How is my web community developing? Monitoring trends in web service provision
| Pages | 82-95 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000007139 |
| Published date | 01 March 1999 |
| Date | 01 March 1999 |
| Author | Brian Kelly,Ian Peacock |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
HOW IS MY WEB COMMUNITY DEVELOPING? MONITORING
TRENDS IN WEB SERVICE PROVISION
BRIAN KELLY
and IAN PEACOCK
{b.kelly; i.peacock}@ukoln.ac.uk
UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY
As the World Wide Web continues its tremendous rate of develop-
ment, providers of services on the web have difficult decisions to
make regarding the deployment of new technologies: should they
begin deployment of technologies such as HTML 4.0, CSS 2, Java,
Dublin Core metadata, etc., or should they wait until the technolo-
gies mature? This paper describes the use of a web auditing/profiling
robot utility known as WebWatch which can help service providers
by providing information on the uptake of technologies within par-
ticular communities. A description of use of the WebWatch software
within the UK Higher Education community is given, together with
a discussion of the findings.
INTRODUCTION
The beleaguered webmaster
In the early days of the web life was easy for the webmaster, to use the popular, if
politically-incorrect term. A simple text editor (typically vi or emacs for the Unix
user or Notepad for the Windows user) or simple HTML authoring tool would
suffice for creating web pages. Add a graphical tool for creating and editing
images, and the webmaster could create a website which could make use of most
of the web technologies which were widely deployed in around 1994.
These days, however, life is much more difficult. Competition between the
browser software vendors has hastened the development of a wide range of web
technologies, many of which, sadly, appear to suffer from interoperability problems.
The web standards community, principally the World Wide Web Consortium, has
developed a range of new or updated web protocols (see article by Brian Kelly else-
where in this issue) although, again, there are reports of implementation problems.
As the web becomes increasingly used to support core business functions,
rather than simply as a noticeboard managed by enthusiasts in the IT department,
the webmaster faces pressures to begin deployment of new technologies. He, and
the webmaster is often male, is often not in a position to say no and point out
deployment and interoperability problems.
Web monitoring tools
Web auditing and monitoring tools can assist the beleaguered webmaster by pro-
viding information on the uptake of web technologies. Such tools can provide
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Journal of Documentation, Vol. 55, No. 1, January 1999
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Journal of Documentation, vol. 55, no. 1, January 1999, pp. 82–95
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