Metadata Technology to Provide Next Generation Classification Management System to Statistics New Zealand

Metadata Technology North America Inc. (MTNA) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a contract by Statistics New Zealand for the delivery of its next generation classification management system.

Metadata Technology North America Inc. (MTNA) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a contract by Statistics New Zealand for the delivery of its next generation classification management system.

Classifications, often referred to as code lists or value labels by statisticians, are a fundamental component of statistical data production, management, and analysis. Their standardization and consistency are essential to ensure data comparability and harmonization across datasets, time, topics, borders, or languages. Effectively maintaining and sharing such information at the international, national, institutional, or departmental levels presents significant challenges. As a result, this is often performed in isolation, leading to duplication of efforts and inconsistencies.

MTNA’s solution will take an innovative approach by providing a platform for collaboratively managing classifications, enable functionality such the capturing changes over time or cross-classification mappings, and provide standard web services and interfaces for interacting with external systems. The underlying information model will be concept driven and align on broadly accepted metadata specifications and best practices such a the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange standard (SDMX), Neuchatel Terminology, or the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS). Web based user interfaces will be designed for managers, institutional, and public users, to maximize accessibility.

The project is due for completion in second quarter of 2014. As part of the agreement, the software will be licensed in perpetuity to Statistics New Zealand. Free licenses will also be extended to national statistical agencies in the 22 member countries of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). It is further anticipated for the platform to become available for general licensing in 2014.

This classification management system is a core component of MTNA’s long term vision of delivering global cloud based environments for the management, publication, access, and analysis of statistical data. Flexible and standard based classifications management tools, enabling sharing information across institutions and borders, would greatly facilitate single point of maintenance and foster reuse, leading to more consistent and comparable data, in turn supporting amongst others open government initiatives and linked data activities.

We are thankful to Statistics New Zealand for supporting such vision through this project, and collaboratively leading the way to better data for a better world.

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Statistics New Zealand Tatauranga Aotearoa is a government department and New Zealand’s national statistical office. It is the country’s major source of official statistics and leader of the Official Statistics System. The agency’s vision is to tell the story of New Zealand through statistics that are relevant, accessible, and trustworthy. It has been publishing statistics for nearly 120 years.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community is an international organisation that works in public health, geoscience, agriculture, forestry, water resources, disaster management, fisheries, education (community, TVET, quality and standards for all school levels), statistics, transport, energy, ICT, media, human rights, gender, youth and culture to help Pacific Island people achieve sustainable development. SPC’s members are the 22 Pacific Island countries and territories that are the beneficiaries of its services, along with four of the original founding countries.

Metadata Technology North America Inc. is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the Company and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of other agencies and individuals.

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Metadata Technology Collaborating with NORC on DDI Driven Dataset Packaging Tool for NSF SED Survey

Metadata Technology North America Inc. (MTNA) is pleased to announce that it is collaborating with NORC at the University of Chicago towards the capture of new metadata and the development of tools to facilitate and automate the preparation and packaging of the National Science Foundation Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) survey data.

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Metadata Technology North America to provide technical support for the capture of new metadata and development of web portal for the General Social Survey (GSS) and American National Election Studies (ANES)

Researchers will have access to improved metadata and new tools to search through and analyze the General Social Survey (GSS) and the American National Election Studies (ANES) under a new joint initiative launched by Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, and several partners.

Supported by a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), ICPSR, together with the National Election Studies program in the Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research and NORC will carry out the two-year “Metadata Portal for the Social Sciences” project. Technical support will be provided by Metadata Technology North America (MTNA) and Integrated Data Management Services (IDMS).

The first phase of the project will involve bringing the metadata for the existing GSS and ANES datasets up to the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) standard using XML. For a sample of the surveys, the project will also capture enhanced metadata on questionnaire flow and variable transformations.

The second part of the project will create a metadata portal on the Web to demonstrate some of the prototype tools that can be built with the new structured metadata — for example, survey catalogs and documentation libraries, question and classification banks, dynamic codebooks customized to user specifications, and tools for harmonization and comparison. These innovations will be broadly applicable to all survey data.

Thirdly, the project will develop new metadata-driven workflows and best practices to capture metadata early in the data production process so that it can be reused across the research lifecycle.

“We are thrilled to be able to work toward improving the GSS and ANES metadata to create tools that both experts and novices can use to better understand these foundational studies of American society,” said ICPSR Principal Investigator George Alter. “We hope these advances can serve as models for future research as well.”

Tom W. Smith, GSS Principal Investigator, said: “NORC is pleased to link its capacity with that of ICPSR to provide the social science community with new and innovative products to facilitate the use of the GSS and ANES.”

MTNA is looking forward to collaborate with these prestigious organizations and continue to contribute to the improvement of research infrastructure.

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The http://www.ddialliance.org [Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) __title__ ] is an XML specification for the documentation and management of microdata, particularly in socio-economic sciences and the health sector. It is maintained by the http://www.ddialliance.org [DDI Alliance __title__ ].

The http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website/ [General Social Survey (GSS) __title__ ]is a sociological survey used to collect data on demographic characteristics and attitudes of residents of the United States. It contains a standard ‘core’ of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest on household in the United States. The GSS takes the pulse of America, and is a unique and valuable resource. It has tracked the opinions of Americans over the last four decades.

The http://www.electionstudies.org [ American National Election Studies (ANES)  __title__ ] is the leading academically-run national survey of voters in the United States, conducted before and after every presidential election. To serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists, the ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation.

The http://www.icpsr.umich.edu [Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)  __title__ ] provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community. An integral part of the infrastructure of social science research, ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction (8000+ studies, 60,000+ datasets, and 500,000+ files of data and documentation), and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use.

http://www.norc.org [NORC at the University of Chicago __title__ ] is an independent research organization headquartered in downtown Chicago with additional offices on the University of Chicago’s campus, the D.C. Metro area, Atlanta, Boston, and San Francisco. NORC also supports a nationwide field staff as well as international research operations. With clients throughout the world, NORC collaborates with government agencies, foundations, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and businesses to provide data and analysis that support informed decision making in key areas including health, education, economics, crime, justice, energy, security, and the environment. NORC’s more than 70 years of leadership and experience in data collection, analysis, and dissemination—coupled with deep subject matter expertise—provides the foundation for effective solutions.

http://www.metadatatechnology.com/northamerica [Metadata Technology North America Inc. __title__ MTNA]  is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

http://www.integrateddatasvc.com [Integrated Data Management Services Inc. __title__ IDMS] provides data and metadata processing, quality assurance, and packaging service services to support access, protection, preservation, discovery, dissemination, and analysis of statistical and scientific datasets. IDMS was established to deliver services complementing MTNA’s information technology offerings.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the Company and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of other agencies and individuals.

Metadata Technology Launches OpenMetadata Agency Directory (OMAD)

Metadata Technology North America recently launched its OpenMetadata Agency Directory (OMAD) after a promising preview at IASSIST 2012.

Metadata Technology North America Inc. (MTNA) is pleased to announce the initial release of the http://www.openmetadata.org/omad [OpenMetadata Agency Directory (OMAD)  __title__ OMAD], an interactive web site providing access to essential contact and profile information for hundreds of organizations around the globe involved in the production, management, and dissemination of socioeconomic, health, and other data and official statistics. This includes, amongst others, national statistical offices, central banks, international organizations, and research data centres. OMAD objectives goes beyond the simple address book concept and aims to facilitates the discovery and access to online data services or document data and metadata practices.

OMAD is currently in its initial stage but readily provides flexible search and mapping capabilities, with several additional features to be released in the coming months, including export and sharing of agency information or web services for search and retrieval. While already listing over 500 institutions, OMAD’s coverage is not comprehensive and will we be working to expand the database content over time. Such effort however cannot be undertaken single handedly and we envision OMAD as a community driven project, both in terms of usability and content.  We hope for OMAD to be a vector for interactive and efficient collaboration amongst the global statistics community and other stakeholders. We therefore invite you to visit the site and feedback on content, voice your preference on planned feature, or share your ideas around the service.

OMAD was recently previewed at IASSIST 2012 in Washington, DC as a part of OpenMetadata.org, a new web portal supported and operated by Metadata Technology North America and its partner Integrated Data Management Services (IDMS), aiming to provide online access to standards based data/metadata services and to development tools and libraries for the management of statistical data. The other initial service available under OpenMetadata.org is a  DDI driven Survey Catalog aggregating metadata around thousands of surveys and millions of variables from data repositories around the globe. Several others services under development.

http://www.metadatatechnology.com/northamerica [Metadata Technology North America Inc. __title__ MTNA]  is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

http://www.integrateddatasvc.com [Integrated Data Management Services Inc. __title__ IDMS] provides data and metadata processing, quality assurance, and packaging service services to support access, protection, preservation, discovery, dissemination, and analysis of statistical and scientific datasets. IDMS was established to deliver services complementing MTNA’s information technology offerings.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the Company and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of other agencies and individuals.

Metadata Technology Gets Access to Amazon GovCloud, Collaborating with NORC on SCOPE Project

Metadata Technology North America was recently approved for access to the Amazon GovCloud infrastructure and is collaborating with NORC at the University of Chicago on virtual remote access infrastructure to sensitive US government statistical data

Metadata Technology North America, Inc. (the Company) is pleased to report that it has recently completed the application process for Amazon GovCloud, a region of the Amazon Web Services infrastructure designed to allow US government agencies and contractors to move more sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing specific regulatory and compliance requirements. Combined, GovCloud and AWS comply with a wide range of security regulations including ITAR, FIPS 140-2, FISMA, SSAE 16/SOC1 (formerly SAS-70 Type 2), ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS Level 1, and HIPAA regulations. These conditions are commonly required for the storage and processing of non-public use statistical data. GovCloud is physically and logically accessible by US persons only.

“Access to GovCloud is a significant step forward enabling our company to offer US government agencies and partners secure cloud services for providing access to sensitive data.“,  said M. Pascal Heus, Vice-President and Head of Research of Metadata Technology North America, Inc., adding “Given the growing demand for statistical data, the ability to deliver secure and scalable infrastructures is essential to complement our data and metadata management products and services.”.

As an initial project around GovCloud, the Company is collaborating with NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) towards the deployment of a pilot platform for members of the Statistical Community of Practice and Engagement (SCOPE) task force. SCOPE aims to provide a collaborative community for US statistical agencies to produce relevant, accurate, timely, cost-effective data and insightful research disseminated through shared state-of-the-art best practices to support data-driven decisions.

Aiming at replicating the existing NORC Data Enclave services in a cloud environment, the facility will provide secure remote access to statistical data and offer a wide range of analytical and knowledge sharing services. Through this effort, SCOPE hopes to improve the quality and consistency of statistical data products offered to the general public by government agencies.

Metadata Technology’s roles in this project are to help deploy and host the infrastructure in the cloud, and to provide technical expertise and services around data and metadata management. Note that although the platform will provide a secure work environment, sensitive data will not be used for this initial pilot.

Amazon Web Services (http://aws.amazon.com/) (AWS) provides agencies and businesses with an infrastructure web services platform in the cloud. With AWS you can requisition compute, storage, and other services on demand, gaining access to a suite of secure, scalable, and flexible IT infrastructure services as your agency or business needs them.

The Statistical Community of Practice and Engagement (SCOPE) is a task force established by, and operates under, the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) statutory Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP). The focus of SCOPE is to provide a collaborative community for statistical agencies to produce relevant, accurate, timely, cost-effective data and insightful research disseminated through shared state-of-the-art best practices to support data-driven decisions. Through this collaboration, the Federal statistical community will identify best practices for all aspects of statistical research and analysis.

The NORC Data Enclave (http://dataenclave.org/) provides a confidential, protected

environment within which authorized researchers can access sensitive microdata remotely. It provides partner organizations a secure platform where they can both host and build a research community around their data. NORC Data Enclave currently serves more than 250 researchers and hosts confidential data for numerous Federal agencies and foundations.

NORC at the University of Chicago (http://www.norc.org), established in 1941, is one of the largest social research organizations in the United States. NORC conducts numerous research projects involving opinion survey and other data collection and technology strategies. NORC’s projects are focused in a number of topical areas: society and culture; economics and population; education and child development; health studies; substance abuse; mental health; criminal justice; statistics and methodology; and technology. Within each area, NORC designs and implements surveys and other data collection strategies, conducts advanced statistical and other analysis, provides technical assistance and applies advanced technologies.

http://www.metadatatechnology.com/northamerica [Metadata Technology North America Inc. __title__ MTNA]  is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the Company and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of other agencies and individuals.

Metadata Technology Selected to Advise Australian Bureau of Statistics with New Statistical IT Infrastructure

Metadata Technology North America has been selected by The Australian Bureau of Statistics to provide expert assistance in the re-engineering of their IT infrastructure for statistical production

Metadata Technology North America, Inc. (the Company) is pleased to report that it has recently completed the application process for Amazon GovCloud, a region of the Amazon Web Services infrastructure designed to allow US government agencies and contractors to move more sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing specific regulatory and compliance requirements. Combined, GovCloud and AWS comply with a wide range of security regulations including ITAR, FIPS 140-2, FISMA, SSAE 16/SOC1 (formerly SAS-70 Type 2), ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS Level 1, and HIPAA regulations. These conditions are commonly required for the storage and processing of non-public use statistical data. GovCloud is physically and logically accessible by US persons only.

“Access to GovCloud is a significant step forward enabling our company to offer US government agencies and partners secure cloud services for providing access to sensitive data.“,  said M. Pascal Heus, Vice-President and Head of Research of Metadata Technology North America, Inc., adding “Given the growing demand for statistical data, the ability to deliver secure and scalable infrastructures is essential to complement our data and metadata management products and services.”.

As an initial project around GovCloud, the Company is collaborating with NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) towards the deployment of a pilot platform for members of the Statistical Community of Practice and Engagement (SCOPE) task force. SCOPE aims to provide a collaborative community for US statistical agencies to produce relevant, accurate, timely, cost-effective data and insightful research disseminated through shared state-of-the-art best practices to support data-driven decisions.

Aiming at replicating the existing NORC Data Enclave services in a cloud environment, the facility will provide secure remote access to statistical data and offer a wide range of analytical and knowledge sharing services. Through this effort, SCOPE hopes to improve the quality and consistency of statistical data products offered to the general public by government agencies.

Metadata Technology’s roles in this project are to help deploy and host the infrastructure in the cloud, and to provide technical expertise and services around data and metadata management. Note that although the platform will provide a secure work environment, sensitive data will not be used for this initial pilot.

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http://aws.amazon.com [Amazon Web Services (AWS) __title__ AWS] provides agencies and businesses with an infrastructure web services platform in the cloud. With AWS you can requisition compute, storage, and other services on demand, gaining access to a suite of secure, scalable, and flexible IT infrastructure services as your agency or business needs them.

The Statistical Community of Practice and Engagement (SCOPE) is a task force established by, and operates under, the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) statutory Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP). The focus of SCOPE is to provide a collaborative community for statistical agencies to produce relevant, accurate, timely, cost-effective data and insightful research disseminated through shared state-of-the-art best practices to support data-driven decisions. Through this collaboration, the Federal statistical community will identify best practices for all aspects of statistical research and analysis.

The http://dataenclave.org/ [NORC Data Enclave __title__ NORC Data Enclave] provides a confidential, protected environment within which authorized researchers can access sensitive microdata remotely. It provides partner organizations a secure platform where they can both host and build a research community around their data. NORC Data Enclave currently serves more than 250 researchers and hosts confidential data for numerous Federal agencies and foundations.

http://www.norc.org [NORC at the University of Chicago __title__ NORC], established in 1941, is one of the largest social research organizations in the United States. NORC conducts numerous research projects involving opinion survey and other data collection and technology strategies. NORC’s projects are focused in a number of topical areas: society and culture; economics and population; education and child development; health studies; substance abuse; mental health; criminal justice; statistics and methodology; and technology. Within each area, NORC designs and implements surveys and other data collection strategies, conducts advanced statistical and other analysis, provides technical assistance and applies advanced technologies.

http://www.metadatatechnology.com/northamerica [Metadata Technology North America Inc. __title__ MTNA]  is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the Company and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of other agencies and individuals.

Metadata Technology Collaborating with UK Institute for Child Health on Data Management Plan Tools and Services

Metadata Technology to Develop Data Management Plan Management Tools Leveraging ISO 27001, DDI-XML, and OpenMetadata Framework

Metadata Technology North America, Inc. is pleased to announce that it is working with the Institute of Child Health (ICH) in the United Kingdom towards the development of new tools to prepare, publish, and maintain data management plans aligned on the the DMP Online recommendations. These tools will leverage the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification and the ISO 27001 security standards to capture the necessary information and therefore minimize the efforts required to manage the plan information.

Planned for completion by end of September 2012, the project seeks to extend the existing Digital Curation Center (DCC) Data Management Planning tool (DMP) with an information risk management tool that would assist data managers in the development and maintenance of Information Security Management Systems in line with the ISO-27001:2005 international standard for information security. This project will assess the viability of creating an extensible architecture for data management planning through the use of the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata specification  and related tooling.

The project will leverage and extend upon open source DDI management framework that has been developed by Metadata Technology for the Canada Research Data Centre Network. This will enable the creation of semantically rich project-specific representations of data management plans through a DDI broker, providing the basis of interoperability with a set of data management services.

In addition to supporting the project, new or enhanced libraries and utilities resulting from the development efforts will benefit the broader data and metadata community through, when relevant, their release under an open source license.

DMP Online (https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk) has been produced by the UK’s Digital Curation Centre to help research teams respond to a recommendation in Lyon (2007) that “Each funded research project should submit a structured Data Management Plan for peer-review as an integral part of the application for funding.”. DMPOnline has two primary functions: to assist researchers in the preparation of basic Data Management Plans at the funding application stage; and to help build and maintain a more detailed DMP during the project’s lifetime.

The University College London’s Institute of Child Health (ICH – http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ich) mission is to pursue an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to enhance understanding, diagnosis, therapy and prevention of childhood disease. The Institute studies a broad range of paediatric issues, from molecular genetics to population health sciences. It is the largest centre in Europe devoted to clinical and basic research and postgraduate teaching in children’s health.

The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an XML specification for the documentation and management of microdata, particularly in socio-economic sciences and the health sector. It is maintained by the DDI Alliance (http://www.ddialliance.org).

The ISO/IEC 27000-series is a family of information security standards published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to provides best practice recommendations on information security management, risks and controls within the context of an overall Information Security Management System (ISMS).

Metadata Technology North America Inc. (http://www.metadatatechnology.com/northamerica)  is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

Metadata Technology Providing Support for Data Without Boundaries Project

Metadata Technology to Help Develop Portal for Cross-Border Access to European Research Data

Metadata Technology (the “Company”)  will play an essential role in the Data Without Boundaries (DwB) project whose overall objective is to support equal and easy access to official microdata for the European Research Area. The Company will help design and implement a portal for the search and discovery of datasets held within national archives, statistical offices, and research centers across Europe. Metadata Technology is the sole commercial partner in DwB, which involves 28 participants across 12 countries, including data archives and statistical agencies. The project, spanning a 4 year year time frame, is supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Program through a funding of over 6 million Euros. Metadata Technology was invited to participate due to its deep expertise with the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) and Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standards, which are to be used as the basis for interactions between the portal and data holding organizations.

European official statistical microdata are currently under-used and held behind national, legislative, technical, and cultural borders. The DwB initiative aims at improving access to these microdata, in collaboration with the data holdings of the European national data archives. The 12 work packages being undertaken by the participating agencies cover activities aimed at easing national legal restrictions on microdata access, identification of standard models for exchanging data and metadata, and the implementation of cross-border search, enabling users to identify data within Europe relevant to their research, along with documentation and information about access and retrieval modalities.

Metadata Technology is directly involved in two of the DwB work packages: Work Package 8 will identify the functionality and metadata models and formats for creating a cross-border portal for searching all European microdata holdings. This work will build on earlier efforts made by the CESSDA archives in Europe, and will also extend on the existing metadata models found in the DDI and SDMX standards.  This effort will be lead at Metadata Technology by M. Arofan Gregory. Work Package 12 will take the outputs of Work Package 8 and implement the core portal functionality, along with tools for harvesting information about each different organization’s data holdings, and updating the search data within the central portal. M. Jack Gager and M. Pascal Heus will be coordinating the works under Work Package 12.

In addition to supporting the DwB portal, libraries and utilities resulting from these packages will benefit the broader data and metadata community through, when relevant, their release under an open source licence.

To learn more about Data without Boundaries, visit http://www.dwbproject.org/.

The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an XML specification for the documentation and management of microdata, particularly in socio-economic sciences and the health sector. It is maintained by the DDI Alliance (http://www.ddialliance.org).

The Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) is an initiative to foster standards for the exchange of statistical information, in particular aggregated and time series data. It is maintained and distributed the SDMX Sponsors (http://www.sdmx.org).

Metadata Technology (http://www.metadatatechnology.com)  is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

Metadata Technology Collaborating with Statistics Canada on New Data Repository for Research Data Centres

Metadata Technology North America Inc. engaged in research and development of iRODS based Master Data Repository to support the management and delivery of microdata files to Canada Research Data Centres.

Metadata Technology North America, Inc. is pleased to report that, in partnership with Breckenhill and The AIM Group, it has engaged in a project with Statistics Canada towards the establishment of a new RDC Master Data Repository whose objective is to centrally administer survey datasets and documentation files and automate their distribution to researchers across the Canada Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN).

Managing thousands of data and documentation files is a challenge faced by most statistical data producers, archives, and research centers. Disk or network based file systems, traditionally used to store such resources, are ill-equipped for delivering a controlled environment capable of ensuring content consistency, supporting automation, enforcing business rules, maintaining linkages with reference metadata, or interacting with other infrastructure components. By leveraging innovative data grid and open source technologies, in particular the iRODS™ platform, we aim to design new solutions for the administration of large file collections that, combined with standard driven metadata information and security systems, will provide a comprehensive platform for statistical data and documentation file management.

The goal of this initial effort is to outline system requirements, architecture, and specifications in order to provide a road map for incremental implementation and develop guidelines for integration with other infrastructure components and business processes. A key short term objective is to automate the replication of Statistics Canada microdata master files to secure research centres across Canada. Enforcing business rules, such as file and folder naming conventions, is also a fundamental requirement. Machine actionable metadata elements will be associated with resources stored in the system to support interaction with other internal components such as the Integrated MetadataBase (IMDB) or the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata repository. Integration with the LDAP based user management and project databases is also anticipated. The platform will be implemented around the open source iRODS™ package, to be wrapped by a service oriented architecture and complemented with administration tools and utilities. All together, these components will provide a comprehensive solution for managing and distributing file resources across the agency and research centres.

This initial project output will be used support implementation anticipated in 2012-2013. General findings will be shared with the public community and other interested agencies. Given the widespread need for such platform, we encourage and welcome collaborative efforts around research and implementation.

The project is lead at Metadata Technology by M. Pascal Heus, Vice-President and Head of Research.  He is joined by Dr. Bing Zhu from the Computational Science Research Center (CSRC) at San Diego State University (SDSU) who will provide technical expertise around iRODS™.

Statistics Canada (http:///www.statcan.gc.ca) is the Canadian federal government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture.  Internationally, Statistics Canada is held in high regard for the quality of its data and its methodology.

The Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN – http://rdc-cdr.ca/) gives Canada’s research community access to Canadian social and population health statistics and help provide evidence for effective public policy and planning. Since 2000, the CRDCN, in partnership with Statistics Canada’s Research Data Centre Program, has transformed quantitative social science research in Canada. In secure computer laboratories on university campuses across Canada, university, government and other approved researchers are able to analyse a vast array of social, economic and health data.

iRODS™ (http://www.irods.org), the Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System, is a data grid software system developed by the Data Intensive Cyber Environments research group (developers of the SRB, the Storage Resource Broker), and collaborators. One of the main ideas behind iRODS™ is to provide a system that enables a flexible, adaptive, customizable data management architecture. iRODS™ is a second generation data grid system providing a unified view and seamless access to distributed digital objects across a wide area network.

The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an XML specification for the documentation and management of microdata, particularly in socio-economic sciences and the health sector. It is maintained by the DDI Alliance (http://www.ddialliance.org).

Metadata Technology North America Inc. (http://www.metadatatechnology.com/northamerica)  is a privately owned eGovernment data management and information technology solution provider. The Company’s mission is to facilitate production, open access, and improve the quality and use of statistical and scientific data. It specializes in products and services leveraging XML technology, metadata standards, and related best practices. Its key personnel include globally recognized experts in the area of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) standard, the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), and the management of socio-economic data, health data, and official statistics.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the Company and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of other agencies and individuals.