Analysis of Web-Usage Statistics to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Online Maps for Community Outreach

The Wisconsin State Cartographer’s Office (SCO) relies on Web technology to facilitate its community outreach mission of supplying geospatial information to professionals and the general public in the state. Of particular importance to this effort are the SCO’s Webmapping applications that provide online access to aerial photographs, geodetic control points, and PLSS (Public Land Survey System) corner points. This study employs Web-usage statistics to assess the effectiveness of these online applications in meeting the SCO’s outreach goals. Specifically, the study focuses on the WHAIFinder (Wisconsin Historic Aerial Image Finder) application that serves up high-resolution scanned aerial photographs from the 1930s. The key questions addressed in the study include the following. Is the application reaching all areas of the state equally? Is it reaching communities in remote areas far from the physical photo collection? Are there regions of the state that are under-served? Is usage correlated to ease of access to the physical photo collection or the availability of a broadband Internet connection? The source of Web-usage data is Google Analytics, a free Google service that generates a host of usage statistics, including information on the locations of Web site visitors. The hypotheses and methods described in the study are aligned to work in Participatory GIS (PGIS), especially efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of online mapping applications for community engagement.