EUROSTAT
Directorate B: Statistical methodologies and tools
Unit B-3: Statistical information technologies
Luxembourg,
LMQ D(2005)
Collection of Raw Data
Task Force
meeting Nº 11
02June 2007
Doc. CoRD 127
Minutes of the CoRD Task Force meetingon 02June 2007
1.Welcome, Introductionand Presentation of the Participants
The chair, John Allen of Eurostat unit B3, welcomed the participants, and draw the attention of the participants to the renewed emphasis in simplification and burden reduction in EU policy on statistics reduce the response burden.
2.Adoption of the Agenda
The agenda as distributed was adopted.
3.Adoption of the Minutes of the Last Meeting and Follow-up of the Action List
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 11-May-2005 as distributed on 12-May-2005 were adopted.
The status of the open actions from the previous meeting is as follows:
72. Write and distribute the minutes of the meeting: Done
73. Present the findings of this meeting to the STNE on Friday, May 13, 2005: Done
74. Upload today's presentations to CIRCA: Done
75. Reopen the discussion on the use of scanner data: The production unit reported that their experiences with scanner data were not convincing. The Netherlands, who brought up the issues two years ago, see the point in the meantime as well as closed.
76. Investigate the possibilities of the maintenance of XML4DR: Open; this point will need to be followed up in the future.
77. Reflect on the future direction of work by Eurostat on Raw Data (technical standards, content standards, tools): Done. See points 4 and 6 of this agenda.
78. Reflect on Eurostat's position on EEG6 (and on the general issue of governance for raw data standards): Done. EEG6 has been terminated.
4.Presentation of Software AG: The XBRL standard and its usefulness for the collection of statistical data
The presentation on XBRL was given by Mr Adolfo Rodriguez Miguelez (). The presentation has been uploaded to CIRCA. The work is originating from the Accounting and Statistics task force, a joint task of EDB and Eurostat. Germany states that XBRL may not become of interest for statistics before it has been adopted by the companies for their normal reporting. The Netherlands, having invested already a lot in XBRL for statistical purposes, confirms this view. XBRL does not have a metadata exchange concept, versioning is currently under discussion. Transformations and aggregations do not form part of the standard. The scope of SDMX and XBRL are different, however, the two consortia will investigate possibilities of linking the two standards. A list of tools is available, Eurostat will ensure that the deliverables are available in the CoRD IG on CIRCA. In the Netherlands, the possibility to send data via XBRL is open since the beginning of this year, but there is not yet many data coming in that way. The Dutch taxonomy project is still going on. XBRL seems to be a more long-term topic than originally expected. Some people think that the only real chance of widespread use of XBRL is that regulatory authorities make its use mandatory.
5.Presentation of Destatis (Germany): XÖV and Dat/ML - XML-data for statistical process standardisation in Germany
Thepresentation was given by Mr Fritz Pfrommer (). Destatis uses the homemade DatML format for electronic raw data collection. The presentation will be uploaded to CIRCA. Germany confirmed that it was hard work to convince software producers to include the statistical reporting format in their software, but they were successful in doing this. Further documentation is available on request from the author, but only in German language. Germany may be open to publish the software as OSS, but will in no means be able to provide any service.
6.Presentation of Software AG:Custom XML standards Potentially Useful for Primary Data Collection
The presentation on XML standards was given by Mr Adolfo Rodriguez Miguelez (). The presentation has been uploaded to CIRCA, together with the underlying document 125.Germany points out that an important factor is the level of actual usage of the standard. The Netherlands confirm that the investigation is a useful exercise, but that they are not able to comment on it now. The MemberState representatives are invited to share the information with their colleagues in the production units and to report any information on potentially useful sectoral XML standards to Eurostat.
7.Presentation of Statistics Estonia: Electronic data collection system eSTAT in Statistics Estonia: functionality, authentication and further development issues
The presentation was given by Ms Maia Ennok ().The presentation will be uploaded to CIRCA. The software was developed internally, but with external help. One particularity of Estonia is the wide-spread use of e-ID cards, Statistics Estonia makes use of this fact. An e-ID card reader costs less than 10 €. A file upload is currently not available, but planned.Germanyproposes a collection of links to the different national electronic data collection systems.
8.Presentation of Eurostat: Preliminary ideas for a 2011 census hub
The presentation was given by Mr Giuseppe Sindoni (). The presentation has been uploaded to CIRCA.Germany claims that its SODI architecture cannot be reused for the census hub, as the data warehouse will be different. Eurostat will communicate a list of the census task force members to the CoRD TF. Germany asks, why there will not be a shared common solution; Eurostat doubts that this is feasible, as the architectures in the different countries are extremely different. On request of Luxembourg, Eurostat confirms that the census task force will agree on a Europe-wide set of hypercubes. Germany and CzechRepublic raise the point that the proposed solution will be costly for the Member States. Eurostat points out that (i) that the hub requires only a simple query translation layer on top of the existing data warehouses in NSIs and (ii) that Member States unable to implement the hub can simply send the complete hypercube.
9.Presentation of Eurostat: OSS as method for co-operative development
The presentation was given by Leonhard Maqua (). The presentation has been uploaded to CIRCA, together with the underlying document 126.CzechRepublic asks whether Eurostat could provide a list of the software which will be published. Germany reminds that a blocking factor may be that the majority of the software is not multilingual. Poland raises the issue of continued maintenance, where there may be different scenarios.
Native XML data bases are available as OSS, a link to an extensive list with well-founded comments can be found in the SDMX and XML section of the IG.
10.Conclusions
The chair announces that Eurostat is looking for detached national officials to work in the fields discussed in this task force. He explicitly thanks the presenters, Maia Ennok and Fritz Pfrommer, for their presentations.
The chair concludes that the issue of response burden remains on the table; the MEETS programme will provide funding opportunities for Member States in this field. OSS will be wider discussed at the next ITDG.
The following new actions were agreed upon:
79. Prepare the minutes of this meeting and upload them onto CIRCA: Eurostat
80. Present the findings of this meeting to the STNE on 05 June 2007: Eurostat
81. Upload today's presentations to CIRCA: Eurostat
82. Report any information on potentially useful sectoral XML standards to Eurostat: Member States
83. Set up a collection of links to the different national electronic data collection systems: Eurostat
84. Communicate a list of the census task force members to the CoRD TF: Eurostat
85. Communicate a list of software to be published as OSS by Eurostat: Eurostat
Minutes taken by: Leonhard Maqua, Telephone:(352) 43 01-33363,
ANNEX I - LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Statistical Institutes:
Mr Pavel Kubin / CzechRepublic / Czech Statistical OfficeMr Marcin Łupiński / Poland / National Bank of Poland
Mr. Kees Jan Metz / Netherlands / Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek
Mr Fritz Pfrommer / Germany / Statistisches Bundesamt
Ms. Pavlina Paskaleva / Bulgaria / National Statistical Institute
Mr Laurent Maretti / Luxembourg / Service Central de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques
Mr. Pavel Jastrabík / Slovakia / Statistical Office of the SlovakRepublic
Mr John O' Connor / Ireland / Central Statistics Office
Ms Maia Ennok / Estonia / Statistics Estonia
Ms Zoltánné Perjés / Hungary / Hungarian Central Statistical Office
Experts:
Mr Adolfo Rodriguez Miguelez / Software AGEurostat:
Unit B-3, Statistical Information Technologies / John Allen, ChairUnit B-3, Statistical Information Technologies / Leonhard Maqua, Secretary
Unit B-3, Statistical Information Technologies / Giuseppe Sindoni
ANNEX II - ACTION LISTS
Actions from previous meetings:
Nº. / Description / Who / Notes72 / Prepare short and full minutes of this meeting and upload them onto CIRCA. / Eurostat / Done[1]
73 / Present the findings of this meeting to the STNE on 13 May 2005. / Eurostat / Done
74 / Upload today's presentations to CIRCA. / Eurostat / Done
75 / Reopen the discussion on the use of scanner data. / Eurostat / Closed
76 / Investigate the possibilities of the maintenance of XML4DR. / Eurostat / Open
77 / Reflect on the future direction of work by Eurostat on Raw Data (technical standards, content standards, tools). / Eurostat / Done
78 / Reflect on Eurostat's position on EEG6 (and on the general issue of governance for raw data standards) / Eurostat / Done
New actions
Nº. / Description / Who / Notes79 / Prepare the minutes of this meeting and upload them onto CIRCA / Eurostat
80 / Present the findings of this meeting to the STNE on 05 June 2005 / Eurostat
81 / Upload today's presentations to CIRCA / Eurostat
82 / Report any information on potentially useful sectoral XML standards to Eurostat / Member States
83 / Set up a collection of links to the different national electronic data collection systems / Eurostat
84 / Communicate a list of the census task force members to the CoRD TF / Eurostat
85 / Communicate a list of software to be published as OSS by Eurostat / Eurostat / For pure information only
1
[1] Only one version of minutes was produced.