Categories: RattleBag and Rhubarb

“All others bring data”

I am old enough to remain in awe of the connectivity of the internet.

It reminds me of the excitement I felt as a child – tuning into the world on the family wireless shortwave band – music from North Africa, news from Radio Moscow, and pop, rock and the novelty of radio commercials from Radio Luxembourg. I can still recite some of them now.”D E C C A spells Decca, Decca” and “The time by my H.Samuel Everite watch…”

The static, the interference, and the wait for the tube to warm up were all part of the magic.

When I started this blog I added a site meter. This enables me to track visitors and gather a whole range of data – all kinds of information about country of origin, length of stay, number of page views, and distance from Poughkeepsie. I can see some this information displayed as a list, as a chart and on a world map. I don’t know how useful this could ever be but I certainly find it interesting. So far there have been hits from eleven countries, three Canadian provinces and seven states. This chart shows the percentage breakdown by country. Most hits are coming via the PDS website link but several are from search engines and searches for the school. The traffic is low so if you are reading this you are currently in an exclusive minority.

I enjoy knowing that a visitor from the University of Latvia spent 4 minutes 44 seconds while my visitor from New Dehli stayed 90 seconds.

That is interesting to me but not a great deal of use to anyone.

Like a lot of data.

*In God We Trust; all others bring data! originates with W. Edwards Deming.

Josie Holford

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