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| Issue 7 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Brian Kelly - July 2002
Brian Kelly reviews the CULTIVATE National Node Web sites using a variety of automated tools, and makes some comparisons with a survey of National Focal Point Web sites.
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The CULTIVATE project [1] (of which the Cultivate Interactive e-journal is a part) supports the dissemination of information about the EU's Digital Heritage and Cultural Content (DIGICULT) programme [2]. National Nodes have a key role to play in the project by disseminating information within their own country. As well as organising meetings and events, giving presentations and running mailing lists the National Notes also provide Web sites to support their dissemination function. The National Node Web sites complement the work of the the central CULTIVATE Web site [3] by providing regional information and by providing information in the national language(s).
The work of the National Nodes has built on the work of the National Focal Points (NFPs) which were funded by the EU's Fourth Framework's Telematics For Libraries programme. The work was coordinated as part of the EXPLOIT project [4].
A survey of the NFP Web sites was published in Exploit Interactive in October 1999 [5]. The survey showed that a variety of approaches to the provision of Web sites was taken. There was no consistent visual identity or navigational aids and it appeared that there was little sharing of information on best practices.
In the CULTIVATE project it was agreed to address some of these limitations by making use of a consistent visual identity and navigational structure and, through regular meetings and email communications, provide support and advice in implementing best practices.
In this article a summary of a survey of the National Node Web sites is given.
The analysis of National Node Web sites makes use of the central list of National Nodes maintained on the central CULTIVATE Web site [6].
It should be noted that this list includes information on National Nodes funded by the CULTIVATE-EU (for EU countries) and CULTIVATE-CEE (for Central and Eastern Europe Countries), together with the recently established CULTIVATE-Russia project.
Of the 26 countries listed 22 provide a National Node Web site. Details of the Web sites' address are given below.
As can be seen from Table 1, 11 Web sites have an entry point of the form <www.country_code.cultivate-europe.org>. This can be compared with the findings for NFP Web sites, for which there was no consistency and the address of other Web sites could be be extrapolated from knowing the address of one.
A total of 14 Web sites make use of a simple domain name, with no additional path name required. This compares with NFP Web sites, in which only two countries made use of a domain name as the entry point. Use of a simple domain name means the URL is easier to type, is more memorable and can be more easily marketed.
Many of the Web sites have made use of the CULTIVATE visual identity and look-and-feel, as can be seen from Figure 1.
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| Figure 1: The Irish and Estonian National Node Web Sites |
As well as helping in raising awareness of the CULTIVATE project, consistent use of the visual identity and look-and-feel will also be helpful for end users who may have an interest in accessing more than one National Node Web site.
A "Web tour" of the National Node Web sites is available [7]. This provides an automated display of the the entry points.
Netcraft [8] was employed to analyse the server technology used to provide the National Node Web sites. A summary of the findings is given in Appendix 1.
Thirteen of the Web sites are (probably) hosted on a Unix server and 9 on an Windows NT server. Interestingly, in addition, one Web site appear to use the Microsoft server software on a Unix platform.
As well as helping in raising awareness of the CULTIVATE project, consistent use of the visual identity and look-and-feel will also be helpful for end users who may have an interest in accessing more than one National Node Web site.
A "Web tour" of the National Node Web sites is available [7]. This provides an automated display of the the entry points.
AltaVista [9] was used to provide information on the numbers of pages indexed by AltaVista and the number of links to the National Node Web sites. A summary of the findings is given in Appendix 1.
It should be noted that the information on the number of links is taken from the AltaVista database. It cannot be guaranteed that the information held on the database is complete.
NetMechanic [10] was used to analyse the quality of the National Node home pages. This included reporting the numbers of broken links and HTML errors on the page and the load time for the page. A summary of the findings is given in Appendix 1.
From the findings it will be noted that several of the Web sites appeared to contain broken links and HTML and browser compatibility errors. In some cases this was not actually the case - NetMechanic may sometimes provide incorrect results. However in a number of cases there were problems with the pages.
The Robot Exclusion Protocol [11] enables a Web site administrator to specify directories which robots should not access. Although it does not provide a security mechanism this protocol can be used to avoid search engines indexing draft documents and personal files. It can also be used to stop search engines from wasting server capacity by attempting to index files such as images, CGI scripts, etc.
A brief summary of the use of the Robot Exclusion Protocol for the National Node Web sites is given in Appendix 1.
It was noted that none of the Web sites appeared to support the Robot Exclusion Protocol. This may not be an issue, as it is likely that National Nodes will want all pages on their Web sites to be indexed by robots.
The 404 error page is displayed when a URL is given for a resource which does not exist. This may be due to an incorrect URL being contained in a HTML page, a page being moved or deleted or the end user typing in an incorrect URL.
A brief summary of the 404 error pages for the National Node Web sites is given in Appendix 1.
It is possible for the 404 error page to be branded with the Web site's visual identity. The 404 error page can also provide useful additional functionality, such as providing a search facility. However it was noted that none of the National Node Web sites provides branding or extra functionality on the 404 page.
The Bobby tool [12] was used to analyse the accessibility of the main entry point for National Node Web sites. The results are given in Appendix 1.
It was noted that a number of the National Node Web sites contained P1 errors.
A summary of the search facility provided on National Node Web sites is given below.
The following Web sites provided a search facility: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Slovenia and the UK. This is a total of 13 of the 21 Web sites.
In order to establish how easy it was to find the CULTIVATE National Node Web sites using a search engine Google was used to search for "Cultivate country" where country was replaced by the English spelling of the country. The results are given in Appendix 2.
It is pleasing to report that for all of the countries the National Node Web site, the central CULTIVATE Web site or the Cultivate Interactive e-journal was found in the first page of the results for all Web sites, in numbers ranging from the first 4 results to all 10 results on the first page provided by Google! These findings are even more impressive if one takes into account the fact that the search term is in English and not in the country's native language.
Based on these findings the following recommendations are made:
The analysis of the National Node Web sites has shown that many improvements have been made in comparison with the approaches taken in providing Web sites for the National Focal Points. The CULTIVATE project itself has benefited from the consistent approaches which have been made. It is especially pleasing to discover that a search for the term "cultivate" (a widely used word) obtains so many hits from the Google search engine, and that a search for this term in conjunction with the country name will also provide relevant information for all countries. The CULTIVATE name is clearly a valuable asset to the project (and the European Commission itself).
Although the National Node Web sites are clearly search engine-friendly, the survey has identified a number of areas in which minor modifications to the Web sites should be made in order to improve the Web sites accessibility and interoperability. It is hoped that this survey has helped in identifying these areas, and that the tools which are accessible from this article will be used by the National Nodes both to enhance their Web sites and to examine other National Node Web sites in order to make use of best practices.
A summary of the findings is given in the following table:
| Node | Server | NetMechanic Analysis | Accessibility | 404 Page | robots.txt | Links To Site (from AltaVista) | Pages Indexed (by AltaVista) | |
| 1 | Central CULTIVATE Web Site | Zope/Zope 2.3.0 (source release, python 1.5.2, linux2) ZServer/1.1b1 on Solaris 8. Check |
Link check - 1 bad links HTML check - 16 errors Browser compatibility - 15 problems Load time = 6.35 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Zope default Try it |
None Try it |
187 Try it |
23 Try it |
| 2 | Austria's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links Other information not available (framed Web site) Try it |
At least 1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 3 | Belgium's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Solaris 8 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links Browser compatibility - 0 problems HTML check - 1 errors Load time = 6.80 secs Try it |
2 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 4 | Bulgaria's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 0 errors Browser compatibility - 0 problems Load time = 5.68 secs Try it |
2 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 5 | Czech Republic's CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache/1.3.14 (Unix) PHP/4.0.5-dev on Linux Check |
Link check - 1 bad links HTML check - 20 errors Browser compatibility - 14 problems Load time = 10.72 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 6 | Denmark's CULTIVATE Web Site | Zope/Zope 2.3.0 (source release, python 1.5.2, linux2) ZServer/1.1b1 on Solaris 8. Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 19 errors Browser compatibility - 12 problems Load time = 4.95 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Zope default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 7 | Estonia's CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache/1.3.14 (Unix) (Red-Hat/Linux) mod_perl/1.23 on Linux Check |
Link check - 3 bad links HTML check - 13 errors Browser compatibility - 14 problems Load time = 8.07 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 8 | Finland's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000 Check |
Link check - 4 bad links HTML check - 28 errors Browser compatibility - 11 problems Load time = 5.73 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 9 | Germany's CULTIVATE Web Site | mod_perl/1.18 Apache/1.3.4 (Unix) (SuSE/Linux) PHP/3.0.7 on Linux Check |
Link check - 2 bad links HTML check - 22 errors Browser compatibility - 0 problems Load time = 5.16 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
42 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 10 | Greece's CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache/1.3.14 (Unix) tomcat/1.0 on Linux Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 63 errors Browser compatibility - 27 problems Load time = 10.52 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 11 | Hungary's CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) Debian/GNU on Linux Check |
Link check - 2 bad links HTML check - 14 errors Browser compatibility - 14 problems Load time = 8.44 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
0 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 12 | Ireland's CULTIVATE Web Site | Zope/Zope 2.3.0 (source release, python 1.5.2, linux2) ZServer/1.1b1 on Solaris 8 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 15 errors Browser compatibility - 15 problems Load time = 5.70 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Zope server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
20 Try it |
| 13 | Israel's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 1 error Browser compatibility - 3 problems Load time = 14.19 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 14 | Italy's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 2 errors Browser compatibility - 1 problem Load time = 12.15 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
1 Try it |
| 15 | Latvia's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98 Check |
Link check - 2 bad links HTML check - 59 errors Browser compatibility - 12 problems Load time = 14.30 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
1 Try it |
| 16 | Lithuania's CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache/1.3.14 (Unix) PHP/4.1.2 on Solaris Check |
Link check - 6 bad links HTML check - 22 errors Browser compatibility - 8 problems Load time = 7.04 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 17 | Netherlands' CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache/1.3.14 (Unix) mod_perl/1.21 PHP/3.0.12 on Solaris Check |
Link check - a bad links HTML check - NA errors Browser compatibility - NA problems Load time = NA secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 18 | Norway's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98 Check |
Link check - 2 bad links HTML check - 28 errors Browser compatibility - 12 problems Load time = 5.30 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 19 | Russia's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 34 errors Browser compatibility - 13 problems Load time = 9.26 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
2 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 20 | Slovenia's CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache on HP-UX Check |
Link check - 3 bad links HTML check - 14 errors Browser compatibility - 15 problems Load time = 11.36 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Tailored Try it |
None Try it |
0 Try it |
0 Try it |
| 21 | Spain's CULTIVATE Web Site | Apache/1.3.4 (Unix) tomcat/1.0 on Compaq Tru64 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - NA errors Browser compatibility - NA problems Load time = NA secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
1 Try it |
1 Try it |
| 22 | Sweden's CULTIVATE Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 1 error Browser compatibility - 0 problems Load time = 6.12 secs Try it |
1 P1 errors Check |
Server default Try it |
None Try it |
9 Try it |
1 Try it |
| 23 | UK's CULTIVATE Web Site | Zope/Zope 2.3.0 (source release, python 1.5.2, linux2) ZServer/1.1b1 on Solaris 8 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 17 errors Browser compatibility - 11 problems Load time = 7.11 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Zope default Try it |
None Try it |
3 Try it |
0 Try it |
As a comparison the survey has been carried out for the Cultivate Interactive e-journal. The findings are given in the following table.
| Site | Server | NetMechanic Analysis | Accessibility | 404 Page | robots.txt | Links To Site (from AltaVista) | Pages Indexed (by AltaVista) | |
| 1 | Cultivate Interactive's Web Site | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98 Check |
Link check - 0 bad links HTML check - 21 errors Browser compatibility - 14 problems Load time = 11.90 secs Try it |
0 P1 errors Check |
Tailored Try it |
Exists Try it |
412 Try it |
161 Try it |
The information in the table was collected between 10-13 May 2002.
It should be noted that there may be limitations in the services used to carry out this survey. For example, it has been noticed that the NetMechanic link-checking service does not understand the HTML element <BASE> which can provide an alternative directory for relative URLs.
The search engine Google was used to search for the term "Cultivate country" where country was replaced by the English spelling of the country. The results are given in the following table.
This survey took place on 14th May 2002.
| Site | Search | Comments | |
| 1 | Austria | Search for "Cultivate Austria" | All first 10 hits seem relevant |
| 2 | Belgium | Search for "Cultivate Belgium" | All first 10 hits seem relevant |
| 3 | Bulgaria | Search for "Cultivate Bulgaria" | The first 7 hits seem relevant |
| 4 | Czech Republic | Search for "Cultivate Czech Republic" | The first 6 hits seem relevant |
| 5 | Denmark | Search for "Cultivate Denmark" | The first 7 hits seem relevant |
| 6 | Estonia | Search for "Cultivate Estonia" | The first 5 hits seem relevant |
| 7 | Finland | Search for "Cultivate Finland" | The first 3 hits seem relevant |
| 8 | Germany | Search for "Cultivate Germany" | The first 8 hits seem relevant |
| 9 | Greece | Search for "Cultivate Greece" | The first 7 hits seem relevant |
| 10 | Hungary | Search for "Cultivate Hungary" | The first 6 hits seem relevant |
| 11 | Ireland | Search for "Cultivate Ireland" | All of the first 10 hits seem relevant |
| 12 | Israel | Search for "Cultivate Israel" | The first 6 hits seem relevant |
| 13 | Italy | Search for "Cultivate Italy" | The first 5 hits seem relevant |
| 14 | Latvia | Search for "Cultivate Latvia" | The first 5 hits seem relevant |
| 15 | Lithuania | Search for "Cultivate Lithuania" | All of the first 10 hits seem relevant |
| 16 | Netherlands | Search for "Cultivate Netherlands" | The first 4 hits seem relevant |
| 17 | Norway | Search for "Cultivate Norway" | The first 9 hits seem relevant |
| 18 | Russia | Search for "Cultivate Russia" | All of the first 10 hits seem relevant |
| 18 | Slovenia | Search for "Cultivate Slovenia" | The first 5 hits seem relevant |
| 19 | Spain | Search for "Cultivate Spain" | The first 5 hits seem relevant |
| 20 | Sweden | Search for "Cultivate Sweden" | The first 6 hits seem relevant |
| 21 | UK | Search for "Cultivate UK" | The first 9 hits seem relevant |
Note that in a search for the term "Cultivate" all the results shown on the first page are relevant to the CULTIVATE project.
It should be noted that this table only reports on links from pages which are indexed by Google. It will not, for example, report on links from pages on Intranets.
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
BA2 7AY
URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk
Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus. He works for
UKOLN
which is based at the
University of Bath
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For citation purposes:
Kelly, B "WebWatching CULTIVATE National Node Web Sites", Cultivate Interactive, issue
7, 11 July 2002
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue7/webwatch/>
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Related articles:
If you would like to view similar articles to this one click on a key word below:
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