NEMLAC Workshop Sept 2004 - Benchmarking Web Sites
NEMLAC Workshop Sept 2004 - Benchmarking Web SitesBrian Kelly facilitated a workshop on Benchmarking Web Sites for NEMLAC (North East Museums, Libraries and Archives Council). The workshop was held at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle on Thursday 16th September 2004 (see Multimap for location). The local contact is Neil Bowerbank, Head of eStrategy.
This event will provide an opportunity for cultural heritage organisations in the NEMLAC region to benchmark their Web site by making use of a range of Web-based tools. Participants will compare their findings in order to try to identify examples of best practices and areas in which improvements may be made. Following the hands-on session there will be a presentation outlining some of the issues associated with this approach to benchmarking. The event will conclude by a group discussion on possible follow-up actions, including quality assurance techniques which can be deployed in order to ensure that Web sites comply with appropriate standards and best practices and strategies for disseminating such approaches across organisations.
The workshop will consist of presentations, hands-on exercises and group discussions.
The workshop will require a networked PC and projection device for the facilitator. Since the workshop is an interactive one, a PC room containing a networked PC for each delegate will also be required.
The workshop is suitable for between 12-25 participants. Each participant should have access to a PC.
The workshop is aimed at Web managers and developers in cultural heritage organisations in the NEMLAC region. It may also be possible, subect to discussions with NEMLAC to include participants from related commercial bodies, such as Web developers involved in work for the cultural heritage sector.
Please note the following materials are those used for previous benchmarking workshops. They will be unpdated nearer to the workshop.
The draft timetable is given below.
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 10:00 | Registration & Coffee |
| 10:15 | Welcome |
| 10:30 | 'Introduction To Benchmarking Web Sites' - Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus |
| 11:00 | 'Benchmarking Web Sites' - hands-on session |
| 12:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 | 'Benchmarking Web Sites' - hands-on session (continued) |
| 14:30 | Report Back |
| 14:45 | QA |
| 15:00 | Discussion |
| 15:30 | Conclusions |
| 16:00 | Workshop ends |
Please note that the timetable is subject to change.
The following URLs will be used during the workshop.
The following URLs may also be useful.
| Service | URL |
|---|---|
| Bookmarklets | <http://www.bookmarklets.com/> |
| Cacheability Engine | <http://www.ircache.net/cgi-bin/cacheability.py?action=show_ext> |
| Extending Your Browser | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue19/web-focus/> |
| WebWatch Services | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/services/> |
| Service | URL |
|---|---|
| Color Readability Test | <http://snow.utoronto.ca/readtest/> |
| Web Metrics Testbed | <http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/webmet/> |
| Vischeck | <http://vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3> |
| Service | URL |
|---|---|
| Dr HTML | <http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/> |
| NetMechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/> |
| InternetSeer | <http://www.internetseer.com/> |
| NetMechanic Monitoring Service | <http://www.netmechanic.com/monitor.htm> |
| Watchdog | <http://watchdog.superstats.com/> |
| Alertsite | <http://alertsite.com/freetrial/> |
| WebWatch Services | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/services/> |
| Dr Watson | <http://watson.addy.com/> |
| LinkAlarm | <http://www.linkalarm.com/> |
| NetMechanic Maintenance Service | <http://www.netmechanic.com/maintain.htm> |
| SiteValet | <http://valet.webthing.com/> |
| This Old Mouse | <http://www.thisoldmouse.com/> |
| Webmaster-Toolkit | <http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/> |
| Service | URL |
|---|---|
| Netmechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/> |
| Nodeworks | <http://www.nodeworks.com/> |
| Site valet | <http://valet.webthing.com/> |
| Xenu | <http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html> |
| LinkTool | <http://www.linktool.com/> |
| Usable Web | <http://usableweb.com/topics/000811-0-0.html> |
| Service | URL |
|---|---|
| A Survey Of Links to UK University Web Sites | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue23/web-watch/> |
| A Survey Of Numbers of UK University Web Servers | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/web-watch/> |
| A Survey Of Web Server Software Used In UK University Web Sites | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/web-watch/> |
| Showing Robots the Door | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue15/robots/> |
| UK University Search Engines | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/webwatch/> |
| Web Watch: 404s - What's Missing? | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue20/404/> |
| WebWatching UK Universities and Colleges | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue12/web-focus/> |
| What's Related To My Web Site? | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/web-watch/> |
Workshop participants completed the online evaluation form (password needed) .
The FAST service was used to provide an online evaluation of the event. The results are available:
