>> Metadata What is it, and what could it be? EU Twinning Project Activity E.2 26 May 2013

>> The role of the NSI’s and metadata needs to change years ago: statistics as state secrets 30 years ago: statistics a planning instrument for politicians / economists Today: “handling complexity” A lighthouse in the turbulent sea of information Focus on metadata to support knowledge processes Metadata must give users exact knowledge on products – ”Information at your fingertips”

>> Two types of metadata  Structural metadata  data about the containers of data  design and specification of data structures  DDI (Data Documentation Initiative) – i.e. a technical standard, e.g. Colectica, that works together with tools like Blaise, SAS, SPSS, Stata  Descriptive metadata (meta-content)  data about data content  individual instances of application  standards like SDMX 3

>> Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) 4

>> GSBPM combined with DDI and SDMX 5 DDI SDMX DDI

Study Concepts Concepts measures Survey Instruments using Questions made up of Universes about Copyright © GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, 2010 Published under Creative Commons Attribute-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported DEMO Statistics and DDI in 60 seconds

Questions Responses collect resulting in Data Files Variables made up of Categories/ Codes, Numbers with values of Copyright © GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, 2010 Published under Creative Commons Attribute-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported DEMO Statistics and DDI in 60 seconds

>> 8 The Public - SumDatabase Cleaned micro data Statistical registers Print Binding dst.dk Charged, i.e. tailormade statistics and analysis Anonymized micro data for researchers Subject matter division Dissemination, IT-Centre Aggregation to macro data Publication pdf International organisations Work processes in DST

>> Some quotations..… Once collected, the DDI metadata could be used to generate SAS set-up files for processing. A tool such as Space-Time Research’s SuperCross could then be used to tabulate the microdata, and render it into SDMX. Once in SDMX format, it could be directly disseminated using a tool such as OECD.stat, or further manipulated in a data warehouse to meet the required data structures for reporting in SDMX format. ….. Another case of interest in the use of the two standards is more focused on enriching data dissemination. Because DDI metadata are very rich, and describe the process of collection and tabulation, they could potentially be linked to disseminated aggregates, being exposed alongside the aggregate data products on a website, as embedded metadata, or actually presented in native DDI XML format, or mapped into an SDMX metadata report. A related case “mines” DDI metadata for the automatic population of SDMX-based quality reporting. From: The data Documentation Initiative (DDI): An Introduction for National Statistical Institutes (Open Data Foundation, July 2011) 9

>> Challenges on metadata – in Denmark and elsewhere! Metadata are not reused and often only linked to final data No link to GSBPM processes Too many separate, parallel systems Presentation of metadata on internet is fragmented and incomplete Concepts databases incomplete with no hierarchy (super-, sub- and synonym-concepts) Classifications/codelists in too many places (versions) No clear awareness of populations and units 10

>> Metadata – strategic goal in DST 11 Purpose to fulfil needs of external users for metadata related to their desired use of statistics in their processes to achieve internal efficiency via integrated use/reuse and production of metadata guided by GSBPM-processes Needs Fulfilment of requirement from Eurostat (SIMS, QAF etc.) Detailed requirements based on additional user-consultations ”Information at your fingertips” ”We want integrated metadata”

>> Current level of detail 12

>> Hvordan #1: Integrerede metadata Hvad betyder Quality Declarations Variables/data sets Concepts Variable database Klassifikationsdatabase Classifications Methods StatBankMethodological papers Classification database Concept database

>> On-going project in DST 14 Pilot study using DDI and GSBPM DDI as common model with reuse of concepts, variables, categories and codes Fulfilment of Code of Practice (CoP) and Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) using Single Integrated Metadatastructure (SIMS) Thesaurus with concepts that links the micro- and macro- level (selected areas) Common categories and codes “Information at your fingertips” via metadata on Internet GSBPM-processes and external-user processes established