When does the use of the Internet become ABUSE - and how can we identify the spiders that use the Internet for non-work related reasons.
If a company executive needs to zoom in on the Internet surfing in his company, provided that it is a principal concern of his, s/he should do this, by asking him/herself the following key question: "What distinguishes the 'spiders' from their non-surfing colleagues, and which websites catches their attention (and time!)". To find the answer, the executive needs to take several different steps. First, he must identify the most frequently visited websites, the favorites. Next, s/he must find out, who these employees are. But, in the matter of "Internet Abuse", it is unfortunately not so simple. A possible outcome of such a "Knowledge Discovery" might just as well be, that 50% of those visiting the favorites, are actually the most effective employees in the company, hence the intense Internet use is not taking into account the nature/content of these websites. So, in this way, we are not closer to the truth, regarding who is surfing for non-work related reasons. The above method neglects the human nature in the behavior of employees. We need a totally different approach in order to unveil the abuse.
We presume, that a surfer finds one or two favorite websites/portals, and from these he "clicks" his way further on, using the links provided on these pages. We assume it to be the typical behavior of most Internet spiders. We will define the visitors of the favorite sites, as active users. The above mentioned behavioral pattern exhibits the relationship between some active employees and some favorite websites. The logical question then is: "What kind of relationship is it?". The way to answer this question could be achieved by using a numeric approach. By numeric we mean, that we need to find a numeric dependency between employees and the websites visited. What does these dependencies consist of?
First we need to define, what an active Internet user is. We can choose a random number, for example, at least 10 websites need to be visited by the same employee, in order to call him an active user. But this alone is NOT enough! It is of out most importance, that these employees themselves determine the websites they visit, as favorites. By favorite websites, we outline the sites which has been visited by a relatively large number of our active users. This is the relationship we are seeking to establish: the favorite websites define our active users, and the active users define the favorite websites. By looking at the content of the favorite websites, we are hoping to learn what kind of users the visitors are. This dual relationship, we believe, is closer to the truth, than the executives solution. It is important, that we outrun the occasional spiders. The dual relationship does just that! It eliminates the occasional surfer (user). Moreover, our solution even eliminates the very persistent spiders, that just visit a very limited number of websites - as well. The "limited spiders" could easily be those, using the Internet for work related reasons. Given the number of surfer activity, for example 10 sites, our method discloses - how many times a website must be visited by these active users to become a "favorite" and vice versa (given the number, for example 4 users per favorite site - how many favorite websites the user must visit in order to become an "active user"). So, we measure the popularity of a website by giving it a "favor number", which indicates how "favorite" it is among the above mentioned active users. The other way around, we measure the "surfer/spider activity" by a number, which shows how many sites the user must visit among the favorite sites to became an active user. The surfer activity number, and the website favor number depend on the time period in which the data is collected, the total number of employees in the company and so forth. We will illustrate our concept below.
Suppose the executive is interested in a report showing the visited websites during a given period. During this period, a person (could be a secretary or other) will notify the executive, each time an employee visits a particular site. In the end, after enough data is collected, it can be summarized in a table, where the websites visited are listed in rows, and employees are listed in columns. Each entry in the table indicates that an employee has visited a particular website. By using our concept of duality, the executive then can discover the active users, and their favorite websites.
Yet another definition of active Web Users might sound like that. An "Internet Expert Committee" consists of a group of employees, who have been at least 4 times on the same Website within a list of Web Sites, where the expert committee should have its expertise – i.e. from the expert committee "Web Hit List". Committee member expertise level is a number of different Websites s/he visited within the Web Hit List. One expert committee has a higher expertise level over the other committee, if the first committee members lowest level is higher than that from the second committee. Hereby our interest will be to find a committee with the highest expertise level.In the table below we show, using our duality concept on 4368 websites visited by 183 employees during a period of approx. 1,5 month. Out of a total of 4368 sites, only 105 of these made it to our "top list/expert committee", meaning that they could be defined as favorites. The sites favor number is 4, while the employee "activity/expertise" number is 53. These favorites were visited only by 8 employees, which makes them "active users/the expert committe members", by our definition. To put it more clearly: each of these 105 sites has been visited by at least 4 times by our 8 active employees, and each of our 8 active employees, has visited at least 53 of these 105 favorite sites!
| Websites | Empl.nr.1 | Empl.nr.2 | Empl.nr.3 | Empl.nr.4 | Empl.nr.5 | Empl.nr.6 | Empl.nr.7 | Empl.nr.8 |
| Site nr.1 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.2 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.3 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.4 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.5 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.6 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.7 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.8 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.9 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.10 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.11 | x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.12 | x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.13 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
| Site nr.14 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
| Site nr.15 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.16 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.17 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.18 | x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.19 | x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.20 | x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.21 | x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.22 | x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.23 | x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.24 | x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.25 | x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.26 | x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.27 | x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.28 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.29 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.30 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.31 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.32 | x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
| Site nr.33 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.34 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.35 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.36 | x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.37 | x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.38 | x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
| Site nr.39 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.40 | x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.41 | x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.42 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.43 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.44 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.45 | x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.46 | x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.47 | x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.48 | x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.49 | x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.50 | x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.51 | x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.52 | x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.53 | x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.54 | x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.55 | x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.56 | x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
- |
| Site nr.57 | x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.58 | x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.59 | x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.60 | x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.61 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.62 | x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.63 | x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.64 | x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.65 | x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.66 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.67 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.68 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.69 | x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.70 | x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.71 | x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.72 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.73 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.74 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.75 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.76 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.77 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.78 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.79 | x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.80 | x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.81 | x |
- |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.82 | x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.83 | x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.84 | - |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
| Site nr.85 | - |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.86 | - |
x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
| Site nr.87 | - |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.88 | - |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.89 | - |
x |
- |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
| Site nr.90 | - |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.91 | - |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.92 | - |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
| Site nr.93 | - |
- |
- |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.94 | - |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.95 | - |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.96 | - |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.97 | - |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.98 | - |
x |
- |
- |
x |
x |
- |
x |
| Site nr.99 | - |
- |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
| Site nr.100 | - |
- |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.101 | - |
- |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
x |
| Site nr.102 | - |
x |
x |
- |
x |
- |
x |
- |
| Site nr.103 | - |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.104 | - |
x |
x |
x |
x |
- |
- |
- |
| Site nr.105 | - |
x |
x |
- |
x |
x |
- |
- |