[LINK] What we want web-wise

[Tom Worthington]

Tim Jones will talk on "Using Firefox and JavaScript to Combat Apathy 
among Experiment Participants" at the ANU, 10 December 2009: 
<http://cs.anu.edu.au/lib/seminars/seminars09/dept20091210>.

This work has wide applicability to anyone wanting to find out what 
people like to look at on the web. I recommend the talk for government 
and commercial web practitioners, as well as academics and researchers.

It is good to see someone is worrying about real research, while the 
rest of us are at the government broadband talk-fest in Sydney. ;-)

     Seminar Announcement

     School of Computer Science, CECS
     The Australian National University

     Date: Thursday, 10 December 2009
     Time: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
     Venue: Room N101, CSIT Building [108]

     Speaker: Tim Jones

     Title: Using Firefox and JavaScript to Combat Apathy among
     Experiment Participants


     Abstract:
     A simple way to conduct web search quality experiments is
     to log user behaviour when using a new front end (that we
     provide) to a commercial web search engine. Unfortunately,
     users tend to stop using these new front ends after the
     initial novelty period has worn off. This makes it difficult
     to collect data about real user behaviour when using web
     search engines.

     In this talk, we firstly describe the widely used experimental
     framework that users seem to stop using. Next, we investigate
     this drop off in user participation, discuss some probable
     reasons, and then present a couple of ways one might alter
     the experiment design to ensure users continue to participate.
     We then illustrate the design and construction of a Firefox
     addon to augment search engine result pages. The addon is
     written in JavaScript using the popular jQuery library, which
     makes data acquisition very simple. The talk will include
     a quick jQuery primer, as it is a useful tool for anyone
     wanting to manipulate or extract information from web pages.


     Biography:
     Timothy Jones is a PhD student in the ANU Department of
     Computer Science. His primary research interest is Information
     Retrieval, but he also enjoys a piece of cake and a good cup
     of tea. ...

     From: Using Firefox and JavaScript to Combat Apathy among 
Experiment Participants, ANU School of Computer Science, 2009


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274