Query Log Analysis: From Research to Best Practice

I attended the Query Log Analysis: From Research to Best Practice Workshop hosted by Paul Clough from the University of Sheffield. The two day workshop was aimed at stimulating "discussion on the analysis of log files" and providing "a forum in which to share experiences and best practice”.

I’m a big fan of the potential of log analysis, so I found the workshop really enjoyable, interesting, and the start of something beneficial.

Paul did a great job in making the workshop both fun and worthwhile.

I gave two presentations at the workshop, one on log analysis research, Moving from Description to Prediction, that I’ve been doing. The focus was including more predictive aspects in and findings from log analysis.

The second presentation was a primer on Web log analysis, What is Web Log Analysis?, where I really focused on the foundational elements, both theoretical and methodological.

Overall, the workshop was really good.

One of the workshop aims was to bring together researchers and practitioners. In this regard, the workshop was heavy on the ‘research’ and light on the ‘practice’. So, this would be an area to concentrate on in future workshops.