Strategies for web based data dissemination A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a vision - from Greek "st?at???a" (strategia).

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Strategies for web based data disseminationA
strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve
a vision - from Greek "st?at???a" (strategia).
United Nations Regional Workshop on Data
Dissemination and Communication Amman, Jordan,
9-12 June 2013
Zoltan Nagy Statistics Division, Department of
Economic and Social affairs, United Nations
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Existing Strategies

• Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
• statistics that meet the test of practical
  utility are to be compiled and made available on
  an impartial basis by official statistical
  agencies to honor citizens' entitlement to public
  information
• Handbook of Statistical Organizations
• National Strategies for the Development of
  Statistics (NSDS)
• The Generic Statistical Business Process Model
  (GSBPM)

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Data dissemination communication
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
Policy making
Professionals public
Policy validations
Knowledge based society
Policy accountability
Policy decisions
Communication
Policy options
Analysis research
Communication
Statistical needs and education
Analysis assessment
INDEPENDENT OFFICIAL STATISTICS
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The importance of web-based data-dissemination

• From 2008 to 2013 the number of Internet users
  grows by 67

• Everyone who has access to internet is becoming
  a potential user of statistics.

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Identifying users

• User groups
• Decision makers (government at central and local
  level, businesses)
• Academia (institution that use, research and
  analyze data)
• Educational (primary, secondary, tertiary)
• Public at large
• Tourists Harvesters and
  (data) Miners

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Tourists

• Novice or infrequent users, and typically make up
  the majority of individual users.
• Looking for basic data either out of curiosity,
  or to inform personal decisions.
• Want to be able to find and view data quickly and
  easily, they prefer low levels of complexity and
  need only limited functionality.

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Harvesters

• Intermediate and fairly frequent users, who are
  looking for data to inform basic research or
  economic decisions.
• They will accept increased complexity if it
  results in addition functionality and flexibility
  in the way they can view and download data.

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(Data) Miners

• Expert users, typically small in number, but
  using large volumes of data on a regular basis,
  often for detailed research or analysis.
• They want simplicity, easy downloads
  functionality and flexibility, take data offline

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A new type - Builders

• Experts that want to reuse statistical data
  without copying or downloading it.
• Requesting ability to access data servers at 24/7
  and feed data to maps, visualizations and other
  applications.
• Web services - interoperable machine-to-machine
  interaction over a network".
• Mashups hybrid web applications
• Visualizations
• Mappings
• Data aggregators

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Defining the content

• Data
• Topic domain specific or across-domain
• Coverage geographical and time
• Aggregation level - micro and macro data
• Nature of the data tables, tabulations,
  time-series, datapoints
• Documentation
• Metadata (descriptive and structural)
• Methodologies and standards
• Classifications
• Best practices, business processes, etc.

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Subscription models

• Registration
• No registration required
• Registration required (provides better tracking,
  communication etc)
• Subscription
• Free (preferred by many countries)
• For fee (cost recovery, profit, one-time,
  periodical, service based )
• Multi-tier (free basic and for fee premium
  services)

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User management

• User access (registered vs unregistered users)
• User support, helpdesk
• User surveys (online polling)
• User activity tracking
• Web server statistics
• Analytic services (Google analytics)
• Custom built tracking services
• Social networking (Facebook, Twitter..)

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Site administration

• Data Management
• Data correction facility
• Data upload facility
• Data availability
• Metadata Management
• Structural metadata
• Descriptive metadata
• Data upload calendar
• Management Reporting

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Resource allocation

• Data dissemination group
• (Centralized or Decentralized)
• Systems/Application development
• Hardware and software requirements
• Long-term maintenance
• Operation
• Helpdesk
• --------------------------------------------------
  
• TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (TCO)

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Content delivery

• Bandwidth conservation
• Browser considerations

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Mobile devices
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Software platform and architecture

• Off-the-shelf products
• Custom development (in-house, outsourcing)
• Open source platforms
• Proprietary platforms
• Self hosting
• Outsourced hosting

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Design considerations

• Simplicity and ease of use
• Easy of navigation
• Bookmarking
• Searchability
• Drill down
• Dimensional search
• Full text search

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Conclusions

• One size does not fit all
• Web-based data dissemination should work as a two
  way communication
• Focus has to be on users who frequently visit our
  sites
• The maintenance of web-based data-dissemination
  products is a long term commitment
• We have to be aware of TCO