Eric T. Peterson wrote an open call to President Elect Barack Obama today, asking the new Chief Technology Officer of the United States, when he or she is appointed, to push for use of First Party Cookies on most Governent sites.

In much the same way that President Obama has to give up his Blackberry upon taking office next month, due to privacy regulations that are difficult to update, so is the Federal Goverment inhibited from using data analytics for insight gathering.

But there are certainly arguments for allowing data collection for insight that does not violate privacy and, I believe, it’s doable.

In fact,this is an area where The Wen Analytics Association can help, by enforcing Peterson’s Open Call (we’re on it) AND creating frameworks and guidence documentation satisfying how data collected can be used while not invading privacy issues (and we need to do that, as well).

Why now, and not before?

Because, the new administration has a much more progressive agenda, is more open and technology savvy, and is likely to try moving forward on making web technology and tracking a way of listening to what citizens want.

And I feel, as web analysts, we could support this progressive agenda by providing firepower for it, via framework documents.

Just a thought on this Wednesday in November.

BTW, this post was created on my IPhone, no hyperlinks and limmited spell/grammer checking, but otherwise a great way to blog.

The Web Analytics Association is producing a Webcast on Understanding Customers Through Data: Web Analytics, Audience and Advertising Measurement on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 12:00 Noon, EST, which I'm speaking in; you can register to attend the Webcast here.

Here's more information from the WAA Site about this webcast:

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WAA Webcast Series: Understanding Customers Through Data: Web Analytics, Audience and Advertising Measurement

Thursday, June 19, 2008
12:00 PM EDT/9:00 AM PDT

Learn more about the metrics, methods and tools used by online marketing analytics practitioners, online advertising media and audience measurement organizations. Find out how to use these metrics and tools to better understand your customers, your website’s competitive standing and overall website value. WAA members feel free to invite fellow web analysts who are not currently members!

Judah Phillips, Director of Web Analytics at Reed Business Information, will moderate a discussion among our panel of expert members.

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It's going to be interesting.  One thing that occurred to me is how much the subject of our talk is illuminated by material in the appendix of The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation.

In another one of my ideas - which I hope to mention at the Webinar, and which I already mentioned today in the rehearsal to Josh Chasin, head of research at ComScore - is about developing a closer relationship between Audience Measurement tools based on panel data like ComScore, Nielsen and Web Analytics platforms (referred to as Site Side Analytics in the Online Advertising Playbook).

For example, ComScore MyMetrix already provides core reports on categories such as "Conversational Media" and "JobSearch" - these are based on sites (and specific pages within a site) the panel visits each month - why not make it easier for those URLs to be used as segmentation in Web Analytics, as well?  

If my traffic from "Conversational Media" (Social Networks, Blogs and Message Forums) is 5%, according to ComScore (which doesn't, by the way, make it easy to come up with that information - you have to export the data into Excel in order to mash up the information with a Source/Loss report for the site your interested in) why can't the Analytics Platform running on my site tell me how much cookie based traffic I got from Conversational Media  - and compare the two?

Actually, what I'd like to see, is Google Analytics do it first.  

Why?  Google Analytics is already doing Benchmarking and a large number of accounts are participating and here's an area where Google Analytics could play to it's strengths. 

What to see what percentage of traffic your site got from any category that ComScore or Nielsen provides?  All Google has to do is take the URLs published in MyMetrix, for example, and create a bunch of custom definitions, filters, updated monthly, and then allow the data it's already collected to be segmented (if the account holder wants that) as a benchmark.

Anyway, I hope you'll register and attend the Webcast, or, if you read this post after the Webcast, go and listen to in the archives.

I hope everyone reading this will attend a free Webinar for Audience Measurement that I'll be part of on June 19th, 2008.  All the information about the webinar is repeated below.

Just one thing to think about -  What is a "Unique Visitor"?   I think the best way of looking at what a Unique Visitor and how to count Uniques is who wants the information.   We dealt with that question in our in person panel sessions in Toronto and San Francisco - during the Emetrics Summits that were held recently.

I look at Unique Visitors like Water -  Water exists as "solid", "liquid" and "gas" - and Unique Visitors exist in Web Analytics Platforms, in Ad Server Platforms (though I don't have any experience with AdServers, to be honest) and in Audience Measurement platforms like ComScore and Nielson.   Yet an unique visitor in one is really not quite the same thing as a unique vistor in the other two, yet all are called the same thing.

and that got  me to think about the Eutectic Point of Visitation - what is a Unique Visitor ….exactly?  A lot of it depends on how you want to measure it. 

Well, come to the Audience Measurement Webinar and find out….. 

Understanding Customers Through Data:
Web Analytics, Audience and Advertising Measurement

A WAA Webcast for Members and Non-members
Thursday, June 19, 2008
12:00 PM EDT/9:00 AM PDT

Are you confused about the number of customers visiting your website? Are the metrics reported by your web analytics tool different from the metrics reported by your online media, or by audience measurement organizations?

Learn more about the metrics, methods and tools used by online marketing analytics practitioners, online advertising media and audience measurement organizations. Find out how to use these metrics and tools to better understand your customers, your website's competitive standing and overall website value.

Judah Phillips, Director of Web Analytics at Reed Business Information, will moderate a discussion among our panel of expert members. Our speakers will include:

	Judah Phillips, Director of Web Analytics, Reed Business Information, Moderator Judah is Director of Web Analytics at Reed Business Information. He has been quoted in numerous publications, including BusinessWeek and MarketingSherpa. Judah is a member of and on several committees of both the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Web Analytics Association (WAA), blogs at Web Analytics Demystified, is the Boston host for "Web Analytics Wednesdays," and writes a column for MediaPost's Metrics Insider. He's spoken at leading industry events, such as eMetrics, XChange, AdobeMAX, and many more. He holds an MBA and an MS.
	Josh Chasin, Chief Research Officer, comScore, Inc Panelist Josh Chasin has spent the majority of his 28 year career in the field if audience measurement, and has been involved in the development or management of audience measurement services for TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, out-of-home, and the Internet. Josh is a member of numerous councils and committees, and is a regular contributor to the Mediapost Online metrics Insider column.
	Jodi McDermott, Director of Product Management, Clearspring Technologies Panelist Jodi has been working in web analytics since 2002 and joined Clearspring Technologies in September 2007 as the Director of Product Management for Analytics. Jodi's role is to shape and develop Clearspring's analytics offerings around measuring widgets. Prior to joining Clearspring, Jodi oversaw the web analytics team at the online cell phone retailer InPhonic and also worked in the Consulting Services group of Visual Sciences. For five years prior to that, Jodi managed the Business Solutions team and oversaw the implementation of the first off-the-shelf web analytics package at USATODAY.com. She is an active member of the Web Analytics Association and co-chairs the Social Media Standards subcommittee.
	Joe Shantz, Research Director, PhD Panelist Joe Shantz currently heads up research and customer insights for the West Coast offices of PHD, an Omnicom Media Agency. Joe has been in the consumer insights and analytics discipline for 14 years on both the agency and client side, and been in the web/digital media analytics space for 8 years. Most recently, Joe came from Turner Broadcasting where he helped to develop KPIs and best practices for Web Analytics for Turner's online and mobile properties including cnn.com (including CNN to Go), cartoonnetwork.com, pga.com, nascar.com, etc.
	Marshall Sponder, Web Metrics Analyst, Monster Worldwide Panelist Marshall Sponder is a Web Analyst and Artist who works for Monster Worldwide; he maintains his own Search Engine Marketing Consultancy and has several B2B and B2C clients. Marshall's blog, WebMetricsGuru.com is one of the most influential and viewed blogs on Web Metrics. Marshall also writes ArtNewYorkCity.com which covers the New York Art world along with his own art; Marshall writes for Smartmobs.com and Biggreenblog.com as well.

The session will be produced by the Web Analytics Association (WAA).

Don't miss it…register today!

Been so busy today that I had not the chance to post - but I'd like to show off some of the work my committee, Social Media, does at the Web Analytics Association, especially with our Social Network, WAASocial - Here's a meeting, over lunch, that we had yesterday in Soho, in the East Village, Manhattan:

Feel free to join WAASocial, by the way, if your interested in Metrics in some way:

Here's Part 1

And Here's part 2

I voted this morning in the once a year WAA Board Election (you need to be a voting member of the Web Analytics Association) - I wrote down my suggestions of who I'm planning (voted for) in a post I wrote a few weeks ago WAA Board of Directors Nominees 2008.

The process of running for a Board Seat is getting more competitive and I wonder what it'll be like next year when I run again - there are less open seats this year than last and more people running, some of them incumbents and fairly well known - to get elected this year, I think, someone is going to really need to ask everyone they know who can vote, to vote for them.

But this year it's a different ballot than last - you end up voting for everyone - you just have to decide what order you place all 17 candidates in - so - everyone gets voted on - it's just the order that makes that vote for a candidate have more or less weight.

Reading my earlier post WAA Board of Directors Nominees 2008 pretty much tells who I voted for first but I do think the choices this year are much harder - there are so many good people - I almost wish we had 17 seats on the Board of Directors so each one could be on it.

The voting will go on till the end of next week. 

The Web Analytics Association recently published the bios of all 17 nominees for the 6 Board seats currently expiring next month - the election will take place The election opens on March 24^th and closes on April 7^th, 2008.

I personally nominated three people to run for the Board of Directors - you can read all about it at

WAA Board of Directors Nominees 2008

I included members of my committee who are running as well as nominees who I'll definitely vote for.

You can get bios of all  seventeen qualified and committed nominees and now is a good time to start reading about and thinking of who you'll vote for if your a member of the Web Analytics Association.

And, if you are a member of the WAA, I do urge you to vote.

My Directorship is up for re-election next year, btw, and I do plan to run again - there's a lot work going on with the Social Media Committee and I'm honored to be part of it and I think we've accomplished a lot during the first year. 

In fact, Marianini Chaplin, Rachel Scotto, June Dershewitz and Enriqué Gonzales are all part of the Social Media Committee so I know them first hand and think they all should be elected to the WAA Board.

But I'm also very attached to the current Board of Directors - and a few are running for re-election - I don't think any of them will have a problem being re-elected, but I have special warmth for Richard Foley and Jim Sterne, as they've been very helpful to me and so I must vote for them also. April Wilson also deserves to be re-elected and I hope she will be.  And Avinash Kaushik and Jim Sterne - I'm not even worried they'll be re-elected - its as certain as anything can be.

Well, enough said for now - read my post on

WAA Board of Directors Nominees 2008

for more info. 

We're actually getting somewhere with drafting Social Media Standards thanks to the cooperation of the WAA Standards Committee and the WAA Social Media Committee which I'm the director of.

I wrote a bit about how that's going in

Web Analytics Definitions - Indextools and the WAA Wiki

As a matter of fact, we've opened the Wiki so that everyone can take a look at it - down the line, we'll go offline to take that data and draft into something similar to the WAA Web Analytics Standards released last year.

The WAA Wiki was mentioned briefly in a post at Demo.com titled Making Widgets Viral Puzzles Developers

"…What widgets are worth is being debated online on the Web Analytics Association’s new Wiki. Adding its validation, comScore, Inc. the popular Web-use measurement company, plans on making its widget usage data report more comprehensive."

I was actually invited to speak on a panel with ComScore - I asked Judah Phillips to attend the session in Toronto in my place - however, I do plan on speaking at them in the future - whenever the WAA and IAB get together and want to collaborate, I'll make it my business to be there.

"…Toronto, March 31^st, 2008 - WAA Community Meeting, Panel Discussion and Reception, 4:30 to 7:30 pm part of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit Toronto. Learn more."

I'm glad Judah Phillips will there, representing the Social Media Committee for the WAA.

It's been a learning experience working on WAASOCIAL, the Web Analytics Association's own Social Network.  While we're not really announcing anything at this time, our community Social Network is beginning to grow.

Here's a Widget that shows some of what we're beginning to do on WAASOCIAL:

I was happy to be part of the 2008 Industry Outlook Survey of over 500 marketing and analytics professionals that the Web Analytics Association released yesterday.  In fact, there's an post the WAA Blog today titled Presentation on the 2008 Member Outlook Survey - Richard Foley - WAA President that gives more details about the results of the Webinar and a way to provide feedback directly to the WAA (by leaving a comment).

Anyway, it's nice to know that Web Analytics is so hot, and while the economy goes down the tubes, more than 70% of businesses surveyed plan to Increase Spending on Web Analytics Training in 2008!

I knew about the content of The Future of Web Analytics is Here which is produced by the Web Analytics Association and sponsored by the eMetrics Optimization Summit.

What's interesting is that 69.5% said they were satisfied with their Web Analytics Vendor - I would have thought the customer satisfaction would be less.  Also, most people wanted to increase their knowledge of Web 2.0 more than anything else (they also want to know how segment customers and more about Search Optimization).

More than half the respondents (402) said that Marketing was responsible for Web Analytics.  I think this year, people want to use Web Analytics to drive business decisions, more than they did last year - but that's also going to be the biggest problems - making decisions based on Analytics.

Interestingly, getting higher ups buy in is less sought after today than last year. 

More than 70% of companies surveyed will increase spending on Web Analytics in 2008 and half will put money and time into add on tools for paid search.