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Access to wide area networked workshop abstracts:Preliminary observations and users' behaviour

Introduction | Methods | Results | Discussion

Materials and Methods

In February 1996 it was decided to conduct an eight-week investigation into the accessing of a 96 abstract resource base, part of the EU Directorate General XII MAST programme. The survey was designed to elicit details concerning:

  1. the identity of users
  2. their country of origin
  3. exactly what parts of the web site each user visited
  4. how long the visit lasted

It was felt that this was the minimum amount of detailed user knowledge necessary for informed choices to be made concerning future development. Those responsible for site development and maintenance devised and adapted software able to provide answers to most of the above questions.

At the beginning of February, the IMBC had run a three-day MAST workshop with 150 participants, being also contracted to provide a volume of extended abstracts for each participant. It was decided to make these abstracts available online, a decision made possible for three reasons:

  1. IMBC had hosted the workshop and had already put some information online
  2. IMBC had prepared all the abstracts for publication and therefore had all the material on diskette, in a usable format
  3. Copyright ownership was not an issue as the MAST organisers readily grantedpermission to use the materials

The extended abstracts were online on Friday, February 9, less than a week after the workshop had ended.

Introduction | Methods | Results | Discussion

 

 

 

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