And The Winner Is....

As many of you know, I entered the OWAC competition with my friend Cory. We spent a lot of time on the competition and turned in some great slides. We ended up having the opportunity to present in front of three Omniture employees (who were the judges). Our competition were four other teams. While Cory and I have our reasons for winning the competition, we gained a new reason to win...we found out we were the only masters students in the competition at the U. So, we really had to make sure we didn't get shown up by undergrads.

At any rate, the day was crazy. I woke up early and headed for campus. There I met up with Cory and we practiced our presentation a few more times. When it was ready for us to present, I was a little nervous. As it felt like I was starting a roller coaster and was bracing myself for a downward spiral. My heart was racing, but I knew I had a job to do. I needed to make sure I did my best in the presentation. The whole experience went by as quickly as it began. 10 minutes is not a lot of time. However, I do remember feeling pretty good after answering some of the judges' questions.

After that, we had to wait. Since we were second to present, there was quite a long wait until we were to hear the judges' decision on who was to move on the next round at BYU. When they finally called us back in I had a great impatience upon me. I was getting anxious to know what the results were. After a long speech from one of the judges I finally heard the words, "next week we would like to hear from Potential Solutions!" I was so excited at that moment. Our team won the first spot to compete against BYU's top two teams. It was awesome.

Now, we have one week to prepare our slides again, fixing the areas the judges wanted us to and hopefully win the finals. At any rate, I'll be heading back to my alma mater on Friday of next week. How exciting!

OWAC...Again!

So, during my last semester at BYU I entered the Omniture Web Analytics Competition. Last time I thought I had a good chance at winning. But, turns out that didn't happen.

This semester I'm at the University of Utah. I felt it would be an interesting idea to enter in the competition this year especially if I had the chance to compete against some of my friends and former classmates from BYU. As for an added effect, I decided to partner with another BYU-alumni.

Our project took a lot of time. One problem we found was we had very little data to go off on. Even so, we tried to make it work. After many hours planning, data digging, and analyzing we completed our slides at around 2:55 AM the day it was due. Both of us were unsure how well we'd do, but we both felt we gave it our best shot.

This morning I found out that our group had made it to the college finals! Meaning we were 1 step away from making it to the intercollegiate finals. We will present on Nov. 6th.

5 Minutes

Today was another long boring day in class. I mean long. Four hours long to be exact. In my opinion, a class should never be that long. My attention span is only so good, and there are only so many things I can do on Facebook...yeah, I was on Facebook while in class, but you would be too...

Anyways, as the minutes slowly ticked on and class was nearly over I was getting ready to celebrate my freedom for the weekend. When the professor ended the class, I got my belongings and was about to leave. However, my freedom was stalled for just a minute...then 2 minutes...then a total of 5 minutes. So, what was this five minutes? It was a girl in the class who I never spoke to before. If you know me, you're probably thinking "Oh! A girl? In an ISYS class talking to Jeff? This is too good!" Nope. She'll remain anonymous, but she came up to me and asked me if she could join my project group for my Process Analysis class. You're probably wondering what's wrong with that? Well, I'm about to tell you.

Graduate classes here at the U pass faster. Back at the end of August we began this class. It is now the beginning of October. My Systems Analysis class is a little over half way over. Now, one would think that a semester long project should have been started a long time ago...in this case everyone had completed over half the project (especially my group). Just think how crazy that sounded to hear someone wanted to join my group after most of the project was done.

Anyways, she had this outrageous story that she got in the class late and needed a group. Wanting to get home, I just told her to write her information down and I would email her. That took a whole 5 minutes... 5 minutes that would turn into a full half hour later. If you have ever taken the train in Salt Lake City, you know that if you miss the train, another train comes in 15 minutes. Turns out I just missed the train (I saw it pull into the station, but I was too far away). So, I missed the train. I had to wait another 15 minutes for the next train, and then another 15 for the connecting train...just my luck.

When I got home, I was pretty upset. I had a long train ride to think of what had just happened. Of what the girl in my class wanted. She wanted to basically have my group and I carry her through our semester project. This will not happen.

The Adventures Continue

As Summer Ends a New Chapter Begins

As I patiently await for tomorrow's MSIS orientation, I decided to blog a bit. So far, all that has happened is summer is ending (or should I say ended), my internship is now over, I took a road trip from Florida to Utah, and moved in my new room in Salt Lake City. That was a very long drive. The good thing was for most of the way, my sister was with me. At least I had company. Also, I was lucky to have an iPod. The only eventful thing was being stopped by the boarder patrol. I thought it was funny to be asked if I was a US citizen and then not ask for any identification. Either way, I made it safely to Utah. Now, my adventures as a graduate student begins...

Once a Cougar Always a Cougar

For the past 2 days I have been moving my stuff in my room and then I had to buy furniture. Luckily I was able to get a desk and a bed in that amount of time. After I successfully purchased and moved all this in my room I had to run some errands in Provo. So, back to my Alma Mater... When I arrived, everything was as it was before. It felt like I had never left. Yet, I was not a student at BYU anymore... Sad... Anyways, I had to fax something and I knew BYU had a few fax stations students could use. But, before I could fax anything I needed to print off a document. Funny thing was, I had a friend who also graduated the same time I did. A few weeks back he told me that he was sad that he was finally removed from BYU's system and was not able to use the computers there anymore. Even so, I decided to try it out. Success! I was able to log in and even use my card to print off the document. I guess my BYU ID is still worth hanging on to...

I am NOT a Freshman!

I also did manage to go to my new school. I decided to get my new ID from the U. I had some other questions, but sadly none of the staff was really helpful. I did also ask for a map of the campus. What I received was a photocopied paper that seemed like it was photocopied several times before and each subsequent copy was darker and more difficult to read than the first. Good help is so hard to find these days. When I did manage to get my ID the girl asked if I was a freshman... This has been a curse I've had ever since I started college. Throughout my 4 years as an undergrad I have been asked at least once if I am a freshman (only one of the years was accurate). Now I'm a graduate student and the question still haunts me. I think I was asked that question again before I left my visit to the U... oh well. I guess I should be grateful I look young. Perhaps better than the alternative...

My 4th of July - Running From a Bad Situation

Yesterday was the 4th of July. The day we celebrate the freedom of our country. Now that I am living in Virginia (at least for now), I decided it would be good to see fireworks at our Nation's Capital (or around there). At any rate, since I don't have a car, I had one of my roommates to drop me off at the metro station. It was about 12:00 when I began my adventure. Since I don't like being by myself when going on adventures I tried to call some friends. Turns out all of them were unable to get with me. Even so, that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying the 4th.

Most of the day was spent walking to about three of the Smithsonian museums. I am glad I had taken a few art history classes in the past, so I was able to enjoy my little adventure to the differnt museums. Since this blog isn't about my adventures looking at art, I will begin with retelling my unfortunate encounter with being dependent on others for a ride. Especially those who decide to drink...

So, I had an okay time waiting and watching the short spectacle of fireworks DC displayed. I think I'm spoiled from Disney...I wasn't too impressed. But, it was the 4th of July and I was in DC watching fireworks - so that was a plus. When that was over a bunch of the people I was with (and my ride) decided to wait out the crowds of people by going to someone's apartment to have a small party. I figured what the heck (especially since my ride said they would only stay for a short while). This was a mistake I would regret for the rest of the night.

As we continued towards our destination, I began to realize that we were walking an awefully long way. A few from the group started to complain, but I figured since I had been walking all day already, a little longer shouldn't matter...Little did I know we would end up in Georgetown...a long ways away from not only the Washington Monument (where we started), but also a long ways away from any Metro Station. If I had known this, I wouldn't have gone.

Now, I've been a bit too comfortable with parties that don't involve drinking. I sort of figured since that most of the group was under 21, there would be minimal drinking (too bad this was not the case). Now, I don't mind social drinking as long as it doesn't get out of hand. I personally don't drink, but I can't stand the smell of it. I almost would compare the smell to smoking (which also gives me minor headaches if it's strong enough), but alcohol is about 10x worse for me. When I smell it in the air, or as strongly on someone's breath, I can get very severe headaches. Well, since I knew this I stayed as far away from those who drank. I started getting restless as some of the underaged ones started to drink...worse off is I don't think they knew when to really stop as they became louder and more childish. I must admit one person was rather silly to claim she did not drink beer but, drinks wine instead...she did indeed at first refused a beer. However, in about 5 minutes she had a beer in her hand and was drinking it...sad. Being the oldest one there, I was even more saddened to see their version of a "good time" was drinking more and more. Alcohol really messes people up. Nearing 12:45 AM I was beginning to get restless. I felt it was nearing the time to go home. As I sat by some of the people there one offered me a smoke... one she had rolled up herself. That was the last straw. It was time to leave.

I quickly got directions from one of the people there and I began my long trek back to a Metro Station. Unfortunately for me, Georgetown doesn't have metro lines, so it was roughly 15 blocks before I could reach another station. Even so, I decided to run. I had to clear my head of all the childishness, the drinking, and the makeshift drug usage. Luckily I had my iPod with me and I was off: away from it ALL!

My run was not too bad. It was kind of nice to block out all the noise with my iPod. All the drunk people in the streets didn't bother me at all. By the time I reached the Metro and was nearing my destination it was nearing 1:30 AM. I later received a call from one of my roommates. He had gone to another party (a better party) and thought I would be done before him. When he arrived at our apartment, he saw I wasn't there and called so see if I was okay. I told him where I was and he went to pick me up (saved me another 2 miles of walking/running). So, I arrived home safely...

I survive to live another day...

Tired But Alive...I think...

Work, Sleep, Work, and Sleep. Possibly eat in the middle. Actually I have been eating quite well. But, the thing is working 8.5 hours a day... While I do like not having school, I've been missing the breaks inbetween classes. It was nice to have breaks. But, now I work. And I am tired....Why do I even bother blogging??? Well, I guess I just wanted to write something before the 4th of July...

Do The WAVE!

For those of you who love technology and enjoy new products you'll like what I am going to blog about. I am a big fan of new software (well, hopefully software that isn't so buggy). Anyways, I recently heard about Google Wave. It's crazy! Now, I am a big fan of email, collaborative software, IMing, and everything that makes communication easier. When I heard that Wave was going to be the next evolution of email, I really couldn't fathom what it would be (or how they could make it "better"). Turns out, Google has done it again. Wave is really cool. It's immediate, fast, easy, and everything you could possibly want in this kind of software. Just a few things I'd like to mention are below, but look at the link. You'll like what you see.

Playback
Google Wave has a cool feature called playback. What it does is if I came into a chat conversation or something of the like, I can "playback" the actual conversation. It will show me exactly what everyone wrote in sort of video format. It's really cool since it cuts communication time and you don't need to fill a person in on what you had "just said." Manipulation of history is rather interesting indeed.

Immediate Image Upload
While I like using chat programs like MSN or Pidgin, sending pictures is a pain. In Wave you can just select as many pictures you want and literally throw it in the wave. The next thing you know, the other user can see the thumb nails and see the pictures.

Concurrent Editing
The cool thing is if someone is editing a Wave, all can edit at the same time. The demo was neat to show about four people editing the same document at the same time. I have not seen this done well, but the demo has definitely caught my eye.

There's a lot more, and I'm not an expert on it as all my comments derive from the demo. Either way, I'm ready to test out Google Wave.

http://wave.google.com/

Mixed Feelings on Going from Blue to Red

During this year I have been trying to get into graduate school. Around the 20th of May I received a rejection letter from BYU saying that I was not admitted for the MISM program. It was sort of depressing knowing that I wouldn't return to my Alma Mater. No more BYU... So, my chapter at BYU finally comes to a close.

However, on the flip side, on the 29th of May I received an acceptance email from the University of Utah for their MSIS program. I consider myself rather lucky since I heard they were only accepting around 15 students and there were 3 spos left by the time I had applied (at least that's what I was told). While I am excited I am going to graduate school, I am a bit sad of some changes. Examples of a few things are tuition will be a lot higher, I have a slim chance of being a TA again, and they won't accept my graduate credits from BYU (funny thing is they assured me it wasn't a "rivalry thing" for denying me transfer credit). Even so, there are some positives to this new program. Since the program is rather new, I will be contributing to a new program. Another good thing is it'll be good to have a change of campus. While I won't be too familiar with the U, it's probably for the best that I'm going to have some new surrounding.

So, now that I have had my undergraduate from BYU and I'll have my graduate from Utah...what does this make me? A traitor to BYU? A spy for BYU? A mixed-breed of the two colleges? I suppose only time will tell. For now, I'll keep a low profile and see where the chips fall. This will be an interesting year for me.

Graduated and Relaxing

A little over a week ago I finally graduated from BYU. Nothing too much has happened. I went back to Florida where the weather is nice. However, I was hit by allergies... It's pretty sad. At any rate, I'll spare the details.

Anyways, what is a BYU graduate to do now? Does he go off a new adventure? Does he do crazy stuff to celebrate? No. He waits to hear if he's been accepted into grad school and waits for his internship to start. So, that's the main thing about me.... But, other than waiting around I have been doing some things. My habit of 3 hours of sleep has increased significantly (although I still can't quite go to sleep before 2 AM), and I have been eating well since I've been home.

One cool thing I did get to do was go to see the Beach Boys. Yeah, I didn't know they still existed. I'm not as big of a fan as my brother, but I do enjoy their music. It was rather funny to hear that my dad got tickets somehow. He didn't think I knew who they were, but I think everyone's heard their music. At any rate, I was excited to go. I was wondering how different they would sound after all these years. Turns out, they sounded just as good. I recognized most of their songs and enjoyed familiar songs like "Surfing USA."

Overall, it was very entertaining as they never stopped to take a break. The music kept pouring out like a never ending fountain. It was pretty cool. So, as proof that I was indeed there, I have a pic from my phone. I was pretty far back, but what can you say?

Web Analytics Project

In my last blog I wrote about how I finished my Web Analytics project for BYU Independent Study. I have decided to place the User Guide on here:

Google Analytics Analysis User Guide

The conditions are based on the average weekly data. So, you can easily change the conditions to suit monitoring needs.

Getting Data and Importing Data
1. To add more data to the Excel Spreadsheet you must click weekly data.

2. Next select the date range

3. Finally Export the data in CSV format.

4. At this point I recommend that you download your CSV files to a specific folder. That way you can reference the hard copy data later.

5. Next, open the Excel Analysis Spreadsheet. Open ONLY the file specific to the data you want to upload. Then, click on the Data Menu button.

6. Next, a small window will appear and you may now select to import data. The reason I have this menu, is perhaps at a later date, someone may modify this menu to graph the data.

7. Once clicked you need to find the CSV file you want to upload. Click on that file and it will upload all the data.

8. After the data is uploaded the program will automatically get the average of the data and use it as a base for the “Medium” level data. The “Low” is one standard deviation from the average and the “High” is one standard deviation above the average. The rest of the data is highlighted in a conditional formatting according to the “Low, Medium, and High” conditions.

Adding Metrics
If you want to add or delete metrics you need to be aware of a few things.
1. There can be no blank lines between classes or metrics. See below:

2. Your course names and metrics must match the names and metrics of Google Analytics’ CSV file. See below:

Project Outcomes

It's nearing the end of the semester and I was finishing up some of my projects. One project was from my Web Analytics class. Dr. Liddle gave us quite a bit of freedom in choosing a project suitable for the class. I decided to talk to the independent study and figure out a project that could benefit them.

Turns out, BYU Independent Study uses Google Analytics. While it is set up rather nice, they don't have anyone hired to help them interpret the data they have. Because of that, they don't know who to market to, how to increase traffic, or what trends are occuring. With this information, I decided to think of a project that I could do to help them interpret all the data they currently have.

After a few days of planning, I finally thought of something they could use. I decided to create a spreadsheet that would take the CSV formatted data from Google and compare weekly data with the overall average of the data. For example, if the metric they want to view is of Unique Visitors they can see a weekly basis of how many unique visitors they are indeed getting for each week.

Once I had this idea, the coding frenzy began. I spent about a good three days of coding and testing until I finally got it to work. Since the data from Google can be a CSV file I decided to use Excel and VBA to create a spreadsheet that would automatically upload the data to the sheet. I used conditional formatting to display the weekly trends. In the end, I had a pretty good program. The only other interesting thing was this program could potentially be used for other sites other than BYU Independent Study. One improvement that I could implement (if I had more time) would be to autogenerate graphs. For now, I am proud of the project I have made and I think it will be very useful to them.

http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/index.cfm

Applications, Essays, and More Money Spent

For the most part my college career has been rather smooth sailing. Even so, my internship for the summer requires a grad program. Last year I wasn't thinking of applying to a grad program. Now, that this internship requires one I placed a lot of weight on getting in the MISM. Turns out the MISM requires the GMAT. A minimum of a 550. Well, I thought I could reach that after taking a prep course. I spent a lot of time outside of class studying for that exam. For those of you who really know me I have been preparing a lot for it, while also trying to balance classes.

Anyways, I finally took the exam this past Saturday. Sad to say, I did worse than the first time I took the exam. 500...So, 50 points shy of the minimum. Because of this, my plans of getting in BYU's MISM is sort of on-hold. I honestly don't feel like I can take it again. After all that preparation and no improvement...that's pretty bad.

Thus, I am once again filling out applications for other graduate programs. Hopefully it's not too late. One school I do have my eyes on is the U of U. So, if BYU doesn't want me, perhaps the rival school will. It would be interesting to see that. For now, I have a lot of essays to write and more applications to fill out. Hopefully one school will accept me. Curse the GMAT!!!

Social Networks - Useful? I say Yes!

We had an interesting discussion in my Web Analytics class. Our discussion was on social networks and how they were/are useful. The following are some notes I took:

-Social Networks have grown into our culture in the past few years. There's Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs....etc. Yet, while many of these are used to connect with friends/family, they are rather valuable in learning about technology. News can spread rather quickly. It can also draw focus to particular sites. If you want good traffic you can utilize social medias to help draw attention to your site by using viral marketing. Also, if you want to direct traffic to specific sites you can.

-Marketing is big with social networks. By knowing how to market your site you can get traffic. Social media usage is vital. You need to understand what users are doing on the site, and, more importantly, where do they come from before they came to your site. If you know where they come from you can market to them.

-There are some drawbacks with social networks. For example, Twitter has open channels that are fragile and are at risk of overloads. Even so, you can overcome them by filetering (based on social profiles).

Userfly

Yesterday we had an interesting discussion in Web Analytics. Dr. Liddle introduced to us Userfly (http://userfly.com/). It's an interesting concept as it sort of takes a different direction in web analytics. What makes this unique is that instead of gathering data for certain "clicks" or actions a user does (i.e. like how Google Analytics or SiteCatalyst does), it actually records a user's acutal session. I think this could be very useful since you can actually "see" what a user does on your site.

While this sounds amazing in itself, there are a few drawbacks. For one, it would take forever to watch all the sessions that hit your site. Also, there currently is no way to filter the vidoes effectively. So, while you may have tons of "hits" you may have only a few videos that are actually worth watching. Another drawback is that even if you do get some good videos, it may take some time until you see trends of some sort.

As with all new technology, there are some flaws. However, I believe there is a lot of potential in Userfly. This could be the next big thing in Web Analytics as it is definetely more visual that other analytic tools.

Thoughts on OWAC Finals

So, this past Friday I went to the OWAC finals. I was interested to see why the finalists were the finalists. What was interesting to see was I wanted to know why they chose the finalists since I never received any feedback on my own project.

The first group to go was .Convert. They were very professional in the way they presented and they did a really good job in their analysis. Yet, one thing that bothered me was that the ideas they had were really similar to what we had done. Sure their slides were way nicer, but the contect overall was similar. Our group did an analysis on the customer segments (loyal customers contributing to the most profits), and they did as well. Some of their recommendations were similar to ours as well.

At any rate, I was very disappointed in the second presentation. Not to criticize them (although they are from the "U" - rival school), but, they were terrible. They basically read from their slides, and all their information was from 27 days worth of data. Now, I have no idea how you could base recommendations or analyze how a company is doing with 27 days worth of data. Even so, it was sad to see them make it to the finals and have a really unimpressive presentation. It was not at all worth 4th place.

Yet, not to bash on the "U" too much, the other team representing them did a really good job. The last BYU team wasn't as crisp (presentation wise), but they too did a good job. But, they all weren't as great as .Convert. In my opinion they were solid preformers when presenting and they did a really good job on the analysis.

Well, even though my partner and I didn't make it to the finals (or even prelims), I was at least glad that our analysis wasn't too far off from what the finalists came up with. I guess I should try again if the opportunity arises. Either way, that's what I thought about the finals.

Problem Solved!!!!

My last blog was about a crazy javascript issue on swapping SWF files within a page. I even resorted to emailing the ISYS List (which is a list that ISYS BYU students use to communicate and keep in contact). Well, what was funny was instead of a straight response I got a bunch of criticism for the site I created. Even so, I was still determined to find the solution.

After about a week I resorted to asking my Professor, Dr. Liddle, about what I could do. He then explained that SWFObject (http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/wiki/documentation). Well, by myself I got far. However, I still needed his direction to help me get the results I wanted. It took quite a bit of time, but we finally figured out how to switch out the SWF's. I am really lucky to have a professor who would take the time to help me with Javascript. Now, I am finally able to make some real progress with the site. At any rate you can see my dad's updated site now. I am very pleased with the results (check out the Completed Projects and Current Projects page for what I am talking about).

http://potentialelectricllc.com/

A Bit of Frustration

Some of you know I do a bit of websiting on the side. I'll admit, I'm not great. I know very little about site design and I am trying to learn it as a side thing (more of like an addicting hobby when I get the chance). Anyways, for quite some time I have been stumped by the problem of switching out SWF files. After searching for hours (literally) I finally found what I thought to be the code I needed. After another hour of messing around with the code, I got it to work...yet, it only worked on IE. Sad. I then was wondering why the SWF files weren't swapping in Firefox or Chrome (I sort of gave up on Safari as I'm not a Mac fan). Still, I was determined to find out what was the difference.

After reading up on how Javascripts work, I did notice that if I used Alert(), I could "see" what was passing through in the functions. Turns out there were very little differences, but then what was really weird was that I could actually see the SWF file I wanted to appear in the spot it should have. Then when I clicked "Ok" on the Alert the entire SWF disappeared from sight. In both Chrome and Firefox the same thing happened. I was wondering why only IE worked fine.

After a few hours of testing I decided to hit the ISYS list. I usually don't resort to such measure, but I figured I should anyhow. The first response was useful as I was using .innerHTML and learned that I shouldn't be using that. Instead I was told to use the DOM methods. So, I did. Yet, the same results occured. The other responses thus far were sort of humerous as a few were telling me how aweful my site looked (true, it doesn't look great, but that wasn't my question).

Well, now it's day two and I still haven't gotten anywhere. Thus, I am writing this blog about my frustration. The link below is a demo of what I am trying to accomplish (but, again, it only works for IE).

http://potentialelectricllc.com/c.htm

It's Over!

Well, after waiting well over 2 days I finally found out the results to the Omniture Competition. Sad to say, we did not make the semi's. I think what really bothered me was the communication.

First, I receive a have typed email from Omniture and then I get partial responses to my emails. I would think that they would at least make sure that this competition process went as smoothly as possible (considering that this is not the first time they did this competition). Also, since they have done this before, I would think that they would inform the students better about what was going on and why they took so long. It took our class to email the BYU staff about it to email them until we received an email saying they would be delayed.

Still, I think the waiting is what bothered me the most. Taking two days without any updates on how things were was terrible. Then, finding out that I didn't even make the semi's made me feel like I waited for nothing. Yeah, I know I can't expect much considering that it was my first time competing, but I would think the process could have gone a lot better.

I did email them and asked them what I could do to improve, but after what's been going on, I have my doubts that they will reply with anything of use. Yet, it's still early. My faith in their communication might be renewed if they give some useful feedback. Even so, I am not sure if I would ever compete in the Web Analytics competition next time, as my experience has been a lot more negative than positive...

Omniture Competition - Thoughts for First Part

I had an entire weekend that was free...sort of. The only thing I worked on was the BYU Omniture Competition. I would say my first experience with this project was, overall, not bad. Definetely not great. The bad parts were with how slow SiteCatalyst was. I was really frustrated at times where SiteCatalyst told me that the "Data was not Available" or "You do not have access to this data." Also, the load time after each query took forever.

Contrastingly, the good parts were the extended time. Originally I would not have had the two weekends to work on it. Now, I know I only put in a good 19-20 hours, but they were crammed in to one weekend. Even so, that extra time was much needed, as the week before was quite crazy (tests, work...etc). Anyways, I think Bryan and I did well overall. We made our presentation simple. We split it up into three parts that we thought were key to explaining what's going on with Overstock.com.

First Experience With SiteCatalyst

This year I have recently gotten into Web Analytics. I have looked at Google Analytics and I like how straight-forward it is. Recently, I have been trying to use Omniture's SiteCatalyst to complete a project for the Web Analytics Competition. All I can say is it's a very powerful tool. However, there are also some downsides to using it.

As for downsides, the thing I noticed most was the speed. When using SiteCatalyst things can take a very long time. Sure they have an option to send the data to you, but then again, there was a lot of times where I got the result "Data Not Found." That becomes a little frustrating when you are trying to complete a project.

The ups to using SiteCatalyst is that you can find all sorts of data. I was impressed with the different types of data you could find and also manipulate the data to be more understandable. The interface is also pretty straightforward. You can basically find what you need (if it allows you). Again, the only downside is you might be waiting a while until you actually "see" the data you are looking for. Waiting really stinks.

Thoughts on Bounce Rates

January is now over and February has arrived. I began writing blogs to blogger at the beginning of this year. To me, blogging is sort of another form of a journal for me. At any rate, I suppose my life is rather simple or uninteresting to most of the world, so I guess I can be safe on what I write.

Anyways, as many of you know (if you have been following my blogs), I am in a web analytics class. As such, we were told to track our site traffic using Google Analytics. I must say it's neat. However, one sad thing is my traffic is low. Why? Again, most likely what I said in the beginning paragraph (not interesting). As I looked at my stats, I remembered one of the topics covered in class: Bounce Rates! It's a way to see the quality of visits. If you have a high bounce rate, it means people are coming and then leaving immediately (or not staying long enough to get a good visit). I guess it could be compared to a movie. If the movie is really good, some people will come early to get a good seat. Then they watch the entire film. If it's an even more captivating movie, some people will stay until the end (thus, the length of time spent at the theater is lengthened). The same can be said about a bad movie. If it's terrible most people can't wait to leave. Some might even walk out.

In comparison, my site is, I suppose, a slightly poor movie. My current bounce rate is around the mid-upper 50%. I suppose my blogging is a bit like one of those family videos you take on one of those special occassions and it is pretty much never watched until a family member decides to look at it (or asked to). So, yeah, most of my visits have been family members. So, thanks to you all. I guess it could be worse. I could have no visitors.

Thoughts on Omniture University

Currently, I'm working with my partner Bryan on the Web Analystics Competition. Our team is known as Viridis Callidus (which is the Latin words for "Green" and "Clever"). So, hopefully the judges will think we are representing Omniture's favorite color of green and displaying that we have the clever skills that web analytics requires). Okay, perhpas that's going a bit too far, but you get the point.

Anyways, last week was Omniture University. In all honesty, I thought that it could have been better. I was a bit disappointed on how we were taught (everyone logs on and slows down the connection - thus, slowing down the learning). Also, it seemed that we could have figured out most of what the presenter said by ourselves. What I think would have been more helpful is giving us scenarios of real life questions and showing how you would find the answer to those questions. Yeah, that might be going a bit far, but I think that would have helped me. I guess I can appreciate the fact that we were given free pizza :)

Anyways, SiteCatalyst seems to be a very powerful Web Analytics tool. In comparison to Google Analytics, there's definetely a lot more you can do. I was pretty amazed at the different types of data that you can see. The only downside I do see is that since there is so much you can do with SiteCatalyst, there are times where it does take time to find the data you want.

At this point Bryan and I hope to at least make a good run at the competition. We have planned out a strategy and we hope to carry it out. For now, it seems that we have quite a bit of work to do within the next week.

Never live with Freshmen!

This story is not for the faint of heart. Yet, if you are in the mood to read something totally unbelievable, I suppose you can read on. I think the title speaks for itself. Well, I know I was a freshman once, but I knew my place then and lived with other “freshies” in the dorms. At least if I had done anything really stupid, it was where it was acceptable. However, I think back then I mainly did pranks (e.g. getting my roommate to delete all his illegal music by pretending to be the RIAA ). Currently, I live with one freshman. I will call him “Brian” since that’s his name. Anyways, Brian is also a return missionary. So, I figured he might know better… Not quite.

Let me give you a quick background about him. He has a limited perspective on many issues, freeloads off everyone and anyone he can, and doesn’t really know how clean (funny thing is he works as a custodian). Okay, that sounds a bit harsh, and you might be thinking I’m being a bit too hard on the poor chap, but I give my honest opinion on the way things are. Now, I’m not saying all freshmen are like this, but I would have to say, a lot his characteristics reflect the typical freshman.

Anyhow, I am a senior at BYU. I thought I’ve seen it all (at least “all” in a college perspective). Like any semester I’m rather busy. Some nights I come home around 9:30 or later. So, it was one of those nights and I came home late. I come to a semi-messy apartment. I already felt that it was not a great way to end the day. Yet, there was something odd about the mess. There was paper towels clumped together, all over the kitchen. All of them were soaking wet. Then I was confronted by a horrible smell. I was like, what in the world could make such a horrible smell? I then found the entire hallway upstairs soaked in water and about 4 of the steps of the stairway were soaking wet as well. Apparently the toilet overflowed…sad day.

After cleaning some of the mess, Brian comes home. I thought he was getting more cleaning supplies or something…nope. He was at a soccer game. Now, when the apartment is a mess (like a real mess) and leaving it messy makes things worse (especially with water), you should continue to clean it up until it’s done. Not only have the paper towels been sitting there, but there was still a lot to clean. Also, I still was wondering what actually happened. He told me that the toilet started to overflow and that he tried to stop it. Funny thing is, there is a plunger by the toilet, and the toilet is like any other. I asked him if he even tried to turn off the water. He said he did not know there was an off switch and was working on it for 45 minutes (thus, the water damage). Wow…now I’ve seen it all. A 20 year old that doesn’t know how to turn off the water. I think about this point I went to my room in disbelief. It was sad.

Well, he did continue to clean, so I left him to finish since I had a project due the next day. As I’m working on the project I hear a spraying noise outside my door. I then find Brian spray floor cleaner in the air. I then asked him what he was doing. Brian replies, “Getting the smell out.” As I suspected the floor cleaner had bleach. I then told him to stop spraying and if he knew that it had bleach. He said he did… Still, I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy breathing in bleach. Who know? Perhaps Brian thought he could magically rid the smell with floor cleaner and give all of our lungs a good “clean” burn.

As I reflect upon the incident, I still can’t believe what had happened. It’s been about two days since the incident and the carpet is still went and smells. I don’t think the smell will ever leave. Well, I guess I can say it could have been worse. However, it proves my point. Never live with freshmen.

It Finally Happened...Sort of.

I am a PC user. Always have been. Probably always will. Anyways, the reason I do is because I am a business major. I would say most businesses use PC for simplicity. They are cheaper, and since other businesses usually use PC, it's more compatible.

At any rate, I have grown tired at Mac users. They always say that Macs are more superior in every aspect. They claim Macs last longer, run faster, and don't get viruses. While I would agree that Macs have a nice "look and feel," I still don't think they are worth the price. Also, I dislike the fact that if I had a Mac, I would need to find a way to make everything compatible with PCs. I'm all about simplicity, and all I could see by switching over to a Mac would be a pain. Sure there are the "Mac Genius" where they cut the switching costs, but that still doesn't solve the problem with distributing files to PC users.

Anyways, now that you know my background about Macs and PCs, I wanted to blog about a funny article I read. This is the link: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/117188. Now, if you are too lazy to read it (but, for some odd reason still reading this blog), the article is mainly about a virus that hit Macs. The article says that about 20,000 Macs were hit by the virus. I actually laughed when I read this. I could see the reaction of those users... "A virus????" Still, it was interesting to see that Macs are finally getting effected...sort of. Now, why I say sort of is because the virus only comes from pirating software through BitTorrents. So, only those who are doing illegal stuff are getting hit. Well, at least Macs are finally proven they aren't totally "invincible."

Omniture Kick Off

Well, last week was the "Kick Off" for the Omniture Web Analytics Competition. I really didn't know what to expect since every year I never had time to compete. This year my Web Analytics class requires it. So, I guess I'm lucky to have this opportunity.

Anyways, it was interesting to see what we are to do for the competition. The company that we are to analyze is Overstock.com. I think it's going to be interesting to work on Overstock since it is an online company. Yet, I wonder what areas of their company have the most potential for improvement. It'll be an interesting experience as it will be my first real attempt at Web Analytics.

Still got it!

Last week was interesting. It was "busy" as usual, but then again, I had a four day weekend to look forward to. This week made me think of 2 things that I am still good at.

Presentations
One challenging aspect of my week was making sure I got all my assignments done on time. In the past, if time is an issue I have been known to stay up late (4:00 AM was the new 12:00 AM for me last semester). Because of this extra effort, I have been able to accomplish many things.

Anyways, on Monday I was assigned a presentation in Web Analytics on Visits, Visitors, and Unique Visits. Interesting enough I was to present it with my partner on Wednesday. Usually I have a lot more than a day to prepare a presentation, but I really wanted to make it "good." There was just one small problem. I was still on east cost time, and my ability to hit 4:00 AM was rather difficult. Even so, my partner and I agreed that what we had on Tuesday afternoon, would be sufficient. Now, I did agree with him since we only had two days, but I really wanted to make our presentation fun and engaging. I mean our topic was rather straight forward, but I didn't want to bore anyone the next day. So, naturally I stayed up looking on YouTube for any engaging videos to use.

By about 1:00 AM I found a video from Avinash Kaushik, but it was an hour long (way too long for a 15 minute presentation). After watching about 30 minutes of it, I found a portion that dealt with our presentation (I must admit, the presentation was quite interesting - he's a good presenter). Yet, by about this time, I was getting tired and I decided to go to sleep (thus, I did not make 4:00 AM). Even with this small victory, I still felt uneasy. I still was wondering how our opening would be. I wanted a captivating video to use. At 6:00 AM I woke up and cut a portion of the video to use. But, I thought that still wasn't enough. However, by the time I finished cutting the video, I came up with a great idea for our opener. It was a video I had seen a few months back. This was our opener - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7dnGo_2tZA. When I added this video to the presentation, I was a lot more confident. The result was a pretty good presentation to my standards. At any rate, I did find it. Interesting enough, I had woken up early for once to finish a project, instead of staying up late to complete it.

Fixing Computers
Being in the Information Systems field has its advantages. But, then again, it has its unwritten duties as well. Once you are known as the ISYS "Guy", everyone who has computer issues asks for your help. Now, I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it always keeps me on my toes. I do like helping people, and I have been able to solve all but two problems throughout my college career. One was my brother's computer (it was a fried motherboard - which I could do nothing about). The other issue was some networking issue (the IT aspect of computers is actually my weakness).

Anyways, this past weekend, my friend called me to help me fix his computer. He had completely cleaned out his computer and reintalled XP on it. However, that was all he installed. Because of that, I knew exactly what to do to fix his computer. He needed to reinstall the drivers. There was one slight problem, I had to figure out what drivers he really needed. After a bit of guess work and an hour or two, I was able to not only restore all the drivers for his computer, but also help make his computer protected from viruses and have most of his software back. He now has a computer good as new. Yeah, I know that's not such a great feat, but it was good to know that I "still got it!"

Replaced!

Since the beginning of January 2008 I had a calling in the ward as the director of name indexing. For those of you who are not familiar with name indexing it's where you get an old document (e.g. census document, death certificate, marriage certificate...etc) and digitize the information. Once that information is digitized it can be used for a great deal of things. Not to mention searching for names from past documents becomes a whole lot easier. For more information please go to the site: http://www.familysearchindexing.org/.

Well, at first, I thought this was going to be a boring, but easy calling. I was wrong on both accounts. After I learned how to do name indexing I had to teach others how to do it as well. Also, I learned that many others who were unfamiliar with indexing were at first very unmotivated to begin indexing. Because of that I had to organize activities to either train more people and/or help others get motivated in the cause. In the end, our ward was able to index about 39,787 names. Regardless of the outcome, I personally enjoyed indexing.

Now that the new year has begun, I am finally replaced. It's funny. Just when I finally make a CD with a Camtasia Studio video on how to index names, I get replaced. Oh well. At least people can still be virtually trained by me ;) At any rate I did have a lot of fun doing name indexing and it will be something I probably will continue to do even though I no longer am doing it as a calling.

Start of the Year!

Hello! This is the start of the year 2009. That means trying new things and learning more cool stuff (hopefully). Anyways, school has already started without me...yes, sadly. I am not in Provo just yet. Why you ask? Well, I am not skipping for the fun of it...or maybe I am ;) Actually, I am in Washington DC for more job interviews! Isn't that fun. Last semester I had taken a week off of school to visit California and Texas. Both were fun, and it was a nice break from school. Now, that I am in DC, I am having fun once again (not to mention an extended Winter Break). Not that job interviews are very exciting now (since this about the 10th one I've done this school year), but it's nice to go some place new, meet new people, and try new things.

Anyways, I was lucky to know that this semester I would be taking only 4 classes. 2 of them will be Information Systems based. Finally! Why I say finally is because I felt a bit deprived from last semester. Last semester I had general business classes. Not that they were bad or anything, it's just that I missed having some technical classes as well.

So, since I haven't been on campus thus far and I haven't even attended my classes, all I can say is what I hope to expect this year. For now, I am still very excited to have a Web Analytics class. I am excited because I want to learn more about this subject. Every semester I hear about Omniture and their Web Analytics competition. Each time I have neither competed in the competition, nor fully understood what Web Analytics entails. However, the subject still lingered on my mind. Because of this, I decided to sign up for the class. So, as for goals, I hope to gain enough knowledge about the subject. After doing so, I hope to learn more about the Web Analytics competition Omniture has and perhaps make an attempt to compete. For now, I am just beginning to scratch the surface of this subject.

I think I have written enough for this blog. Perhaps I will write about my other classes another time...