Global Experts Final presentation

1. Global ExpertsFinal presentation S. Hsieh S. Schutzman Y. Jiang

2. Initial Goals • Work Plan from September (Actual Clips) • Three Stage Process • I. Research • II. Technical and design/organization changes (Note: some aspects of this stage will happen concurrently with stage one) • Figure out how to better feature the experts • Make them more prominent • Fixing expert search to make it functional • Work on categories and tags is crucial • III. STAGE THREE: Analysis of changes and promotion • How to make the resource known to a diversity of people and companies • How to increase awareness of the site as a free resource • Example: article series—Religion and the Public Space • How stage three will be accomplished • Social media • Focus groups

3. Expectations vs. Reality • Lesson: Goals change. • Expectation: Focus on design; Reality: UNAOC Hired Regan Wilders. • Expectation: Changes implemented by projects’ end and focus groups; Reality: Most of our work became recommendations • Expectation: Major rebranding by end of project; Reality: Minor rebranding • Expectations met: • Category update • Successful research • Tags analysis

4. Project Summary • Market Research • Survey • Competitor Analysis • Data Update and Analysis • Experts’ Info • Statistics • Recommendations • Database Categories • Tags • Blogroll • Social Media • Branding

5. Market Research - Survey • Conducted survey using Survey Monkey • Sent to over 6,000 people • 91 responses • Did not meet expectations • Questions concerning use, preferences, demographics, suggestions • Survey results showed usage patterns • Client changed content based on these patterns • Branding implications

6. Most Popular Subject areas

7. Lessons • Large survey pool doesn’t necessarily translate to large response rates. • If at first no one responds -- send, send again. • Small response rates can still have big implications.

8. Market Research – Competitor Analysis • Goal: Find what makes Global Experts unique • Three “competitors” • Big Think • Project Syndicate • The Elders

9. BiG Think

10. Project Syndicate

11. The Elders

12. Conclusions and Lessons • Conclusions: • GE strength is in expansive, yet narrowly-tailored selection. • Focus on “Global” • More content in comments and analysis • Design is holding the site back • More prominence for special content • I.E. 100 questions about Islam • Lessons: • There’s nothing wrong with emulation

13. Data Update – Experts’ Info • Composed email request for data update • Location, geographic expertise, language, area of expertise • Underwhelming number of responses • Google. • Direct email.

14. Initial Database

15. Final Database

16. Data Analysis

17. Just how Global is Global Experts? “Other”: Brazil, Israel, India, Netherlands, China, Peru, Ireland, Turkey, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, Libya, Nigeria, Morocco, Qatar, etc.

18. Lessons • If at first you don’t succeed … STALK. • Enter data the first time through. • People are more likely to respond to personal emails. • Microsoft Access is a fantastically efficient database software.

19. Recommendations – Database Categories • Regrouped experts based on expertise, location and work field • Conclusions: geographical and occupational search fields worth adding; subject area subcategories not worth pursuing • Results: • Added ‘professions’ search field • Added ‘language’ search field • Narrowed ‘geographic location’ search field • Subcategories for ‘geographic expertise’ search field

20. Database - Before

21. Database – After (Proposed)

22. Lessons • “Good ideas,” even ones in which you invest a lot of time, can turn out to be bad. • But don’t get discouraged. • Don’t be afraid to think of too many ideas. • You can always narrow things down. • Less is more.

23. Recommendations - Tags • Analyzed experts’ tags • Recommendations for improvements: • Consolidate existing tags • Improve tag consistency • Sent analysis report and formal guidelines

24. Lessons • Numbers. Always use numbers.

25. Recommendations - Blogroll • Goals: Clean up current blogroll; Add more links • Lots of dead links • Some blogs defunct • Some blogs outdated • Link recommendations: • Media Matters, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Conflict Studies Research Center, Economic Policy Institute, Americas View, Thought Leader, WSJ Hong Kong, Kings of War, Current Intelligence, Conflict Health, MESS Report, The Middle East Blog (TIME), Wings over Iraq

26. Blogroll • Current blogroll:

27. Blogroll • Proposed blogroll:

28. Social Media • Recommended Facebook posting guidelines • Three component posts • News, Identification, Context • Better expert integration • Link to experts’ Twitter/Facebook pages • Cleaning up Facebook page

29. Branding • Current tagline: Analysis on Demand • Not accurate

30. Branding • Emphasis points: • Source of knowledge • Global scope • Complexity of information • Examples: • Voices Across Borders. • Ask Us. • Network of Knowledge. • Reaching Answers. • Bridging the Gap.

31. Lessons • Don’t count on recommendations turning to results. • What’s important to you may be less important for your client.

32. Going Forward • Would another capstone group benefit from continuing this project? • No. • Brunt of work would be implementing our ideas. • AKA Busy work. • It would not be a fulfilling learning experience.

33. Questions?