Using web analytics tools to evaluate the diffusion of Outcome Mapping

Abstract

As the Internet continues to become a part of everyday life for many people around the world, we are increasingly leaving traces of our behaviours online. When aggregated, trends in the real world can be found by looking at related trends in the virtual world where data is widely available and cheap to obtain and easily monitored. Our interests, conversations, habits, economic and social trends can be seen through our individual and collective footprints that we leave on the web. This study looks at trends associated with the diffusion of Outcome Mapping (OM) by examining virtual footprints of individuals engaging with OM and other OM users on the Internet. In doing so, I introduce the concepts of web analytics as a set of tools for conducting social science research and program evaluation.