I am a social researcher doing a study of email pyramiding strategies for citizen-initiated polls. We have a url for a poll in an email invitation to participate. [snip]
Can we get this [following] information using Analog? (Somewhere I read that you can embed a transparent image in the email that would produce a request that could be counted showing that the email was opened?)
Lawrence, the basic issue is that Analog can count and measure what is in web server log files -- nothing more, nothing less. So whatever you do must somehow generate a request for a file from a website. That request would then be logged, and Analog can slice and dice that data in all sorts of ways.
Any web log analysis program can do this, the ability is not unique to Analog. It's all about how you set up your email, not about how you analyze the logs.
Yes, you can embed an image in an HTML (that is, a formatted) email, and have that email come from a web server rather than being attached as part of the email. If that image is loaded as the email is read, then a request to the web server is generated and logged. Indeed, if you generate a unique ID number for each email you send out -- the link to the image could be of the form http://your.server.com/someimage.gif?55449582754, with a different number in every email sent -- that number is also logged. You can then see which email addresses generated a request, and you will know that duplicate numbers can be traced back to the initial address.
There are also tricky things you might do with JavaScript or other scripting languages to generate a *new* unique ID when the email is opened, thus enabling you to trace the email as it's passed on to others.
However, there are two major problems with this technique:
* It will not deliver accurate results.
* Its ethics are extremely questionable.
It won't deliver accurate results because not all email client programs will load the image.
* Many people (though probably in a minority these days) use email
clients which do not render HTML email. They will only see messy
HTML code, and are unlikely to follow the image link manually to
load the image. These people won't appear in your count. * Many people whose email client *does* display HTML email will
have the display of external images turned off -- because it's
considered to be an invasion of privacy for someone to track
whether they open an email or not, and when. Indeed, this is
exactly the technique used by spammers to validate whether an
email address works or not. The number of people blocking such external images already high
and is increasing as email programs improve their security and
privacy. * Similarly, any scripted tricks are increasingly likely to be
blocked, because running unknown program code as you open an
email is a security risk. This is exactly how virus propagate.The method is ethically questionable because:
* The external image-load technique does not allow the user to
provide informed consent to having their behaviour logged before
that logging takes place. * Potentially, if you do the track-the-hand-on stuff, you're
compiling a list of who's a friend of whom (at least via their
email address, and that's fairly easy to match back to people)
and, given the context of your research question, matching that
to their political beliefs. How is that data going to be handled
and people's privacy protected?So, to answer your specific questions...
We need to learn: 1. How many people opened the email,
No, because many people will not generate a request to the web server even if they do open the email.
2. How many clicked on the url, and
If you mean how many manually clicked on the URL to your poll, you already know this from your web server logs. Or at least you know how many requested the web page with the poll on it (because you're logging it), and then how many completed the poll (because you're also logging that).
However, there's no completely reliable way to know how they came to find that web address unless you add that unique serial number to every email. But you won't be able to analyze the pyramid down past the first level.
3. How many forwarded the email to their friends - and the number of lines in a chain, if possible.
No, for the reasons outlined above. At least not reliably. And at least not ethically.
Of course, if you threw ethical issues out of the window, this sort of thing is possible. And indeed it's done all the time by people like Emode/Tickle, and the less-than-reputable folks who embed "spyware" programs into people's email clients under the guise of providing them with "cute smiley faces for their email". Such folks will quite happily track every email a person sends, who they send it to and when, compile comprehensive behavioural profiles of individuals and sell them.
But since you're researching "public advocacy campaigns", and this sort of hidden user-tracking represents an attitude which is the exact opposite of advocating the rights of the public, I'm hoping this mis-match prevents you choosing this path for your research. :)
I hope that helps,
Stil
-- Stilgherrian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Internet, IT and Media Consulting, Sydney, Australia. ABN 25 231 641 421 mobile 0407 623 600 (international +61 407 623 600) fax 02 9516 5630 (international +61 2 9516 5630) +------------------------------------------------------------------------ | TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list: | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/unsubscribe.html | | Digest version: http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help-digest/ | Usenet version: news://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.analog.general | List archives: http://www.analog.cx/docs/mailing.html#listarchives +------------------------------------------------------------------------
