my stop on the bus home twice so far, as I crossly informed the author. This is an unusual and fascinating book in that it discusses the investigation of human behaviour online (with the assertion that online behaviour is not offline behaviour online) and human communication in a technical context. This book had me from the beginning when, in the author’s forward, he discusses presenting to a crowded room from a laptop provided by the organisers. Ascending to the podium, he looks at the laptop and says “Oh-oh. Not Joseph’s laptop. Joseph not familiar. Very scary. Ooh”.

How could you resist reading further?

This book is full of “That’s it EXACTLY!” moments. For example, when describing the ways in which social media communities are created, the question of out-sourced support desks is raised. We’ve all heard the stories about call centres in India being staffed with help technicians who have been taught localised slang and cultural norms. The reason behind this is that even if you are being helped efficiently, your faith in the system and the process will be weakened if you cannot identify in some way with the person on the other end of the line. You send out Signal X, you expect Response Y. If you get Response A, you’re all at sea.

This reminded me of a recent call to my Visa providers when my card had been suspended for unusual online activity (which, funnily enough, was my membership payment to the Web Analytics Association from Hungary!). I’m not a phone person as I like to either engage people face-to-face or via textual exchanges (yes, I’m one of THOSE). However, because I live in Hungary and have limited contact with Irish folk, I happily spent 5 or 10 minutes on the phone to the Irish call center with many’s the merry “begorrah and begosh” because I was so comfortable in what I perceived to be a familiar environment. The rest of my day was spent loving Visa because of that chat with Mary in Dublin.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of enthralling insights in “Reading Virtual Minds”.

So, understand this, your bookshelf is naked without ”Social Media Metrics” and “Reading Virtual Minds”. Cover it up, for goodness sake. Will no-one think of the children?

Educating the Measurers – the UBC Web Analytics course

Exxx — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:00:59 +0000

I just finished the fourth and final module of the University of British Colombia Web Analytics course, loftily called an “Award of Achievement” and thought I would impart my thoughts on the program.

About the course

This fully online course is offered by the University of British Colombia in association with the Web Analytics Association and is comprised of four modules:

Introduction to Web Analytics

This module does exactly what it says on the tin by introducing the student to the concepts of web analysis, KPIs, SEO, campaigns etc. This unit is a pre-requisite for the other three, but may be skipped on successful completion of a prior learning assessment. I, however, thoroughly enjoyed it (my tutor, Jeff Young, was tremendously engaged and helpful throughout) and it led me to some interesting investigations into cookie perceptions – you can see the blog posts here and here. While I was already familiar with the concepts, there were some very interesting case studies in the course material and discussions with students with varying levels of experience were quite enlightening.

Web Analytics for Site Optimization

Persona models, character diamonds and masks were introduced in this module – all of which were relatively new to me in this form. We looked at visitor behaviour and activity and the assignments behind these led me to some deep-in-thought-on-the-bus-to-a-point-where-I-missed-my-stop introspection regarding the limitations of tracking in the face of miscreant visitors (leading me to ask What happens when sheep behave like people?).
At this point, you might wonder if the course is simply blog fodder, but press on, there’s more!

Measuring Marketing Campaigns Online

I found this module quite challenging in terms of the material offered (see The Cons), but fascinating in terms of the assignments, which really allowed the creative (I know, fantastic pun) side some breathing room. We looked at the various methods of campaigning and explored the effectiveness of online and offline efforts, focussing on areas like: landing pages bereft of relevance to related paid search campaigns (a personal pet peeve – one of a legion, to be fair).

Creating and Managing the Analytical Business Culture

This was probably the most demanding of the four modules in terms of the fact that it deals with the intangible topic of driving change in a business through web analytics. Topics in this unit covered the characteristics of a web analytics manager, models of data collection and fashioning a data-driven culture. All of this was from more of a management perspective and forced us to look at everything we’d learned from a new angle.

The Pros

I very much enjoyed doing this course. I found myself reading some amazing books and blogs that I might previously have missed had I not been researching for assignments. I was involved in some great discussions and my eyes were opened on a couple of topics I’d only viewed from one perspective. Some of the assignments were downright fun and overall the resources provided in the online “Moodle” environment were great.

As an incentive to do well, if one were needed, each year the student with the highest grade across all four modules is awarded the Jim Novo Award of Academic Excellence. Who wouldn’t want that?

The Cons

The course materials provided definitely need refreshing. Most of the lectures appeared to be from 2006. In some modules, like the introductory one, this did not matter too much, but in Module 3, Measuring Marketing Campaigns online, it was especially frustrating. Sentences like “Flash tracking may take off, we’ll have to wait and see” (I’m paraphrasing) made some of the information seem desperately dated.

The discussion assignments, conversations conducted in an online forum on a particular topic, can be quite stilted and it is very difficult to know if you have done enough – especially, I would surmise, for those who enter the conversation late and just appear to parrot what’s been said previously, which is surely difficult to avoid. The key seemed to be to get in early, get your point across and force everyone else to have to react to you (Me? Gameplan? Naaaahh!).

It is a shame that there isn’t a requirement for students to participate in at least one non-assignment discussion – you can only get out of this course what you put in, and you could almost hear the wind whistling in the desert in some modules due to the lack of input in the online forum. I imagine it would be quite easy to pass the course with a minimum of effort if all you wanted was the entry on your CV (perhaps to some, this is not a “Con”?).

Would I recommend it to a friend?

Absolutely! However, bear in mind that this is about learning about the background and theory of web analytics – you will not magically be a web analyst or super-powered analyst at the end. Nothing replaces experience. But, if nothing else, this course is a wonderful resource of resources and comprises lectures provided by some of the best and brightest in the industry.
In terms of other web analytics education and industry-involvement, consider the following:

The Web Analytics Association Certification (ETA early-ish 2010): this aims to certify analysts with hands-on experience in the field of web analytics.
Joining and volunteering at the Web Analytics Association.
Joining the Web Analytics forum on Yahoo! Groups.
Finding or holding a Web Analytics Wednesday in your area.
Unashamedly stalking industry leaders, evangelists, analysts, vendors, practitioners, students etc on Twitter – this is my list, though I’m sure I’m missing a few jewels. Further stalking can be accomplished by following blogs (see my blogroll for a small selection of some of the great blogs out there)
Checking out the brand spanking new Analysis Exchange and getting involved.

There are lots of other ways to learn more about web analytics and immerse yourself in the discipline, so get up, get out, get involved and get me a cappuccino while you’re there!

Note: for a more detailed run-down on the individual UBC WA modules, I recommend Russell Smith’s blog series which begins here.

[Update: Also coming up in 2010 is "Web Analytics Without Borders" from the Web Analytics Association - learn more here. What an interesting year we have coming up!]