Summary minutes 12 March 2003CoRD 101

Collection of Raw Data

Task Force

Meeting N° 7

12 March 2003

Doc. CoRD 101

Summary minutes of the CoRD Task Force meeting on 12 March 2003

For information

1.Opening welcome and organisational matters

The meeting opened at 10:00 in room BECH A3/045. A total of 25 people were in attendance (see attached list of participants).

The chairman, Mr Knueppel announced the departure of Mr Uwe Kunzler.

The proposed agenda (Doc. CoRD 095) was adopted with one change - item 2.8 (XML4DR and INSTAT/XML) was removed.

The summary minutes of the last meeting (Doc. CoRD 086 ) were adopted.

There were two amendments to the full minutes of the last meeting (Doc 087)

(1)Final par in item 2.4 was removed.

Final par in item 2.7 replaced with

"Mr de Bolster also proposed a discussion on the subject of open source software with regard to EDReporter. Mr Nyholm was of the opinion that Blaise is not open source and that developments using Blaise would therefore not be open source either. A discussion took place with regard to OSS in general and it was decided that the matter should be referred to the STNE Working Group meeting on the 8 October 2002, with particular reference to the establishment of a central OSS group within the European Statistical System (ESS) and also the creation of a central repository of statistical OSS."

(2)Final par in item 2.6 was replaced with

"Statistics Austria plans to sign a co-operation with the software company, CSC Austria (developer of e-Quest), so that a licence for the use of e-Quest can be purchased from CSC."

The action list (see Doc CoRD 087) was reviewed.

2.Developments and projects

Six presentations were given, and one item for discussion was on the agenda.

Revolux presented a report on XML standardisation for Foreign Trade Statistics and also demonstrated the generation and analysis of the INSTAT/XML message.

The current situation with regard to standardisation of INSTAT/XML and INSRES/XML was reported. The MIG for INSRES/XML has been published for comments, to be submitted up to April 2003. Revolux demonstrated the generation of INSTAT/XML messages within the IDEP/CN8 software and also demonstrated the XML processor in the DISKFAX data collection system at STATEC, Luxembourg.

CSO, Ireland, presented the Secure Deposit Box Facility, a system developed for the secure transmission of statistical data files and / or text to the statistical office. The system contains Provider (respondent) Profile details such as identification, username / password, and statistical collection details. Access to the system, via a secure username and password, allows the respondent to lodge data files and/or text messages in the Deposit Box. Incoming files/messages are automatically notified to the relevant statistical domain for viewing and/or retrieval for processing.

INSEE, France presented a project, Portal Enterprises, on a number of services which will be available on a portal. The service, in testing phase, includes access to webform surveys, feedback information to respondents, and access to statistical information and news.

Comfact presented an overview of IQML and the current status of XML4DR message for data reporting. The work program for XML4DR includes version 0.2 (Corrections, classifications and XBRL) and version 0.3 (Syntax independent rules). WG4 will meet on 14 October 2003 when it is planned to formally agree version 0.3.

Denmark is optimistic about XML4DR, but expressed the view that more investigation is required on the requirements of standard formats. Mr Nyholm was requested to supply Mr Tornqvist with results of investigations carried out at Statistics Denmark.

Norway reported that XML4DR is extensively used in KOSTRA, without errors.

Statistics Austria presented a report on the current status of e-Quest, and also some Web form projects, including a Web Form development for Intrastat. Services available include a number of web forms, information feedback to respondents, and information on IDEP and EDIFACT messages. An Intrastat declaration is available, including CN8 with hierarchical and text search. The creation of questionnaire forms using the Questionnaire Metadata Manager was demonstrated.

European Dynamics presented the plans for phase 3 of STIPES, which will concentrate on developing a transformation program to convert output file formats from most commercial databases to XML formats required by statistical offices. The converter will be generic, flexible and stand-alone. XML4DR is being considered as a standard for the translator.

Eurostat presented a discussion paper on the proposed establishment of a central Open Source Software Group within the European Statistical System and the creation of a central repository of OSS within the ESS. A discussion took place on whether licenses should be restricted with regard to users and whether there would be an advantage in using full OSS licenses. It was agreed that NSIs should be canvassed with regard to their position. Austria proposed that STIPES should be considered as a pilot project.

3.Continuation and work programme

Eurostat presented a preparatory report on COLTRAST, the proposed new IDA project on data collection. The project will concentrate on investigating the possibilities offered by XBRL in the collection of economic statistical data and also on the potential of electronic traces within retail scanner databases as sources of statistical data. Delegates were requested to consider NSI involvement as a partner in the project. Ireland mentioned their particular interest in XBRL and the importance of being involved in activities relating to XML-based technologies, such the XBRL consortium. The next phase in COLTRAST is a call for tender for a feasibility study.

The possibility of creating a repository, in CIRCA, of data collection tools and solutions was discussed. It was felt that information on national developments should be made available on a portal and that the portal should provide uploading facilities. Information could also be made available at training courses such as TES (Training of European Statisticians).

4.Conclusion

The items to be reported to the STNE Working Group were agreed. The meeting ended at 17:00.

List of participants

Country / Name / Institution / E-mail
Latvia / Karlis Zeila / CSB Latvia /
Germany / Fritz Pfrommer / STBA / Fritz.Pfrommer@destat
France / Jean-Pierre Grandjean / INSEE /
Sweden / Dennis Osterberg / SCB /
Ireland / Maureen Delamare / CSO Ireland /
Malta / Jeffrey Bezzina / Statistics Office Malta /
Netherlands / Kees-Jan Metz / Statistics Netherlands /
Romania / Dan Marcu / National Institute of Statistics Romania /
Austria / Günther Zettl / Statistics Austria /
Sweden / Björn Walters / Statistics Sweden /
Lithuania / Raimondas Rimsa / Statistics Lithuania /
Hungary / Ildiko Perjes / HCSO /
Norway / Tore Eig / Statistics Norway /
Slovakia / Pavel Jastrabik / Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic /
Poland / Slawomir Kowalczyk / CSO Poland /
Denmark / Henrik Juul-Nyholm / Statistics Denmark /
Alexandros Papathanassiou / European Dynamics /
Sylvie Colas / Revolux SàRL /
Marius Groenendijk / Revolux SàRL
Peter de Vos / Revolux SàRL /
Bert Rector / Revolux SàRL /
Anders Törnqvist / Comfact AB /
Olof Gardin / Eurostat /
Brendan McAvinue / Eurostat /
Wolfgang Knüppel / Eurostat /
Author: Brendan McAvinue
Date: 13 March 2003
Filename: CoRD101 Summary minutes
Version: 0.1 / - 1 -
(of 4) /