Interoperability Focus: Events


SWMLAC Workshop - 24 October 2005 - Benchmarking Web Sites

UKOLN will facilitate a workshop on Benchmarking Web Sites on Monday 24th October 2005 for SWMLAC (South West Museums, Libraries and Archives Council).

The workshop will be facilitated by Marieke Guy. The local contact is Virginia Havergal, SWMLAC.

Booking

The cost of the event is £20 and booking is via the RSC SW Web site.

The workshop will be held in Room T132 in the Tresillian Building at the Truro College. Campus maps are available from the College Web site. Free parking is available immediately outside the building.

Workshop Aims

The aims of the workshop are to enable staff working in cultural heritage organisations in the South West of England to make use of a variety of tools to evaluate their Web site and to make comparisons with their peers. This will enable participants to identify examples of best practices and areas in which improvements may be made. Following the hands-on session there will be a discussion of the findings followed by conclusions on possible follow-up actions.

Learning Objectives

The objectives of the workshop are:

Target Audience

This event is intended for staff that are managing, developing or supporting Web services and projects in museums, libraries, archives and community learning settings

Format

The workshop will consist of presentations, exercises and group discussions.

Draft Timetable

The draft timetable is given below.

Time Topic
10:00 Registration & Coffee
10:30 Welcome and Introduction
10:35 Presentation: Introduction To Benchmarking Web Sites - Marieke Guy
10:50 Hands-on session: Benchmarking Web Sites
12:20 Presentation: QA for Web sites - Marieke Guy
12:30 Lunch
13:15 Hands-on session: Benchmarking Web Sites (continued)
13:45 Report Back
14:00 (Virtual) Presentation: Benchmarking: Strengths And Weaknesses - Brian Kelly
14:15 Presentation: Accessibility and Usability - Marieke Guy
14:30 Hands-on session: Accessibility and Usability
15:30 Presentation: Where do we go from Here? - Marieke Guy
15:40 Conclusions
16:00 Workshop ends

Materials

Slides

Introduction to Benchmarking Web Sites
[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
QA for Web Sites
[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
Benchmarking: Strengths And Weaknesses
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/swmlac-2005-10/
Accessibility and Usability
[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
Where do we go from Here?
[HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

Exercises

Benchmarking Exercises
[MS Word 97/2000 format]
Usability Exercises
[MS Word 97/2000 format]
QA Exercises
[MS Word 97/2000 format]
Personal Action Plans
[MS Word 97/2000 format]

Surveys

Surveys of Participants' Web Sites
[HTML format]

Handouts

Particpants will receive a number of handouts including the following.

Top 10 Web Tips
QA Focus briefing document no. 55
Compliance with HTML Standards
QA Focus briefing document no. 01
Use Of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
QA Focus briefing document no. 34
Use of Automated Tools For Testing Web Site Accessibility
QA Focus briefing document no. 02
How To Evaluate A Web Site's Accessibility Level
QA Focus briefing document no. 12
Approaches To Link Checking
QA Focus briefing document no. 07

Annotations For Workshop

Wikalong
You can use the Wikalong page to provide your comments on this workshop.
Wikalong Extension For Firefox
If you are using the Firefox browser you can install the Wikalong sidebar.

URLs Used During Workshop

The following URLs will be used during the workshop.

Exercise Service URL
1.1 NetMechanic <http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm#html_sample>
1.2 Doctor HTML <http://www.doctor-html.com/RxHTML/>
1.3 Webscale Site Timer <http://www.webscale.com/cgi-bin/timer.dll?Mode=Timer>
1.5 404 Pages <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/
workshops/nemlac-2004-09/surveys/entry-points/
>
<http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/>
<http://www.plinko.net/404/>
<http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue20/404/>
2.1 Webxact <http://webxact.watchfire.com/>
2.2 The WAVE <http://wave.webaim.org/>
2.3 Visicheck <http://vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3>
2.4 W3C HTML Validation Service <http://validator.w3.org/>
2.5 Dr Watson <http://watson.addy.com/>
2.6 Link Alarm <http://www.linkalarm.com/>
3.1 Link Popularity <http://www.linkpopularity.com/>
3.2 Netmechanic <http://www.netmechanic.com/>
3.3 MarketLeap <http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/>
3.4 Google <http://www.google.co.uk/>
3.5 DCS <http://www.describethis.com/>
4.1 Browser Archive <http://browsers.evolt.org/>
4.2 Browser Emulators <http://www.dejavu.org/>
4.3 Lynx Emulator <http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html>
4.4 Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer <http://www.delorie.com/web/wpbcv.html>
4.5 AnyBrowser <http://www.anybrowser.com/>
5.1 Surveys <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/nemlac-2004-09/#survey
>
5.2 WebWatch Surveys <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/articles/#latest>
6.4 Search Engine Software <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/nemlac-2004-09/surveys/search-engines/
>
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/surveys/uk-he-search-engines/>
7.1 Web Server Analysis <http://www.somis.dundee.ac.uk/general/wizards/fetchhead.html>
7.2 Web Server Software <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/
events/workshops/nemlac-2004-09/surveys/http/
>

 

Other URLs

The following URLs may also be useful.

Browser Extensions

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/>

Evaluating Site Accessibility

Service URL
Color Readability Test <http://snow.utoronto.ca/readtest/>
Cynthia Says <http://www.cynthiasays.com/>
Web Metrics Testbed <http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/webmet/>
Vischeck <http://vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3>

Evaluating Your Organisational Home Page

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/>

Link Checker

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>

Link Popularity, Robot Checkers, etc

Service URL
LinkPopularity.com <http://www.linkpopularity.com/>
LinkPopularityCheck.com <http://www.linkpopularitycheck.com/>
MarketleapLink Popularity <http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/>
Link Popularity Check, Uptimebot.com <http://www.uptimebot.com/>
Robots.txt Checker <http://tool.motoricerca.info/robots-checker.phtml>

WebWatch

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/>

[UKOLN] [Interoperability Focus]