Ulrich Wieland, Eurostat MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

1. Statistics Explained – a user-friendly and low-cost disemination system Ulrich Wieland, Eurostat MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

2. The problem • Large amounts of value-added content available in publications • Publications do not easily reach the audience • Production process for publications is very cumbersome -> The Eurostat management committee asked for more effective ways of dissemination Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

3. The approach • Using Wiki for content creation • Collaborative approach • Same software as Wikipedia (Mediawiki) • A procedure for content validation Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

4. Reaching the audience • Familiar look and feel, clear presentation • Intensive hyperlinking • Visible in search engines (Google etc.) • Internal navigation through hierarchical themes, through categories, and through search Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

5. Implementation timetable • January 2008 Request from Management Committee • September 2008: First proptotype • November 2008: Concept approved by the Management Committee • September 2009: Opening to the public as a beta version Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

6. User reaction • About 1 million page views in 5 months • Monthly increase 20% • Numerous hyperlinks from other sites including both professional sites and public blogs and forums • Two awards (‘Resource of the week’ by ResourceShelf and ‘Business Website of the Week’ by JJHill Library) Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

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14. The governance • Balance between efficient cooperative working and the need to control the content • Updating by all Eurostat staff • Validation of content by the competent statistical unit; each page is owned by one unit • Validation of layout, language, structure, readability, hyperlinks etc. by the dissemination unit • All changes are traced Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

15. Simplification of the production process (Example: Statistics in Focus, 4-12 pages) • 14 steps with traditional publishing, 3 months • 4 steps with Statistics Explained, a few days: • Article written/modified by somebody • Verification/correction by the thematic unit • Verification/correction by the dissemination unit • Dissemination Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

16. The overall structure of Statistics Explained and its articles • Statistical articles: presenting and explaining statistics; standard structure • Background articles: Explanations of statistical concepts or definitions in a popular way Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

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19. Technical infrastructure • Mediawiki (also used for Wikipedia) • Numerous extensions to adapt to the Eurostat requirements • Piwik for traffic monitoring, in adition to SAS webhound already used in Eurostat The system is exclusively based on open source software Total techical work (including experimenting and testing) is about 15 man-months Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

20. Integration • Although technically an independant system, Statistics Explained is an integral part of the Eurostat website • Hyperlinks go from the Eurostat homepage and from topic pages to Statistics Explained pages, and from Statistics Explained pages to detailed data, publications and dedicated sections • The search will remain separate but the search of the Eurostat portal will include the number of hits of the search in Statistics Explained, and a hyperlink to the search page. Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

21. Statistics Explained and publications • Several major and smaller publications (e.g. the Eurostat yearbook and the regional yearbook) are already integrated • Further publications and content will be added • The possibility to use Statistics Explained as a production system for publications will be tested in 2010/2011 with the Eurostat yearbook • It is expected that the number of printed publications will decrease, but the most important ones will remain Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

22. Overall benefit • A much faster and a more efficient way of disseminating value-added content • A much better use of the analytical and contextual information available in Eurostat • Better integration of all Eurostat output (data, analysis, methodology, cross-cutting topics, etc.) • Over time, substantial quality improvement of all Eurostat value-added output • Little development and maintenance cost Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

23. Medium term developments • Future publications such as the Eurostat yearbook should be developed on the basis of the content of Statistics Explained • Archiving of Eurostat content should be done by regularly converting the Statistics Explained into a pdf file • Integration with the Eurostat website is to be completed • Integration of the Eurostat glossary and other available information is planned Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

24. How to access http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

25. Contact Ulrich Wieland, Eurostat ulrich.wieland@ec.europa.eu Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea