Meeting on the Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS 2010)

1. Meeting on the Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS 2010) Daejeon, Republic of Korea, 26-29 April 2010 The European Census Hub project Francesco Rizzo, ISTAT, Italy Adam Wronski, Eurostat

2. Main objective of the Census Hub project • The dissemination of the result of the censuses in EU should provide the users with an easy access to detailed census data that are methodologically comparable between the MSs and structured in the same way

3. Census Hub starting point and governance • Eurostat Census Task Force • Eurostat Census Working Group • List of IT Census Hub contacts • Eurostat Census Hub IT Working Group (first meeting on June 2010)

4. The Census Hub architecture • SDMX standards • Pull mode and Data sharing • Hub

5. National Statistical Institute National Statistical Institute The Census Hub Project SDMX Infrastr. Eurostat Census Hub SDMX Infrastr.

7. The SDMX Service Infrastructure: just a zooming SDMX Query Parser Web Service Provider Data Retriever SDMX Data Generator

8. Aims and objectives of the pilot phases To develop the central applications hosted in Eurostat Hub Tool to allow the MSs to update the LAU code list directly To support the implementation of the MSs’ SDMX IT infrastructures Advice on how to implement a SDMX infrastructure SDMX training and IT technical workshops Technical IT Working Groups To facilitate the sharing of software between all the countries involved in the exercise Developed and made available for free download a SDMX NSI service infrastructure by Eurostat Financed the ESSnet on SDMX 8

9. Benefits in participating to the pilot project • The SDMX Infrastructure built for the Census Hub project could be used in other statistical domains with few or no changes • If felt beneficial the NSI SDMX infrastructure built for Census Hub can be used for dissemination of all the NSI 2011 Census data (as opposed to hypercubes earmarked for the European Census Hub), with the added advantage of using standards recognized at international level; • Participants are part of a project that will allow sharing experiences among the different actors, both statisticians and IT personnel, at different levels (planning, production, etc.).

10. Costs in participating to the pilot project • Costs for implementing an SDMX infrastructure needed for the Census Hub project are very limited. • The use of an XML-based data format will help to reduce costs of implementation as follows: • many NSIs are already using, or planning to use XML as the basis for their data management and dissemination systems; • a wide selection of IT commercial applications and tools are available to work with XML-based data; • expertise for working with XML is readily available and will often be available in-house; • Development costs can be reduced by using software provided by Eurostat

11. Census Hub Pilot project – statistical aspects • The hypercube used in the pilot is very simple one to let NSIs producing it in a short period; • Data are not expected to be exact, just simulated to ensure a proof of concept; • Data must comprise the following dimensions: • Sex • Age • Current Activity Status • Territory

12. The Census Hub pilot project phase I • Verified the feasibility of the project • Developed the central hub software (Eurostat) • Developed 4 NSI SDMX infrastructures (DE, IE, IT, PT) • Produced the “Census Hub Web Service Implementing Guidelines version 1.0” by Eurostat • Produced the “Census Hub Web Service Security Guidelines version 1.0” by Eurostat • Produced the specification for the pilot phase II

13. The Census Hub pilot project phase II • Involved other Member State in the project (14 countries) • Provided technical advice through bilateral meetings • Designed a generic reference SDMX service infrastructure for NSIs • Developed of SDMX service infrastructure components • Developed and tested additional functionalities for the central hub application • New GUI • Cache system • Off-line queries for bulk requests

14. The Census Hub pilot project phase III Enhancement of the overall Census Hub IT architecture Provide more technical advice to the interested MSs Design and develop an alternative infrastructure for all those MSs that will not create their SDMX service infrastructure Enhancement of the central Data Hub with the introduction of the multi language support Development of a web application to allow MSs to manage and update directly their geographic code list Launch of a series of Census Hub IT Working Group with all the countries that have already asked to participate to the pilot exercise An SDMX technical workshop for IT designers and developers 14

15. Conclusion • Census Hub pilot project phase I has demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed architecture • Census Hub pilot project phase II has represented a consolidation of the entire project, both from a technical and a participation point of view • Census Hub pilot project phase III will represent an enhancement of what it was done in the previous phases and transition to implementation • As the Pilot has been planned as simple as possible in order to let all the NSIs participate with a minor effort, this project is a good occasion for all those who want to start using SDMX

16. Census Hub Demonstration 16