Summary
The website has been running smoothly and consistently. We are seeing a stabilization of the number of visits and increased access to the news posted on the website. Detailed figures are provided in the Analytics section. The website also hosted the School of IT website for the third consecutive year.
Over the past few months, the mailing-list and media server (hosted at University of Notre Dame) has become less reliable, and crashed a few weeks ago as the result of malevolent hacking. Although no data was lost and the server is currently being restored, the Online Committee recommends the exploration of alternative solutions. Several options are outlined in the Mailing and Media Files section, and we would like to receive feedback from the BoG.
Software development has focused on bug fixing and minor improvements. Future plans are laid out in the Software Development section, but might be modified pending feedback from the BoG regarding mailing lists alternatives. The Online Committee expects to operate within its budget.
Mailing Lists and Media Files
The mailing lists and media files are currently hosted and maintained at no cost at the University of Notre Dame. Although the server had been running reasonably smoothly since 2006, it has become less reliable over the past few months and had to be restarted on several occasions. The server crashed mid-June after an account was hacked into, and is currently being restored. No data was lost, but the operating system was damaged and requires a full reinstallation. It is expected that the server will be up and running within 2-3 weeks. Given the importance of mailing lists and media files, the Online Committee has outlined several possible options for future operation.
Options for mailing lists
- Option 1: Keep current configuration. Despite the recent disruptions, the mailing server has run reasonably well over the past 5 years. Notre Dame has been providing hosting and maintenance at no cost and their IT people have been responsive and helpful when problems occurred. This solution gives us flexibility and full control over the mailing lists, but we must accept some disruptions.
- Option 2: Keep current configuration but host at GT. Hosting the mailing lists at GT will not fundamentally change the situation, but might reduce recovery time after disruptions.
- Option 3: Delegate mailing list hosting to IEEE. IEEE offers mailing list services, which are detailed at http://eleccomm.ieee.org/maillist.shtml . IEEE only provides hosting, list management is still under the responsibility of list owner. While this solution offers less flexibility than hosting the lists ourselves, it is likely that the service will suffer from fewer disruptions.
- Option 4: Replace mailing list by other mechanisms. The website offers alternative solutions that could eventually replace mailing lists. Presently, four mailing-lists are used on a regular basis
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- announcement list. The list is typically used to advertise conferences or call for papers relevant to the IT community; the information is often redundant with a news item or an event posted on the website. Instead of subscribing to the mailing list, IT community members could subscribe to an RSS feed, which can be visualized in most email applications; a notification is received whenever a new item or event is posted. This service is already available for testing by subscribing to the RSS feeds http://www.itsoc.org/news-events/recent-news/ and http://www.itsoc.org/news-events/upcoming-events/ . This solution would also simplify list management tremendously (no SPAM, subscription is the responsibility of the end-user)
- bog announce lists. One could replace the bog-announce mailing list by providing a simpler mechanism to contact all bog members. The list of BoG members is already available on the website as a PeopleList, and we could add a "Contact List" button on the page. Further software development would be required to ensure that this option is only available to list members. This solution would also simplify list management since the list of BoG members on the website is easier to update than the current mailing list. Note that this functionality would also be made available to all PeopleList on the website, hence providing a simple means of communication for chapters, committees, etc.
- bog discuss list. The bog discuss seems seldom used, but it could be replaced by a (private) discussion page on the website. An example of discussion is illustrated [ here ].
- bog-vote. The bog-vote could be replaced by a mechanism similar to that for the bog-announce list.
Options for media files
- Option 1: Keep current configuration.
- Option 2: Keep current configuration but host at GT.
- Option 3: Host media files elsewhere. As part or the ongoing efforts to provide better visibility for all our media content, the Online Committee has been discussing various solutions with SixFeetUp. Hosting on Vimeo was abandoned because of potential violations of terms of usage. Currently, the Online Committee is investigating the possibility of hosting videos on a YouTube channel.
The Online Committee recommends the solutions to phase out the mailing lists, but would like to obtain feedback from the BoG on these different options.
Analytics
The last five months of web traffic show over 300 visits / day with 60.08% from search engines, 23.85% from direct traffic, and 16.07% from referring sites. The table below compares various analytics between the six-month periods of 09/01/2010-02/05/2011 and 02/05/2011-07/30/2011.
| Statistic | 09/01/2010-02/05/2011 | 02/05/2011-07/30/2011 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visits | 41,033 | 45,504 | +10.90% |
| Pageviews | 116,512 | 137,159 | +17.72% |
| Pages/Visit | 2.84 | 3.01 | +6.15% |
| Bounce Rate | 59.18% | 58.23% | -1.62% |
| Avg. Time | 2:31 | 2:34 | +1.87% |
| New Visits | 50.92% | 46.98% | -7.75% |
All of the above statistics may be self explanatory except for bounce rate , which is the percentage of single-page visits. The growth in visits overall is encouraging; other number suggest that the community has grown a bit more accustomed to the site over time.
Of 160 countries represented in the past six months, the top 20 countries in terms of visits are summarized in the following table.
| Country | 09/01/2010-02/05/2011 | 02/05/2011-07/30/2011 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 13,201 | 16,973 | +28.57 |
| China | 2,485 | 2,958 | +19.03% |
| Canada | 2,319 | 2,250 | -3.98% |
| India | 2,132 | 2,097 | -1.64% |
| Japan | 1,336 | 1,969 | +47.38% |
| Germany | 1,686 | 1,715 | +1.72% |
| France | 1,645 | 1,458 | -11.37% |
| Iran | 1,742 | 1,324 | -24.00% |
| United Kingdom | 987 | 997 | +1.01% |
| South Korea | 949 | 992 | +4.53% |
| Greece | 848 | 884 | +4.25% |
| Turkey | 812 | 865 | +6.53% |
| Sweden | 679 | 770 | +13.40% |
| Spain | 660 | 733 | +11.06% |
| Russia | 526 | 708 | +34.60% |
| Australia | 731 | 653 | -10.67% |
| Israel | 573 | 624 | +8.90% |
| Taiwan | 751 | 619 | -17.58% |
| Switzerland | 557 | 534 | -4.13% |
| Italy | 445 | 520 | +16.85% |
| Page name | Pageviews |
|---|---|
| 2011 school | 5,948 |
| information for authors | 2,782 |
| upcoming conferences | 2,418 |
| 2009 school | 1,538 |
| news item | 1,288 |
Software Development
The objective remain the same as those outlined at ITA in February. The Online Committee will push the development of conference objects (for an easier and improved hosting of sub-websites, such as the School) and embedded videos (for better visibility of media content).
Conference Objects: The next round of software development will allow sub-websites to have customizable templates. The specifications have already been communicated to SixFeetUp and development will start once all the features currently under quality control are rolled over to the main website.