What does 'Edugeek' actually do?

[superfletch]

Thanks to all the Mods and Admins who've replied on here, from my perspective this gives a much clearer picture of what edugeek is doing outside of the obvious websitey forummy bit. I had a good idea that there was a lot going on, but I wouldn't have had a clue what kind of things they were.

 

I'd like to say that I simply appreciate the presence of Edugeek, the fact that it is available to me every day is fantastic and the diversity of it's members is incredible, there are some real experts out there too. As someone else said here already this is one of the most democratic sites I've ever visited, let alone been a member of and I'm not surprised to hear the site had a hefty valuation put on it.

 

Thanks to all of you that moderate and keep this place going it's an amazing community, it is also a valued one and from whats been written I imagine edugeek as an organisation is also fairly influential where it needs to be.

 

Most of all you give us all a voice and a place to stick together.

 

 

 

Thank you.

[apoth0r]

What is Edugeek?

 

What is religion? What is a thought? Why do trees exist and what time is it on the other side of the universe?

 

Edugeek - just is!

 

 

I like that..... a lot.

Please have that on a banner next year at BETT

That sums it up completely for me

 

Edugeek.....where knowledge and opinion counts.

[tmcd35]

£100 a year isn't a lot, considering the usual union costs... Unison, for someone earning a network manager's pay is at least £168 pa. However, I agree that it is an unlikely event to happen, with it being so costly.

 

It's not alot all things considered but is a full blown union the right direction for EduGeek anyway? I think Tony summed up why I asked the question in the first place quiet well...

 

A union gives advice and support on a wide range of areas, acts as the representative of its members, will a support the development and growth of the industry it is in and will try and get as many members as possible.

 

Not a million miles away from where we are now, so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that the powers that be explored the idea. Maybe there's a future area of growth there in member services and support - without going down the route of the whole union thing.

 

But then there is the question of what we as members would be willing to pay for, and how much. And how that effects Russ's fundamental rule -

 

We have a fundamental rule that is what we do is free for the members so conference and other stuff are all free for you to attend. Conferences started due to lack of free technical conferences. Again ran in holidays so people could be freed to attend. Again tech days we have ran free. The site free to access and use.

 

In a similar vain, as this site grows and represents more and more the interests of the education IT professional, it's only natural that it may become more politcally active. I'm too would not at all surprised if Ed Balls and other senior figures in the DCSF have not only heard of us but on some level are monitoring us

 

If the site was to grow more along a political and representitive lines then I wonder how that would sit with our sponsors?

 

Certainly the site has grown a lot since I first started frequenting it. I'm certainly finding more and more that both the LEA and suppliers are becoming more and more interested in what we do here.

 

It'd be interesting to see where we are in 5 years time.

[john]

In a similar vain, as this site grows and represents more and more the interests of the education IT professional, it's only natural that it may become more politcally active. I'm too would not at all surprised if Ed Balls and other senior figures in the DCSF have not only heard of us but on some level are monitoring us

You would be surprise who looks at us, I most certainly was very surprised with a few conversations I had on the stand with visitors. We are being watched by some very key and influential people in many many places so beware!

[SteveMC]

I think EduGeek exists partially due to the unique nature of the education sector - business IT departments aren't exactly encouraged to share how they do things with other companies, for fear of giving away competitive advantages.

 

Everyone here has such widely ranging levels of experience, so whilst there's always someone who knows more than you, there's also usually someone around that you can help too.

[dalsoth]

In a few years there will be fewer network managers or non corporate techies when BSF really starts to bite in all areas. Perhaps many tuped workers will be unable to use sites like this that are so useful at the moment and be forced to use the systems and support facilities provided by their company. I hope Edugeek and those employed by it are planning for the future. What use is sponsoring sites when the userbase decreases and the purchasing power of the users dissapears when they all have their budgets handed to the managed service providers? I hope though that things don't ever get that bad.

[russdev]

Yes it is something we think about but not something we worry about. We are getting good a predicting this old political game and have a good idea were BSF will go over the next few years.

 

Russ

[plexer]

Almost as good as the visitor to the stand who asked "so what do you sell then" when they were told "nothing" they walked away.

 

Ben

[GrumbleDook]

Not as good as the first year when DB had a Saudi prince come up and say, "how much to buy you?" and he really was talking about buying the site, getting it translated and made available overseas!

[localzuk]

Almost as good as the visitor to the stand who asked "so what do you sell then" when they were told "nothing" they walked away.

 

Ben

 

Some people have a fear of free stuff.

[Dos_Box]

In a few years there will be fewer network managers or non corporate techies when BSF really starts to bite in all areas. Perhaps many tuped workers will be unable to use sites like this that are so useful at the moment and be forced to use the systems and support facilities provided by their company. I hope Edugeek and those employed by it are planning for the future. What use is sponsoring sites when the userbase decreases and the purchasing power of the users dissapears when they all have their budgets handed to the managed service providers? I hope though that things don't ever get that bad.

 

You would not belive the amount of support companies that do use us as their main sourse of reference! We arn't sweating, a large chunkj of our members are not in education and in a few years time the forst wave of BSF schools will be coming out of their managed servie contracts and can, if they wish, go back to in-house support. Besides, we are a global site you know, and the UK provides lss than 50% of our traffic now. EduGeek will be around for quite a bit longer yet.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Dos_Box

[Dos_Box]

Some people have a fear of free stuff.

 

I blame all of those 'We'll give you free printers if you only buy your toner\ink from us' schemes a couple of years back for spreading fear of the word free in education circles!

[tmcd35]

and the UK provides lss than 50% of our traffic now.

 

That's an interesting statistic. I'm going to make a bold assumtion and say that the largest percentage of traffic is from the UK. But where next? What are the top 5 visitor locations? I'm guessing USA and Australia by the posts I've seen.

[Dos_Box]

That's an interesting statistic. I'm going to make a bold assumtion and say that the largest percentage of traffic is from the UK. But where next? What are the top 5 visitor locations? I'm guessing USA and Australia by the posts I've seen.

 

I've attached a dump of our visitor stats from Google Analytics for you to look at.

Analytics_www.edugeek.net_20091219-20100118_(GeoMapReport).pdf

Edited January 19, 2010 by Dos_Box

[tmcd35]

Thanks for that DB, that was an interesting read. Must say US traffic is higher than I'd have guessed and for some reason I'd never had guessed india being in the top five!

 

hello to all our international friends.

 

EDIT: It really does show we're attracting quiet a following and the site is growing quiet impressively.

[Devontechie]

I've attached a dump of our visitor stats from Google Analytics for you to look at.

 

As tmcd35 as said, very interesting.

[garethEds]

Our BETT presence is three fold really we run the technical help point for BETT (Something we need to make sure is more clear in future years) and then for us as org meeting you lot and also gaining new members to the community.

 

Hi Russ,

 

Thanks for pointing out some of the answers. I feel the need to bring you to the quote above - if this is the case and you are the technical help point for BETT then you need to be closer to the middle of the show instead of a small stand near the rear. I don't know where you were this year, but the camera made the stand look small.

 

Is the title 'Technical Help Point for BETT' an official title as given to you by the organisers of BETT? If so then I totally agree with you about making it clearer in future years. BETT should also realise that you need to be closer to the front.

 

Gareth

[SYNACK]

I've attached a dump of our visitor stats from Google Analytics for you to look at.

 

Thanks it's interesting to see the break down, any chance of the stats for New Zealand? It would be quite interesting to see how many hits come from down here.

[Dos_Box]

Thanks for that DB, that was an interesting read. Must say US traffic is higher than I'd have guessed and for some reason I'd never had guessed india being in the top five!

 

hello to all our international friends.

 

EDIT: It really does show we're attracting quiet a following and the site is growing quiet impressively.

 

I shall run a screen recorder when Woopra is running at about 3pm just to give you a vauge idea of just how big we are. Incidentally, those stats may be skewed a little due to it being over teh xmas period. I shall try and get a years worth for you.

[Dos_Box]

Here, y'go. A years worth.

Analytics_www.edugeek.net_20090119-20100118_(GeoMapReport).pdf

[mossj]

Thats a very high bounce rate from other countries...

[GrumbleDook]

Hi Russ,

 

Thanks for pointing out some of the answers. I feel the need to bring you to the quote above - if this is the case and you are the technical help point for BETT then you need to be closer to the middle of the show instead of a small stand near the rear. I don't know where you were this year, but the camera made the stand look small.

 

Is the title 'Technical Help Point for BETT' an official title as given to you by the organisers of BETT? If so then I totally agree with you about making it clearer in future years. BETT should also realise that you need to be closer to the front.

 

Gareth

 

The stand location is actually a very good one, next to two main thorough-fares, the stairs for which give access to the grand hall gallery and opposite a busy cafe. The main information point is situated in teh centre (the BESA information point) as that is the only generic info point. The Software information point is upstairs in teh national hall gallery to be close to the software zone and the SEN information point is in the SEN area. Both are sometimes very quiet and get few visitors.

 

At the "Technical Help Point powered by EduGeek.net (in association with Smoothwall, Net-Ctrl and Westwood Associates)" it rarely stops. The Technical help Point is the title given by EMAP after discussions with Russ and what the stand lacks in size it makes up for in information.

 

Actually ... it is not a bad size. If Chris could just persuade those people next door to move back upstairs he could spread out a little ... but apparently the free smoothies are too enticing!

[Dos_Box]

Not really considering the language barrier, and taking this into account from Wikipedia:

 

While bounce rate is a useful tool for e-commerce sites, it is of more questionable value for sites such as news and information, where many visitors go to scan headlines and conduct research, and can find what they want immediately on the entry page. Indeed, for any kind of informational site, sophisticated users are likely to bookmark a page within the site, which then becomes their personal entry page, check it (e.g., for sports scores, the price of pork bellies, etc.), then bounce right off. The page will have done its job, but might still have a bounce rate above 80%, bringing up the average for the whole site. For such sites, metrics such as returning visitors vs. new visitors might be more informative.

[tmcd35]

The other interesting stat is how long people stick around for. Here in the UK we're averaging at over 7min. So we log in, catchup on the events, make a few posts and stick around. No doubt meny of us keep iSpy open in the background all day constantly updating.

 

Folks from the rest of the globe. Come here, find the answer to their problem and have gone again in under 2min.

[SYNACK]

Thats a very high bounce rate from other countries...

 

I'm sure its a stupid question but what is the bounce rate?