Directions The DLI External Advisory Committee has been promoting DDI as a standard for DLI data. This appears in the DLI Strategic Plan following feedback in the mid- pilot evaluation and the input of EAC members. Chuck Humphrey Ontario DLI Training April 7, 2004

Directions In October 2003, the EAC allocated funds to seed the creation of DDI- compliant files and to give general direction. Given these directions, how do we all work together to share in the opportunities created by its implementation?

Recent Developments A new discussion group was begun in February 2004 called, CANDII or the Canadian DDI discussion group. The purpose of this group is to create a dialogue among the stakeholders of DDI users and to explore means of collaboration.

CANDDI A Yahoo Group was established in February 2004 and a network of contacts interested in participating was established. The first in-person meeting was held in Montreal on March 9, 2004 during the DLI Train-the-Trainers workshop.

CANDDI The group agreed in Montreal that an early task would be to review the DDI standard to identify the set of tags that would be considered a minimum set by which data documentation should be created in Canada. This could be developed into a template to represent best practices.

CANDDI This group is also identifying the challenges we face in creating data documentation using the DDI standard. Examples: How do we package documentation for both master files and public use files using DDI?

CANDDI Examples: What guidelines should be used for defining variable groupings? What controlled vocabularies and thesauri should be developed and endorsed? How should a Canadian-endorsed set of DDI tags be validated?

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