Evolution of the Analysis Exchange
When we created the Analysis Exchange years ago my Partners and I all knew the industry needed better gateways into the field. Being “old school” each of us had more or less found our way to web analytics, and while we all ended up being lucky, we all recognized that the industry wouldn’t be able to grow or scale if that was the only way in. The idea of giving folks interested in the field “hands on” access to data, projects, and guidance was a no-brainer really … but wow did we not see how it would blow up!
In the subsequent years Analysis Exchange has ebbed and flowed, primarily based on our internal ability to focus on finding groups willing to bring projects to the table. The one thing I didn’t really imagine was how difficult it would be to find non-profits that A) had questions that could B) be answered using Google Analytics and C) could spend the time required to participate in a project. And while we had some great partners over time, finding projects ended up being the biggest gateway to the success of the Exchange.
Ironically, since we put Analysis Exchange on the back-burner a year ago … student interest has more or less exploded. We now get an average of 30 new students signing up from around the world every week! This is great and is a really interesting view in how analytics is changing from a global perspective … but what a disappointment for those new students to not have projects to work on.
So we are going to fix that.
For the time being we have taken Analysis Exchange offline and are looking into new ways to scale the effort and serve the needs of nearly 5,000 individuals around the world who want to join the digital analytics industry. We don’t have a timeline for these changes but we are working on them actively and as part of a few other innovative ideas we are planning to roll out. We appreciate your patience while we work.
As always I welcome your comments …
