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Conclusions from Sessions 4, 5, 6

Rapporteurs:

Donatella Fazio, IstatMaria Grazia Calza, IstatArianna Carciotto, Istat

ESSnet Workshop 2012Cavour Conference Centre, Rome

3-4 December 2012

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SESSION 4: Networks and information modelsChair: G. Pongas, Eurostat Rapporteur: D. Fazio, Istat

4 ESSnet projects 1 FP7 project 1. DARA (M. Brandt, DESTATIS)- on goingDARA project (Decentralised and Remote Access to Confidential

Data in the ESS) is aimed at implementing a decentralised remote access of microdata from NSI Safe Centres to the community statistics in Eurostat.

2.SDMX II (L. Vignola, Istat)After having developed a SDMX NSI Reference Infrastructure, the

SDMX II has been targeted to provide the SDMX Community with a set of software that can be re-used to guarantee homogeneity and interoperability and to increase SDMX capacity and knowledge at all levels.

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3.ESeG (M. Meron, INSEE)-on goingThe purpose of ESeG is to elaborate European Socioeconomic Groups to

build a socio-economic classification to produce analyses and comparisons on groups of individuals with similar economic, social and cultural characteristics, comparable lifestyles and patterns of behaviour. Large consultation with NSIs and European researchers

4.Standardisation (C. Abry, HCSO)Standardisation project aims at defining standard in statistical methods

and at examining the process of the standard adoption in statistical production to contribute to an integrated statistical system in the ESS at an optimum level

5.The BLUE-ETS FP7 project (D. Fazio, Istat)BLUE-Enterprise and Trade Statistics project is based on the MEETS

Programme. It seeks to respond to the changing and growing demand for new and better official data on business statistics while reducing the burden on businesses; to propose cost-efficient improved ways to collect, disseminate, use and access data for both research and policy purposes; to suggest new indicators

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• ESS VIP- Networks and Information Models (G. Pongas, Eurostat)

The ESS VIP Networks and Information Models cross cutting projects have been presented by Eurostat in their main principles.

The Networking project aims at providing value added services for exchange of statistical information among ESS partners at reasonable cost, with security and high reliability, representing the backbone of future infrastructure. The Network wants to be a secure system for exchanging large amounts of data.

The Information Models project responds to the need for insuring interoperability between information systems by describing the structure and the status of the information produced and transferred. They have to be generic enough to describe all statistical data structures (micro, macro, meso and meta) and provide links between formats. The Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM) is under development

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DISCUSSION on the projects

-technical and methodological aspects

-Issue on the legal rules for transmission of microdata (different between countries)

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SESSION 5: Data WarehousesChair: A. Götzfried, Eurostat Rapporteur: M. G. Calza, Istat

4 ESSnet projects (MEETS) and the Banca d’Italia experience on DW

1. Data warehouse (H. Goossens, Statistics Netherlands)-on goingThe ESSnet project on micro data linking and data warehousing in statistical

production aims at providing assistance in the development and implementation of a maximum efficient statistical process for business and trade statistics, independent of any (technical) specific architecture with the aim to increase the efficiency of data processing in statistical production and maximise the reuse of already collected data to create new data. The S-DWH intends to provide a model of the statistical data flow from data collection to statistical output.

2. AdminData (A. Pritchard, ONS)-on goingThe project deals with the problems common for most of the MSs in using

administrative and accounts data related to the methods of quality checking, editing and estimation of missing variables. The project is producing a handbook on quality indicators covering issues to be considered when acquiring a new admin dataset and best practice methods for initial cleaning.

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3. Data Integration (M. Scanu, Istat)

The ESSnet Data Integration focuses on methodologies (record linkage and statistical matching) for data integration and on making those methods applicable in the NSIs and useful for statistical analysis (micro integration processing). Methodological developments and case studies have been produced and software tools. Several dissemination actions have been implemented.

4. The Data Warehouse of Banca d’Italia (V. Del Vecchio, Banca d’Italia)

The work presented by Banca d’Italia provides the guiding principles and the architecture of an Integrated Statistical Data Warehouse, representing a concrete application at a national level and a very solid information model that makes use of metadata.

5. ICT impact (E. Hagsten, Statistics Sweden) The ESSnet on Linking of Microdata on ICT Usage is a project on

data and analysis on how ICT impacts on growth continuing the work of a previous project on ICT impact. The project applies a Distributed Microdata Research approach (DMD) through which a micro aggregated cross-country data warehouse can be created.

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• The ESS VIP “Data warehouses” (A. Götzfried, Eurostat)

Taking into account the work done by the projects illustrated and recognising the need to set up an ESS strategy for data & metadata management the ESS VIP “Data warehouses” cross cutting project has been presented by Eurostat in its main principles.

The main scope and objectives are: -analysis, design and implementation of ESS data warehouses to

support the business requirements of the ESS VIPs (in particular on transport and price statistics)

-redesign ESS business processes in general -covering ESS data warehouses for production and

reference/dissemination while primary data collection is not in the focus

-following the service-oriented architecture of the ESS VIPs which will lead to more business process integration in the ESS

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Discussion focused on some results

Basic principles and needs for constructing national and international data warehouses can be different

An enterprise architectural approach is applied, explicitly or implicitly, when constructing a DWH

Integration data linking and admin data sources reduce burden and increase the quality of microdata set and allow to do microdata analysis

The organisational aspects on the sharing of microdata were pointed out during the discussion

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SESSION 6: Collaboration and coordination within and between ESSnet projectsChair: M. Karlberg, Eurostat Rapporteur: A. Carciotto, Istat

1.Managing ESSnet projects: challenges, solutions…and questions. The Net-SILC experience (E. Marlier, CEPS/INSTEAD Research Institute)

After describing the Net-SILC2 project, a particular focus has been made on the problems and solutions found during the Net-SILC project lifecycle. The huge effort on a strong coordination from the very early stage, including the clear distribution of tasks, has been stressed together with the link between the project results and the EU needs.

2.MEMOBUST coordination issues (R. van de Laar, Statistics Netherlands)

The presentation has illustrated the internal handling of a project from the point of view of the coordinating partner. In particular, given the main project aim, that is supporting the production of business statistics identifying common methodology and best practices, the technical instruments to reach harmonisation, standardisation and integration have been showed together with the role of the project managing bodies on the matter

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3.The Eurostat ESSnet facilitation team (P. Marinova, Eurostat) The main focus has been on Eurostat internal organisation in managing the

ESSnet projects. An ESSnet facilitation team has been set up by Eurostat to properly handle the ESSnet projects throughout their lifecycle, starting from the launching of a proposal to the execution of the project, its evaluation and the dissemination of results.

4.Demonstration of CROS (J.-M. Bolis, Eurostat)• The CROS, the new portal for Collaboration in Research and Methodology

for Official Statistics, has been implemented to facilitate and rationalise the project management. It represents a close collaboration between researchers and official statisticians at EU level, providing working space and tools for dissemination and information exchange for statistical research projects. The ESSnet portal has been integrated in it. The project leaders will be responsible with regard to the public image of the project.