Serving up Statistics to an International Community IASSIST Conference Brian Buffett May 2003

Methods of Delivery Web site: CDrom »Global Digest - scheduled for September 2003 release Publications »Regional reports; »Project reports –World Education Indicators –Education For All The Web Site is the primary communication and dissemination vehicle.

Current Site

Our Clients »Casual users »National Statistical Offices »Researchers »International Organizations »Representatives of Countries »Education Ministries, Cultural Organizations, … »Other? »Are their needs being met? –High number of direct requests for information is used as an indicator.

Our Clients - Access Our Clients »Wide variance in access to technology –Access to computers; –Access to internet; –Connection speed / reliability; –Versions of hardware/software in use; –Cost of connect time ($/minute); »No ability today to address the linguistic needs of all clients (specifically – Russian, Arabic, Chinese);

Areas Visiting site this year (190 Areas total) Alphabetical list of first 45 – good representation Note: Data are provided by external organization and names do not necessarily correspond to officially recognized UN place names. Intended for illustrative purposes only.

Our Users - The first 50% (6 areas) January to May 2003 – Number of Page Views Areas accounting for 50% of overall traffic

Our Users - The next 25% (11 additional areas : 75% total) January to May 2003 – Number of Page Views Areas accounting for 75% of overall traffic

Our Users - The next 15% (23 additional areas : 90% total) 150 remaining areas make up only 10% of Overall access to web site

Our Data - The Easy Part Country level data »Macro data »Security/confidentiality is not a concern for dissemination FREE Access to all of our published content and data

Our Data – Practical Considerations Timeliness Constraints »Country-level data can only be provided once data has been collected and aggregated within the Country itself; »Different countries have different reference periods (school year start, end) Frequency »Limited number of annual surveys plus additional reports and analysis results in a good but relatively static web environment Clarity »Other organizations choose to use the same Indicator names with differing definitions and formulas; –Definition of school year; –Population Estimates (UNPD, World Bank, Country Census, …); »There is a large requirement for footnotes at the most granular of levels in data tables;

Our Data – Usage Data usage »We cannot look at our systems in isolation for measurement; »Redistribution points: –CDs / web sites containing our data put out by other bodies; -which data is accessed / requested the most frequently? -Is the most current data being made available/referenced?

Short Term Focus Provide more robust access methods to existing data; »Technology enhancements (Beyond 20/20)– highly customizable views of data tables across all dimensions; »Provide country-centric views of data across all domains; »‘flatten’ the web site; »Add Thematic views of data –(Millennium Development Goals, Education for All, World Education Indicators project, …) »Introduce CD distributions of products; »Share technologies/look and feel between various electronic products (Web, CD) These items help to Address: -flexibility/functionality; -‘fit to purpose’; -branding/training/clarity; -Documentation (partially);

Short Term Focus Provide individual users with ability to register on website »receive notifications of web content/data updates in their areas of interest; »Create data-profiles in order to save customizable views of data from specific countries of interest (ie. Own country, own country + closest neighbors, EU countries, OECD countries, Arab League countries, etc.) »Provide us with a better idea of who our non-casual users are. Provide a low-bandwidth view of web site and data; These items help to Address: - flexibility/functionality; - access - Awareness of our User community and their needs

Short Term Focus Fully index traditional site content along with data tables and documentation in single search facility – strengthen association between text and data; (focus on search coverage, not sensitivity to context) Enhance presence on common access points »WWW Search engines »Other web sites (currently linked from over 2,000 pages) These items help to Address: -Access; -Availability -Awareness

Mid-term/Long-term focus Plan and implement a consistent metadata infrastructure based on standards and off-the-shelf tools; Minimize metadata maintenance, maximize reuse; Assess viability of maintaining and delivering content in all UN languages; Electronic data dissemination of data/metadata in format suitable for our international institutional users (SDMX); These items help to Address: -Clarity/Usability (documentation of data); -Access (technical terms in broader set of languages); -Needs of Institutional data users.

Metadata Metadata is crucial in understanding international statistics and what the numbers represent; Integrating metadata from data-providing countries could prove to be interesting; Do we need to? Standards adherence will increase effectiveness of sharing metadata/data; Data linkage from multiple sources will depend upon it.

Thank You! Questions?