- From: Christine Perey <cperey@perey.com>
- Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:24:24 +0200
- To: Harry Halpin <hhalpin@ibiblio.org>
- CC: Ted Thibodeau Jr <tthibodeau@openlinksw.com>, Social Web XG <public-xg-socialweb@w3.org>
> On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 5:46 PM, Ted Thibodeau Jr wrote: ><snip> >> These maps aren't terribly interesting to me. They (appear to) show >> only the most popular (measured how? regular users? registrants?) >> site/network/service in a given country. > Yes, it is terribly time consuming and difficult to perform a global as well as detailed/granular assessment. Unclear to whom this process would provide value. I don't think there are sufficient number of buyers for this information at its "true cost" to even break even on the effort necessary. As I said in my presentation to the SWXG in July 2009 and to other audiences, metrics are terribly important however they have received virtually no attention from either the commercial universe (those who really should be asking how their value is determined) or anyone else, including this XG. Without a consistent metric implemented across all communities, anyone can say any numbers they wish. Convenient, eh? >> >> This fails to show whether a site/network/service is of interest to >> a region within a country ... or whether it is only interesting to >> *one* country ... or whether it has smaller but broader interest, >> with users across many countries in a region, though it does not >> dominate any country ... among other more useful comparisons. > > Region is ill-defined. Anyways, if you can find any better maps or > graphics, do tell me, but you might need to pose a limited set of > questions that such a visualization should anser. I think we need at > least one, but I don't really have the time or talent to make one :) > I recommend that the lack of a "good" map or graphic should be reported as a finding (not be ignored). >> >> Given that they were built on many-eyes, it seems likely that the >> underlying data should be not-too-difficult to get, and thus that >> some of the above questions could be answerable, and those answers >> presented ... in which case I'm more inclined to favor inclusion. >> >> As they stand, I don't think either is worth inclusion. Actually, IMHO, they should both (or all) be included as part of an appendix to point out that facebook has the largest number of accounts and that other than this statement, the lack of consistent metrics, and (if we had them) absence of systematic reporting to a central repository (as there is for telephony providers) it is not possible to build and maintain an accurate and detailed view of how social networks play a role in people's lives. The exception to this general observation is mobile Social Networking. Check-ins/logins from mobile devices and data traffic between a social network server and community members' mobile devices can be measured at multiple points (the operator of the network and the operator of the service) and probably provide meaningful information, however, these are not published by any community provider. Going one step beyond this, I think we can ask ourselves rhetorically, if it is more or less likely that companies or users will be able to measure social Web activity (whatever units used would need to be explored and eventually agreed upon) in the future with a federated social Web. My hunch is that the situation will remain just as unclear (or less measurable) unless there is a concerted effort to build metrics into user agents or servers. Christine >> >> Be seeing you, >> >> Ted >> >> >> -- >> A: Yes. http://www.guckes.net/faq/attribution.html >> | Q: Are you sure? >> | | A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. >> | | | Q: Why is top posting frowned upon? >> >> Ted Thibodeau, Jr. // voice +1-781-273-0900 x32 >> Evangelism& Support // mailto:tthibodeau@openlinksw.com >> // http://twitter.com/TallTed >> OpenLink Software, Inc. // http://www.openlinksw.com/ >> 10 Burlington Mall Road, Suite 265, Burlington MA 01803 >> http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/uda/ >> OpenLink Blogs http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/virtuoso/ >> http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/ >> Universal Data Access and Virtual Database Technology Providers >> >> >> >> >> >> > > >
Received on Friday, 27 August 2010 09:24:58 UTC