UCISA User Services Conference - April 2002Brian Kelly (UKOLN) ran a workshop session on Benchmarking Your IT Services Web Site at the UCISA User Services Conference 2002 on The 24hr University: Stretching the Limits which took place at the University of Leeds on 8-10th April 2002.
The session took place on Wednesday 10th April from 11:00-12:00.
This hands-on workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to benchmark their departmental Web site by evaluating various aspects of their Web site and making comparisons with comparable Web sites within the HE/FE sector.
Exercises which will be attempted will include evaluation of the accessibility and compliance with standards for key resources on their Web sites, linkages to the Web site, performance monitoring, etc.
Participants will be provided with a set of exercises. Participants will be able to make use of the exercises once they return to their institution.
The advantages and disadvantages of this approach to benchmarking Web sites will be discussed.
The workshop is a interactive one, and participants will make use of a number of Web tools and utilities.
The following URLs will be used during the workshop.
| Exercise | Service | URL |
| 1.1 | NetMechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm> |
| 1.2 | Bobby | <http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/> |
| 1.5 | UK University Web Entry Points | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/> |
| 2.3 | W3C HTML Validation Service | <http://validator.w3.org/> |
| 2.5 | Web Stress | <http://www.web-server-tools.com/tools/WebStress/> |
| 2.6 | Link Alarm | <http://www.linkalarm.com/> |
| 3.1 | Link Popularity | <http://www.linkpopularity.com/> |
| 3.4 | Statistics | <http://www.cultivate-int.org/> |
| 4.2 | Browser Emulators | <http://www.dejavu.org/> |
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/> |
| EchoEcho | <http://www.echoecho.com/> | |
| Entuity | <http://www.entuity.com/> | |
| e-TEST Suite | <http://www.rswsoftware.com/> | |
| Freshwater's SiteScope | <http://www.freshwater.com/SiteScope.htm> | |
| Keynote Systems | <http://www.keynote.com/iw.html> | |
| MercuryInteractive | <http://www.mercuryinteractive.com/> | |
| MercuryInteractive | <http://www-heva.mercuryinteractive.com/> | |
| Prutsman | <http://www.prutsman.com/> | |
| Servicemetrics | <http://www.servicemetrics.com/> | |
| Somix | <http://www.somix.com/> |
| Anybrowser | <http://www.anybrowser.com/> | |
| DejaVu (Browser Emulators) | <http://www.dejavu.org/> | |
| Evolt.org (archive of old browsers) | <http://browsers.evolt.org/> | |
| Lynx | <http://www.slcc.edu/webguide/lynxit.html> (No longer available) | |
| Wapilizer | <http://www.gelon.net/> |
| AltaVista | <http://www.altavista.com/> | |
| LinkPopularity | <http://www.linkpopularity.com/> | |
| NetMechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/powerpack/tracker.htm#free> | |
| Searchenginewatch's Guidelines I | <http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/checkurl.html> | |
| Searchenginewatch's Guidelines II | <http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/popularity.html> |
| Bobby | <http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/> | |
| Color Readability Test | <http://snow.utoronto.ca/readtest/> | |
| WAVE | <http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/webmet/> | |
| Wave 2.01 | <http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave> | |
| Vischeck | <http://vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3> | |
| Web Accessibility | <http://www.w3.org/WAI/report/> |
| Dr HTML | <http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/> |
| NetMechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/> |
| WebSiteGarage | <http://websitegarage.netscape.com/> |
| InternetSeer | <http://www.internetseer.com/> |
| NetMechanic Monitoring Service | <http://www.netmechanic.com/monitor.htm> |
| Watchdog | <http://watchdog.mycomputer.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/> |
| Linkguard | <http://www.linkguard.com/> |
| 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> |
| Software in Use: | <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/software-used/> |
| Freshwater Software | <http://www.freshtech.com/> |
| Web Criteria | <http://www.webcriteria.com/> |
| WebKing | <http://www.thewebking.com/products/webking/> |
| 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/> |
| Rolling Demonstration of UK University Web Entry Points | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/> |
| Rolling Demonstration of UK University 404 Error Pages | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/university-404-pages/> |