Here's a thought, Mick:

There are a number of browser/server statistics programs (some of which are
freeware) that can be installed on your web server. These utilities not only
count the number of hits on your site, but for each hit, they can also record
the referring URL (where the visitor used a link to your site) AND the type
of browser software the visitor used (as long as your server logs contain
appropriate user agent information). They can also indicate what pages were
visited and how often, etc. etc.

This can provide some useful data on the specific subset of the "world" that
visits your site and how they are getting to and using your site. It is
possible, perhaps even likely, that people who visit museum sites might tend
to own and use a different range of hardware and software than the world at
large. They may also have different ways of finding your site. This is useful
information for designing and refining a website promotion strategy.

WUSAGE is a program that might work for you. It's not freeware, but I think
it's only about $US 25 for educational/non-profit institutions. Perhaps you
could find something similar in freeware if you search around a bit. To get
WUSAGE, go to http://www.boutell.com/wusage/

If you don't have your own web server, ask your ISP if they can set up a
statistics program to provide you with the data you need. It is also possible
that they already have such a program installed on their server and they
might be able to provide you with a weekly report. If you have or are are
setting up your own web server, then you can use any kind of compatible
statistics software.

Hope that helps you out a bit.

Regards,

Alan Bowes
[log in to unmask]


Mick Cooper wrote:

> Nottingham Museums are developing a website and are anxious to find
> statistics on the diversity of web browsers used by our potential
> virtual visitors. Opionion is divided among those with a vested interest
> in the web site, varying from "everyone has Real Audio / Shockwave /
> other plug-ins and is running browsers on Win 95 PCs" to "the majority
> of users are still with Win 3.x," etc. None of these viewpoints seem to
> be based on "real" statistics of the diversity of software and hardware
> actually used among the population of the Web. Does any one know where
> such statistics may be found? Knoweldge of them could be crucial to the
> sort of pages we could reasonably develop while striking a practical
> balance between on-screen impact and access to the site by as wide a
> pubic as possible.
>
> Any thoughts on the subject?
>
> thanks in advance!
>
> Mick Cooper
> Registrar, Nottingham Museums
> --
> Michael P. Cooper * Mineralist * [log in to unmask]