Dissemination technologies for population and housing censuses

1. Dissemination technologies for population and housing censuses Ilpo Survo, United Nations ESCAP, Bangkok, survo.unescap@un.org for UNECE Training Workshop on Census Technology for SPECA member countries, Astana, 7-8 June 2007

2. Content A. Changing IT environment and its impact on dissemination B. Today’s technologies for data dissemination C. Sample applications and additional topics

3. A. Changing IT environment and its impact on dissemination

4. Trends 1/3 – Today’s applications are • Inter-connected • Mobile but location-specific • Visually attractive • Interactive • User-friendly • Fast

5. Trends 2/3 - Standards development • Statistical standards • More complex and comprehensive standards • Quality and quantity of metadata • Convergence and harmonization of methodologies and metadata • Administrative data as source of official statistics • Data exchange standards • SDMX – Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange • DDI - Data Documentation Initiative • Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

6. Trends 3/3 - Technology and standards applied together • Increase productivity in all statistical, administrative and management operations • Provide seamless 24/7 access to data from anywhere • Allow differentiated access and charging options • Provide new content options • Facilitate flexible and diverse product development • Allow data interchange and update without manual intervention => Census organizations can focus on their primary business, such as measuring the change in the society for just and targeted policy making

7. Dissemination challenges • Changing the conventional dissemination mindset • Digital products are a must (image and service) • One-stop access to data irrespective which organizational unit produced the data • Outsourcing of selected parts of related IT • Human resources: recruitment, training, retention • Project management • Development of dynamic data retrieval/mining system • Graphical presentation of data • Map-based data presentation  Census planning starts from clients and dissemination

8. Understanding clients 1/3 - Types of clients • Government • Ordinary interested citizens, students • Commercial users • Enterprises • Data re-packagers • Location-specific data users • National vs international users

9. Understanding clients 2/3 - Demanding users • Statisticians, scientists (metadata and microdata) • Technologically advanced users • Politicians • Other nationally important clients • International clients

10. Understanding clients 3/3 - Respondents as clients • Disseminating information about forthcoming census • Promoting use of forthcoming census • Providing feedback data to respondents

11. Understanding the value of census data • Uses of data today • Uses in future • Adding value by linking census data • With previous and future censuses • With other data sets • Surveys • Administrative data

12. Access, availability and realized use Data use can only take place if Data are posted on a web site AND Users know about it AND Users can find it when they need data AND Users can retrieve data where and when they need it AND Users understand data and are able to present it

13. Seeing the big picture and future needs • Documenting and preserving census data as part of cultural heritage • Documented and structured from the beginning is half-done • User friendliness in a broad sense: access and presentation

14. B. Today’s technologies for data dissemination

15. Understanding available technologies Traditional publishing concepts are outdated IT is a tool and only the sky is the limit Classification of dissemination technology • Passive => active • Offline => online • Static => dynamic • Non-Internet => Internet • Push => pull • Analogue, print => digital • Sending files manually => automatic web services

16. Developing a dissemination website – Architecture • Separate from production and business critical applications and databases • Structure and clarity through classification and navigation • Global navigation elements • Content/subject-sensitive navigation elements • Local elements • Database-driven data and metadata display • Tracking user access and behaviour

17. Developing a dissemination website – Web pages 1/3 • General principles • Physical size of the page • Resolution-independent design • Browser-independent design • Consistency across the site – style sheets

18. Developing a dissemination website – Web pages 2/3 • Static pages • For frequently accessed information – small pages for speed • For stable information • Documents, publications • Fixed tables, graphs, maps • Organizational information • Simple to create, laborious to keep up-to-date • Generally not for large volumes of data

19. Developing a dissemination website – Web pages 3/3 • Dynamic pages • Require expertise to create • Maintenance effort is low compared to volume of data • Flexible database access through drop-down lists • Web-enabled tabulation • Dynamic graphic presentation

20. Developing a dissemination website - Responsibilities • Technical development strategy required today • Use third-party expertise if needed • Representative editorial board – responsible for • Site structure • Site functionality • Procedures for the site updates • Content • Layout • Subject-matter specialists responsible for updating their content • Technical maintenance and development by IT department

21. Developing a dissemination website – Organization’s image • Web site is today one of the most important image creators of an organization • Bad presentation spoils good intentions and turns users away • Present statistics according to the needs of various user groups • Search and navigation • Integrate data from different collections, including from the past • Keep up-to-date, include posting date • Include links to other official statistics and relevant third parties to demonstrate relevance, and cooperation and service attitude

22. Developing a dissemination website – Metadata • A centralised database is a preferred way for maintaining metadata • Ensures consistency across data holdings • Manage definitions, methodology information, variable information, data collection information in one place • Approach useful for planning, data collection, processing, analysis and dissemination

23. Developing a dissemination website– Graphical presentation - Maps • Maps are ideal for presenting census results on the web • UN Second Administrative Level Boundaries data set project (SALB, http://www.who.int/whosis/database/gis/salb/salb_home.htm) • Examples of maps

24. Developing a dissemination website – Graphical presentation – Charts (1/2) • SVG - open standard for scalable vector graphics • Language for describing text-based two-dimensional vector graphics and graphical applications in XML, http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/, http://www.adobe.com/svg/ • Web browsers integrate SVG viewer as a plug-in • Also for mobile phones • Open source and commercial editors, e.g. • GLIPS Graffiti • Adobe Illustrator • A number of importers, exporters and converters

25. Developing a dissemination website– Graphical presentation – Charts (2/2) • Flash - animation and interactivity • Gapminder, http://www.gapminder.org/ • OECD/ISTAT Seminar on Dynamic Graphics for Presenting Statistical Indicators, http://www.oecd.org/document/26/0,2340,en_21571361_31938349_38241306_1_1_1_1,00.html

26. Discussion:Feasible dissemination technology for the 2010 round census

27. C. Sample applications and additional topics

28. Selected applications • DevInfo, http://www.devinfo.org/ • PC-Axis and PX-Web, http://www.pc-axis.scb.se/ • SuperSTAR software suite, http://www.str.com.au/ • Beyond 20/20, http://www.beyond2020.com/

29. Advanced topic – SDMX • Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange • Statistical community defines tags and structured template • Data provider uses XML to describe and structure data and metadata and makes available on a web server • Data collectors fetch the data at their initiative • See • UN Comtrade, http://comtrade.un.org/db/help/ComtradeSDMX.aspx • SDMX sponsors, http://www.sdmx.org/

30. Advanced topic – Web services • ‘Web service’ is software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network • XML-based automatic data update • Suitable for frequently changing data, such as short term indicators • Examples • UN ECLAC trade data from Comtrade, http://www.eclac.org/estadisticas/ • Other

31. Additional topic - Understanding the cost of dissemination technology • Cost for not disseminating • Data not used are the most expensive data • If nobody uses the results, do not collect the data • Investing on productivity and better services • NSO dissemination vs. national dissemination • Cost savings measures • Key results in print, detailed in electronic format • Standardize and integrate agency-wide databases and dissemination applications, incl. web content creation • Use open source and free applications, but note that they have a cost involved • Negotiate and use bargaining power to reduce cost of licences

32. Thank you!