Secure Epidemiology Research Platform (SERPent) Kick Start Meeting - April 15 th, 2010 Pascal Heus

About Pascal IT expert with 20+ professional experience –Involved in microdata management, preservation, access, dissemination since late 90’s Initial background with international organizations –World Bank (Africa region, national statistical offices, institutional microdata management system) –International Household Survey Network (WB/PARIS21): Implementation and rollout of IHSN Toolkit and other projects –Also consulted for other international/national organizations Focus shifted to developed world in 2007 –Established Open Data Foundation and joined Metadata Technology –Working with U. Chicago, Canadian Research Network Center, UK Data Archive / CESSDA, research centers in Germany, IHSN, and others Metadata / DDI –Became XML & DDI “aware” in 2000 –On technical expert group and involved in design since 2003

What is metadata? Something you use everyday….

What is metadata? Common definition: Data about Data Unlabeled stuffLabeled stuff The bean example is taken from: A Manager’s Introduction to Adobe eXtensible Metadata Platform,

What is metadata? Industry standard technologies surrounding the eXtensible Markup Language or “XML” –DTD, XSchema, XSLT, XPath/XQuery, web services, … A collection of domain specific standards and related best practices –Social sciences: Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) [microdata], Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange Standard (SDMX) [aggregates/time series], ISO 11179, Dublin Core, etc. Benefits: –A common language to globally describe, manage, exchange, explore information about similar objects –Leverage on industry standard open and platform independent XML technologies –In our particular case: Surrounds data with comprehensive documentation to facilitate the management, preservation, discovery, access, analysis, harmonization, comparison, etc. Used to automate many processes and tasks Significantly improves overall data quality Supports collaborative environment or social networking

What is DDI? Data without documentation is useless Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) –XML metadata specification for “microdata” –Describes the study and it’s dataset along with supporting documentation and other external files –High level of details at study, file and variable level (very rich data dictionary vs statistical packages who are metadata poor). DDI version –focus is on the archive / preservation / dissemination –Primary used by single organization to document a single study –Has been around since Widely used and tools available DDI version –Encompasses the entire survey life cycle –Can be used by several organizations to document global collections –Initial version released in Early adoption stage and tools in development

SERPent Objectives and Activities Introduce DDI as institutional metadata specification and best practice Document a set of selected surveys (use cases) Establish a web based metadata catalog Customize existing tools to project specific environment Develop new tools to support the research outputs & processes or facilitate future data production Foster collaboration and knowledge exchange Capture lessons learned …