[FM Discuss] Stats for downloads

Tue Sep 29 01:00:34 PDT 2009

On Mon, 2009-09-28 at 19:35 -0500, David Farning wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 5:03 PM, adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
> > On Mon, 2009-09-28 at 16:55 -0500, David Farning wrote:
> >
> > As I see it, showing a funder a quality well written manual that you
> > have produced in 5 days is a pretty good argument to doing it again. if
> > it needs backing up, get testimonials...any thoughts on this?
> 
> Having statistic is orthogonal to steering the ship.  Steering happens
> at a mission, vision, and values level.  Stats provide information
> about what we are doing operationally to achieve our mission, vision,
> and values.

I could not disagree more. Stats become the rule. I have worked in many
media organisations, not just this one, and I know very well what roles
stats play when linked to audiences. 

For example, from Annes quote :
":I asked about stats at Wintercamp... I think it would help with
decisions and priorities. Prioritizing Online vs Print decisions for
one, is an important question we can answer with stats-keeping."

This is EXACTLY why I do not want stats. It takes 5 minutes to make a
book...why do we need to prioritise which one gets made? make them all
if you have the time and energy to do so or make the one that interests
you. I want someone to do a Book Sprint on Ogg Theora and make a book,
even though there is less interest in it than a book on the Command
Line. When stats come into the picture should I have first worked out
first which book we should have made based on the numbers? No. We make a
book based on the passion and interest of those involved. 

If you want to know stats then host it somewhere that you get stats and
point everyone you want to that site. In fact I think more maintainers
should take responsibility to push their content through as many
channels as possible...why turn to FM and say "why dont you provide
stats?"...I could as easily ask you "why are you relying on us? why dont
you push your content through as many channels as possible?". Why do we
provide Objavi if you dont use it? Why, for example, is the Digital
Foundations crew the only ones pushing out the manual through torrent
networks? Why are the Sugar or CiviCRM manuals not also there? Take
responsibility for your content, get it out there as much as possible.
We are not your distribution agent.

Having said that, we will continue to host the content - because 1) its
free content and 2) because I believe content hosted on FM you gets the
benefit of an active and interested content development community - this
leads to updates, new versions, translation. 

adam

> 
> For example, when we do a media push, I track at our download stats,
> website hits, and commit numbers.  I look at overall size of the media
> bump and if there is any change is growth rates before and after the
> media event.
> 
> When talking to potential partners, they like to hear numbers.  One of
> their favorites is the fact that we have shipped over 600,000
> activities from http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/ over the
> last 4 months.  Combined with a 25% month to month growth rate, we are
> starting to look at numbers which cause people to sit up and listen.
> 
> Numbers don't steer the boat, but they help trim the sails to make the
> most out of the prevailing winds.
> 
> I'll see your 'steering the ship' analogy and raise you one 'trim the
> sails' analogy:)
> 
> david
> 
> 
> >> david
> >>
> >> > you are also more than welcome to host the pdf on your own site and
> >> > record the downloads there and use any tracking program you think is
> >> > appropriate
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > adam
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> I do think that knowing how many downloads per day/week/month and what
> >> >> sections of a book are most viewed are quite basic and should be
> >> >> provided. Integrating with an online package like google analytics or
> >> >> awstats cannot be too hard. We'd be happy to help install and maintain
> >> >> this package on the server
> >> >>
> >> >> lobo
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> adam hyde wrote:
> >> >> > hey
> >> >> >
> >> >> > ah stats stats...i think civicrm is about 500 downloads of the pdf a
> >> >> > month
> >> >> >
> >> >> > i cant tell u how many have read the pages (page views) since we dont
> >> >> > get that sort of info. i would estimate that a small minority of the
> >> >> > readers download the pdf, but what % i have no idea...
> >> >> >
> >> >> > adam
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > On Mon, 2009-09-28 at 18:13 +0100, Michael McAndrew wrote:
> >> >> >
> >> >> >> Hello people,
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> I'm looking at putting together download and sales stats for the
> >> >> >> CiviCRM manual for a funding application.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> I've found the following stats on lulu...
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> In "All-Time Revenue" under the "Total content tab", I found
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> CiviCRM Print - 26 sales
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Under the "Total zero creator revenues" tab I found
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> CiviCRM Print - 13
> >> >> >> CiviCRM Download - 122
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> So I am thinking that there have been 39 paper copies ordered and 122
> >> >> >> downloads from Lulu - can anyone confirm this?
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Can I also get download stats from flossmanuals.net?
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> PS.  Would be great if you could copy in lobo (see the to: line) in
> >> >> >> any replies to this email
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Thanks,
> >> >> >> Michael
> >> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> >> Discuss mailing list
> >> >> >> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> >> >> >> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
> >> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> > --
> >> > Adam Hyde
> >> > Founder FLOSS Manuals
> >> > German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
> >> > Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> >> > irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
> >> >
> >> > "Free manuals for free software"
> >> > http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > Discuss mailing list
> >> > Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> >> > http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
> >> >
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
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> > --
> > Adam Hyde
> > Founder FLOSS Manuals
> > German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
> > Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> > irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
> >
> > "Free manuals for free software"
> > http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> > http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
> >
> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
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-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals

"Free manuals for free software"
http://www.flossmanuals.net/about