Thing #35: Track your software usage with Wakoopa

Ever wonder how much you use a particular program? Does it seem like you spend all day on Word or Outlook? Or maybe you’ve got iTunes running in the background at all times. Not only is there a way to track all of the software you run, you can also track certain online applications such as Google Reader, GMail, and Hootsuite.

Let’s take it one step further. Would you be interested in knowing which programs and online services are most used on your public access computers? [Note: Before anyone freaks out on the potential privacy issues from this suggestions, I am well aware of them and what I’m suggesting will not track individual users, I promise.] Wouldn’t it be interesting to know if your patrons use GMail more than Yahoo! Mail and HotMail? Or maybe they’re using Excel all the time and not using Word much at all. Having this information available to you could influence such things as which software to purchase next or how to answer the “How do I get an e-mail address?” question.

The service that will allow you to get all this information is Wakoopa.

Note: Some of the screenshots in this lesson are more readable than others. To view the full-sized screenshot, just click on it.

Overview

Before we get into it too far, let’s take a look at my Wakoopa profile page:

Favorites:

These are the programs that' I’ve marked as my favorites and why I like them so much. In this case we’re talking about Chrome (browser), Live Mesh (cloud storage and file synchronizing), Backblack (online backup), and Boxee (media center).

Top 10 Software:

A listing of the ten programs I used the most in the past week, the past month, and the newest programs I’ve been using. This is a quick way to see how my usage has changed over time.

Messages:

Once you start using Wakoopa you’ll be able to connect with other users and send messages. At the moment I don’t have any incoming messages.

Level:

As you do different things in the system (use one program for a certain length of time or write a review for example) you’ll earn points. The more points you earn, the higher your level, and the more trusted others are likely to consider you.

About you:

Your bio, Web site, and other information you choose to make public about yourself.

Recently used:

The most recent software you’ve started up.

Awards:

Recent points you’ve earned.

Reviews:

Recent reviews you’ve written.

Contacts:

Links to your friends in the system.

Teams:

Links to any groups you belong to in the system.

Signing Up

So, let’s get you signed up. Head on over the the Wakoopa home page and click on “Sign up & start tracking!” Fill in a username, a password (twice), and your e-mail address. When done, click “Sign up”. (You may be asked to confirm your e-mail address. If so, that e-mail should arrive in your inbox shortly.) When you’re all done you’ll either already be logge in our you’ll need to head back to the home page to log in.

Once you’re up and running, click on the “Settings” link at the top of the page. There are a lot of options here but I’m just going to cover a few of the more important ones.

You should be on the General settings screen. Here you can upload an avatar (icon) for yourself, change your username and password, and fill in your profile information. Fill in as much profile information as you’re comfortable with. When it comes to the e-mail options, I highly suggest you sign up for the weekly updates as that makes it easier to track your usage by sending weekly reports to your inbox.

(Be sure to click Save at the bottom of the page to keep any changes you make.)

The other important settings screen in "Privacy”. Here you can decide whether to make your profile public, allow others to send you messages, and to set specific privacy settings on specific pieces of software.

For example, you could decide that you don’t wish to make public how much you use World of Warcraft as it really isn’t anyone’s business that you have that particular addiction ;-)

Installing the tracking software

Once you have your profile set up you’ll need to install a small program on your computer to start tracking what software you use. Head on over to the Download screen to get the software. Wakoopa supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. You’ll be presented with the version appropriate for the computer you’re currently on. Download the program and install it. (I’ll continue the instruction on Windows but the steps are similar on Mac and Linux.)

Once installed an icon will appear in your system tray. As long as this is running your being tracked. You will need to tell this program your Wakoopa username and password so it connects your usage with your account. Through this program you can pause or stop tracking at any time.

What I find particularly intriguing, is that you can install this program on multiple computers and, as long as you provide the same account information on each one, all of the usage on all of the computers will be aggregated into your account.

For example, I have it installed on at least four different computers that I use regularly. Now I can tell what I’m using regardless of which computer I’m on. In your case, consider installing this on your public access computers and find out just which programs your patrons are actually using. (Don’t worry, it doesn’t track so specifically as to be a privacy concern in my opinion.)

You could also do this for your staff computers. However, if you’re going to do it for both staff and the public, you may want to create two different accounts as I’m sure that these two groups have significantly different usage patterns.

The other thing you’ll want to do at this point is to tell Wakoopa what kinds of items to track. Look to the top of any Wakoopa screen (while logged in) and to the right of the logo you’ll see (in my screenshots) “for Windows and Web”. Click on that. You’ll get a menu of items to track: Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and Web. Check which ones you want tracked and click the Save button.

If you’re not clear on what “Web” means, it’s things like Google Docs, GMail, Twitter, and other online services. It’s not every Web site out there, just the “services”. I’ll admit that this is the one that makes some a little more nervous about Wakoopa. I understand your concerns and so do they, this is why you can easily decide not to have this information tracked.

Dashboard

Once the software is installed and tracking you may want to give it a good 24 hours before continuing. You can proceed now but there won’t be much for Wakoopa to report.

Your dashboard is similar to my public page that we looked at earlier. Here you’ll see notices from your contacts (you don’t have any yet), your top five software (searchable), software recommendations based on your usage and popularity in the system, and links to your neighbors (providing you gave some location information when you filled in your profile).

Here you can also find an RSS feed of the notices if you wish to subscribe to them via that method.

Reviews

Each program that has ever been tracked by a Wakoopa user has it’s own page containing information on its popularity, similar software, number of Wakoopa users, top users, new users, user reviews, problems, comments, source information, and details about how long you’ve been using it (assuming you are). I always like coming to these screens when considering installing new software on any of my computers. Several times I’ve decided to avoid a particular piece of software based on the overwhelming negative reviews from Wakoopa users. The screenshot to the right shows the page for Google Chrome.

Clicking on the Recommendations link will get you to a more detailed set of suggestions for you based on your usage. For example, Wakoopa thinks I should consider using LastPass (password keeping software), feedly (RSS reader), and Gowalla (location tracking). Though I will probably not switch to any of these programs I know that those recommendations are accurate based on my use of SplashID, Google Reader, and Foursquare respectively.

This is another page on which you can see recommended people you may wish to connect to based on your location and similar software use patterns.

Finally, head back on over to your profile page by clicking on your name and then click on the Reviews link. This will take you to the page of reviews that you’ve written. I’ll assume that you haven’t reviews any yet. (Don’t worry, that’s one of your assignments.) More importantly, you can bring up the reviews page of any other user. For example, mine is at http://wakoopa.com/msauers/reviews. If you’re interested in reading whatever reviews I write in the future you could bookmark this page, add me as a contact, or subscribe to my reviews via the RSS link in the upper-right of the page.

Reports

Ultimately, the reports I believe are the most powerful feature of Wakoopa. What’s the sense of tracking all this information if you can’t see the results?

To get to your main report head back to your page and click on Usage. Here you’ll see a complete report of every program and Web service that’s been tracked for your account ordered by the most used to the least used. This information is also divided into two categories: what you use actively, and what you run in the background.

For example, my current report states that I actively use Firefox the most often and so far have used it for a total of 1746 hours, 49 minutes, and 3 seconds. This is followed by Outlook (862+ hours), and Google Reader (264+ hours). If you know how I work in the office these are obvious as I pretty much have all three of them running on my desktop at all times while in the office.

In the background the top three are SnagIt (34263+ hours), Wakoopa Tracker (31692+ hours) and Windows Explorer (27146+ hours). These are programs, among others, that start whenever I start Windows and just sit in the background waiting to be used. When I do actually use them, that time is considered for the active column.

The other report I’ve encourage you to receive is the weekly e-mail report. This screenshot shows an example of one I’ve received.

In the e-mail report you’ll receive copies of that week’s alerts from your contacts, software recommendations, and your top ten for the past week, month, and newcomers. Basically, much of the information I’ve already shown you on the site, but in one hand weekly e-mail message.

Contacts

If you’ve used Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or most any other social Web service, you’re already familiar with how friends/contacts work. Once you find someone you’re interested in connecting with just click the “Add username as your contact!” on their profile page. Now, whenever they do something in Wakoopa it will show up in your notices. That person will be notified that you’re now following them and they can decide if they wish to follow you back.

The list of people you follow and who follow you can be found by clicking the Contacts link on your profile page.

As with most other systems I tend to only follow people I know but there are always exceptions to that rule should I find them particularly interesting. (I promise to follow back anyone who follows me in April 2010, the initial month for this lesson. After that, just drop me a note in Wakoopa mentioning this and I’ll be sure to follow you back too.)

Teams

Teams in Wakoopa are like groups in Flickr. They allow a collection of like-minded individuals to connect their accounts and aggregate their data. For example, maybe you’re an avid promoter of open source software and want to know what others like you are using. Better yet, suppose your a librarian and want to know what software is in use by other librarians. Yes, there is a librarian team in Wakoopa.

Beyond aggregating data there is also a group messaging system. As you can see, there aren’t many members yet and we’re not all that talkative but maybe you could help us out with that.

Widgets

Lastly, if you’d like to let other non-Wakoopa members know what you’re doing you can use one of several different Wakoopa widgets.

One of them is a “badge” which you can customize and then embed into your Web site. This badge will constantly show either your most recent top ten programs, recently used software, newly used software or your Wakoopa level. (Mine would be Fanatic.)

If you’re a Facebook user you can also post this information to your Facebook account by following the directions for the Facebook widget.

Final Thoughts

I realize that since Wakoopa relies on installing a small program on your computer this lesson is a little different than ones we’ve done in the past. However, I know both that some of you are looking for a little more “techie” assignments, and that many librarians like to collect and review data.

I’ve been running Wakoopa for more than a year now and I' have learned things from the data it has collected for me. As a result I think that the data generated in a library setting, whether for staff or the public, could create some interesting results that the library could learn from.

Assignment

1. Sign up for a Wakoopa account and install the tracking software on at least one computer, if you can. (If you can install it on multiple staff or public computers all the better.)
   
2. Add me (msauers) as a contact.
   
3. Join the Librarians team.
   
4. Write a review for at least one piece of software or Web service that you use regularly.
   
5. Embed a Wakoopa widget into your blog in the sidebar of your blog or just in the post you write for this lesson. Whichever is easier for you. If you’re an avid Facebook user consider the Facebook integration option.
   
6. In your blog post share your Wakoopa username and give us your thoughts on the service. Topics could include: Did you find out anything surprising about your software usage? How about if you installed it for staff or patrons? Could you find this useful in the long run or does the whole idea just creep you out? Were there any features of Wakoopa that you found particularly interesting or useful or useless?