by John Morelli, Ph.D.

There is great interest within the Content Management (CM) community regarding the question of valuing content. Many approaches exist including interviews, surveys, monitoring user behavior, and developing anecdotal stories of success. All these methods acknowledge one hard reality: the best evaluators of value are customers.

Unfortunately, content users are not always forthcoming or objective. Users and content providers can often be misled by their attachment for resources because of subjective or nostalgic reasoning. Any experienced Content Manager knows no matter how little a resource is used, announcing its elimination is the best way to invigorate interest in it. Clearly, a better system is necessary--one that can add objectivity and supply data to defend, justify, or promote creative decision-making.

Content Access Monitoring
If YOU build it, will THEY view it?
Our basic working tenet is if customers do not value the content you provide, they will stop accessing it, thereby, telling you your content value is going down.  At the very least, we want to highlight what particular content may become obsolete, of poor value, or experiencing problems of convenience. So we can establish content that is popular, enjoying high interest growth, or consuming an unfair share of resources.

Our goal is to develop knowledge from content access logs. To accomplish this, we need to provide for the three A's:

1. Acquire and store user access histories.
   
2. Analyze the data for patterns or clusters.
   
3. Act on the analysis in creative ways and, whenever possible, in real-time.

Acquiring Content Access Histories:
Electronic Content
There are plenty of commercial Web and file access event loggers available. Table I presents a summary of several choices for "tools of the trade." In general, access logging can be divided into two approaches. Those that work on Web-served-page content and those that audit file access on a shared drive without a Web server.

Examples of the former are NetTracker and WebTrends. These Web-monitoring tools have the advantage of numerous predefined report formats, high-level OLAP (On-Line Application Processing) integration, and no need for technical knowledge of the NTFS (New Technology File System) security audit functions. Their disadvantage is they cannot directly monitor access to executable files.

Examples of file access auditing for shared drives, without a Web server, are the built-in capability of NTFS event logs, DSC's Event Archiver and Event Analyst, and FileAudit. Unfortunately, these require more intimate technical knowledge of the NTFS file auditing capabilities and possibly detailed knowledge of the application software being monitored. I export data from NTFS Event Viewer and use a homemade macro to import the data into Microsoft Excel for analysis.

Tools Collect but not Analyze
OLAP servers, WebTrend's, NetTracker and DSC's Event Analyst offer analytical capabilities, but none of these tools can make the human decisions necessary to determine what actions the data suggests. Only the content provider can do that; however, you develop it and whatever tools you choose, the end result should be a diagram of how your information flows (or does not flow) from your resources to your customers, and is the basis of any future decision-making.

Paper and Hard Copy Resources
While content is increasingly electronic in nature, how do we deal with the old-fashioned print and hard copy resources? Content can also include items in physical libraries and information flows from vendor supplied requests (e.g. the article ordered through Infotrieve, the book borrowed from the library, or information ordered through subscription services such as Lexis-Nexis, Dialog, Teltech, and NERAC).

Integrating access logs from these sources can prove valuable for the same reasons as monitoring of internal electronic content. In cases of print materials, priorities can be set on electronic conversion or acquisition based on usage patterns. In cases where only paper invoicing exists, scanning technology allows conversion from the paper to the electronic copy. The more information you track, log, and put into your system for analyzing, the more accurate and unbiased your action plan will become.

Analysis: Social Networks
Content access analysis is a loose form of social network analysis, where the subjects are not people, but resources. In social network analysis, one is interested in asking the question, "From whom do I frequently receive information necessary to do my job?" Here we are interested in asking the questions, "From what resources do I frequently receive information necessary to do my job?"; and, "How do I access these resources?" Such an analysis allows the development of an organic chart of information flow.

Hypothetical information flows between users and resources. It is a "mapping," of sorts, that suggests strategies to recombine or redistribute content in new and creative ways. Knowing what type of users are accessing information is knowledge not previously available to the content provider or the end-user. Publishing this knowledge can lead to new communities of practice, improved information flow, and enhanced visibility of your enterprise.

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Figure 1: Event Archiver presents users with a clean interface to the myriad settings within NTFS security audit policies. The proper settings allow Event Archiver to automatically archive file access logs with details on user activity to selected shared drives, directories, and files.

OLAP Integration
For those preferring the Web tracking software, the good news is there is increasing popularity to "Web-enable" software, data, and applications. The bad news is there still remains much content of value, especially with older applications that are not easily serviced by the Web. This is true in the science and technology arena where custom "home-built" applications are commonplace. Science and technology vendors can also be particularly close-handed with their proprietary data formats. Another general complication is work groups may have access to content worth tracking but not have an active Web server on which to place the monitoring software. For some content providers it is a choice between the need to monitor access to any individual file, despite the required in-depth technical knowledge or need for relatively simple-to-install Web services, that also offer high-level analysis, OLAP integration, and trend analysis.

Analysis: OLAP Processing
For members of large, complex, or global firms, OLAP is a technology that can aid in the analysis. The technology allows the study of multidimensional data for the purpose of studying relationships, demographics, and end-user properties. An OLAP Server may either physically stage the processed multidimensional information or populate its data structures in real-time from relational, OLAP or other databases, as long as it delivers consistent and rapid response to end-users. Because the web-enabled solutions integrate into OLAP services, it is quite possible the data you accumulate can be analyzed by methods already developed at your organization, or any analyses you develop can be shared.

Acting on the Results
The information flows developed during the analysis step will suggest any necessary corrective actions. Some will be obvious:

1. Discovering the basis for lack of use by follow-up targeted surveys
2. Correcting technical problems that prevented user access
3. Discontinuing obsolete or content
4. Correcting an issue with ease-of-use (perhaps resource Y is important to users, but they can’t figure out how to use it).
5. Training users. Instead of working on the content you work on the user
   

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Figure 2: FileAudit presents user activity reports directly from Windows Explore and the software is directly tied into the NT services. Simply bring up the context menu on any file to generate a report.

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Figure 3: WebTrends produces a variety of text and graphic reports. Many are predefined and readily exported to other software for analysis and reporting.

New Products, Lower Costs
Log analysis can also be used to provide answers to the following questions:

1. Can we leverage content by producing executive summaries of popular items?
2. Can we repackage content in new ways to eke out greater service to our customers?
3. Are there customers who can bring perspective to our content through review or anecdote?
4. Are there obvious combinations of content that need to be linked together now that usage patterns are established?
5. Is there information within user access patterns that will prove insightful in selecting new content, packaging, or promotions?
6. Are the access patterns themselves valuable to executives who need to understand knowledge flows within their organizations?

Answering these questions can provide new products and services to the content manager at reduced cost of labor and material. Value is added both from the content publishers perspective and the end-user perspective.

Summary
Without access logging, knowledge flows only from your content to your users (that is what is hoped). The information flows developed from access log analysis represent a mechanism for bringing knowledge back from your users to your content. This knowledge is important whether you are a small publisher needing to automate processes and find creative ways to publish, package and bill for your content, or a global producer with a need to understand the complex multidimensional nature of your business.

The critical step toward adding value, while using automated monitoring, is the analysis of your content access data. Each "picture" produced and actions required will be as individual as the organization generating it.  The value of each resource will be related to the frequency with which it is accessed, and with time, changes in usage will relate directly to changes in value.  

Additional Reading

1. Henczel, Susan. "The information audit as a first step towards effective knowledge management." Information Outlook 5(6), (2001): 48-62.
2. DiMattia, Susan S. and Lynn Blumenstein. "In search of the information audit: essential tool or cumbersome process?"Library Journal 125(4), (2000): 48-50.
3. Breeding, Marshall. "Strategies for Measuring and Implementing E-Use." Library Technology Reports, (2002): 1-76.
4. Visit www.orgnet.com
5. Abell, Angela and Martin White. Managing Content for Intranets Through Information Audits. London: Proceedings of the Internet Librarian and Libtech International Conference, 1999.
6. Evan-Wong, S. and C. De Freitas. "Marketing an information service: a case study of the OECS Economic Affairs Secretariat Documentation Center." Information Services & Use 15(2), (1995): 117-30.
7. Oxbrow, Nigel. "Mergers and acquisitions—where is the information strategy in the merger plan?" Business & Finance Division Bulletin (BF Bulletin of the SLA) 115, Fall 2000: 27-29.

Created on August 31, 2002 | Updated on November 24, 2009