[Squeakmap] Statistics

lex at cc.gatech.edu lex at cc.gatech.edu
Mon Aug 16 16:19:41 UTC 2004


"Hernan Tylim" <htylim at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
> 	What do you think about keeping a downloads counter per Package
> release on Squeakmap?  I know that it wouldn't be accurate because of
> the local cache on each client. But it will give as at least a lower
> bound for measuring the use of a given package. 


Yeah, it's interesting to track.  SqueakSource does this, by the way. 
If you host your package on SqueakSource, and put the entry on
Squeakmap, then you can get download counts.

Note that it's still not a lower bound.  I know that I reinstall Squeak
with moderate frequency and in multiple directories, and thus I have
still downloaded packages multiple times even though SqueakMap has a
built-in cache.


Debian has a take on this issue.  :)  They have a "popularity contest". 
Users can, at their choice, install the popularity contest package on
their machine and thus participate in the contest.  If you install the
package, then it will periodically contact a central site with a list of
the packages you have installed.  Using this information, the central
site can determine the *percentage* of users who have a particular
package installed on their machine.  You can then extrapolate from this
number to however many Debian users you think there are in the world
(not a trivial question itself...), to find out how many people are
using any particular package.

It's not perfect.  People can rig the votes if they want.  A package
might be installed on people's machines, but not be getting used.  Users
who take part in the popularity contest may not be representative of the
whole set of Debian users.  But, overall, it seems more accurate that
simply counting downloads.

	http://popcon.debian.org/
	


-Lex



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