If we’re talking general stats about who’s online and why, I tend to use the following sites, not just for the readily available free data but also for the crucial analysis:
- BBC
- CIA World Factbook
- ComScore
- Econsultancy
- The Economist
- Hitwise
- Ipsos MORI
- Mashable
- Neilsen Online
- Ofcom
- ONS
- OxIS
- Pew Internet
- Techcrunch
- World Internet Project
What about you?
If you’re in the government or public sector and you’ve been thinking about surfacing data and putting it online, but are wondering what’s involved, let me point you to ‘Putting Government Data online‘ (www.w3.org/DesignIssues/GovData.html), a short article on the subject by Tim Berners-Lee.
The abstract runs:
Government data is being put online to increase accountability, contribute valuable information about the world, and to enable government, the country, and the world to function more efficiently. All of these purposes are served by putting the information on the Web as Linked Data. Start with the “low-hanging fruit”. Whatever else, the raw data should be made available as soon as possible. Preferably, it should be put up as Linked Data. As a third priority, it should be linked to other sources. As a lower priority, nice user interfaces should be made to it — if interested communities outside government have not already done it. The Linked Data technology, unlike any other technology, allows any data communication to be composed of many mixed vocabularies. Each vocabulary is from a community, be it international, national, state or local; or specific to an industry sector. This optimizes the usual trade-off between the expense and difficulty of getting wide agreement, and the practicality of working in a smaller community. Effort toward interoperability can be spent where most needed, making the evolution with time smoother and more productive.
'Untitled' by Robert Longo
I feel cool just looking at it. Which these days is a good thing.
This amazing phtograph is from Longo’s 2009 YINGXIONG (HEROES) Series.
'Between Red-39' by Sea Hyun Lee
This stood out at first because it evoked thoughts of a mystical mountanous lost world created by a collage; then it reminded me of Chinese restaurants (?!); then I was surprised to discover it was done in oils on canvas.
What a feat of artistry! I think it’s wonderful.
The talent in question Sea Hyun Lee. You can gaze over more of the ‘Red Between’ series on the Union Gallery site.
Think I first saw it on ffffound.
- Are you an average web user?
- What makes some people upgrade their connection, while others don’t even have dial up?
- Why do some people think they spend too much time online?
- Why do so many of us trust what we read on the web?
These questions answered and more by the 2009 Oxford Internet Survey produced by Oii.
'They' by Micah Lidberg
Mixed-media eerieness from Kansas City, illustrator, Micah Lidberg.
Desktop selections have being pretty ‘dark’ lately.
'Crows' by Louise Z Pomeroy
Louise Z Pomeroy is a fantastic young illustrator whose stuff is all a bit subtly twisted and distrubing. I picked this out because it was one of the least edgy options that would be suitable for my office, and also because corvids are my favourite family of birds. That OK?
Hat-tip to Booooooom for the find.
Evaluation has always been important to digital engagement – what did you set out to achieve, did you get there, what metrics did you use to reach that conclusion?
There is a particularly big push on at the moment because Andrew Stott, the new Director of Digital Engagement, has indicated that identifying ‘best practice’ in this area as one of his early priorties.
At a recent Heads of Digital Engagement meeting, Stephen Hale, Head of Digital Diplomacy at FCO, gave a thorough, frank and superbly produced evaluation of the digital engagement activity around the recent London Summit.
The London Summit evaluation report – the numbers, the performance indicators, the channel combinations and user surveys – has been published on the Summit website.
Anyone who is interested in evaluation of digital engagement ought to read the report, particularly ahead of running any big set-piece events that combine the on- and the offline. That said, they don’t come much bigger than the London Summit.
For more of a ’snapshot’ of day-to-day digital engagement activity, check out the results of Emma Mulqueeny’s tweet-round, which captured what various departments, agencies and local government authorities use on a daily basis to work with and in response to the media.
