Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/October 2007/Minutes

Version 21.11.2007

IT Directors Group

15 and 16 October 2007

BECH Building, 5, rue Alphonse Weicker, Luxembourg-Kirchberg

Room Quetelet

MINUTES OF THE MEETING Draft Minutes of the ITDG meeting 15-16 October 2007

Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point

1. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN MEMBER STATES (TOUR DE TABLE)

2. STRATEGIC IT PROJECTS

2.1 SDMX

2.1.1 SDMX implementation plan and progress (3 interventions) report Eurostat reported on work in progress to follow The integration of SDMX principles in Eurostat's Member States approved the detailed up the SDMX strategy which had been agreed by internal systems was addressed as key factor for implementation plan for SDMX. the ITDG in 2005, and endorsed by the SPC in end-to-end integration in data sharing in the February 2007. ESS. This is a step that Eurostat and MSs should Eurostat asked the ITDG to approve the detailed take together. implementation plan for SDMX, which proposed One country highlighted the decentralised nature a step by step use of SDMX in appropriate of their statistical system, which implies the need statistical domains, in collaboration with the of stability in DSDs, and the lack of internal production units and the working groups for the technical staff to be trained for SDMX. different statistical domains.

2.1.2 Standards and guidelines for reference (4 interventions) metadata With regard to metadata Eurostat presented the The delegates emphasised that the Eurostat took note of these comments. The last progress related to the SDMX based implementation of new metadata standards further process of creating standards for

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 1 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point Content-oriented Guidelines, the envisaged should be done when they are sufficiently stable, structural and reference metadata for the release of its version 1 and the involvement of that the implementation of these standards need European Statistical System will be carried Member states. to done at NSIs at the level of statistical domains forward with care in involving countries at the Furthermore progress was also made on the (differences could exist between data sources appropriate fora and in co-ordinating this work implementation of the SDMX based metadata and metadata sources) and that the new standards with the SDMX secretariat. The finalisation of standards for the European Statistical System, should not lead to excessive demands. Also the the ESS standard for reference metadata is e.g. with the creation of the Euro SDMX link between reference metadata and quality planned for 2008. metadata standard. reports was questioned.

2.1.3 Single Entry Point for reference metadata (1 intervention) Eurostat presented the intention of using the Delegates welcomed this proposal in however Eurostat intends to implement the use of the SEP Single Entry Point for the transmission of emphasising that the ESS reference metadata for the transmission of reference metadata national reference metadata from countries. A standard needs to be stabilised when a regular successively. After a pilot transmission in 2007, first test will be done within SODI still in 2007. transmission should take place in using the SEP. the broader implementation will be pursued in 2008.

2.1.4 SODI progress report (4 interventions) Eurostat gave a progress report on the SODI The evaluation phase of SODI should be Member States took note of the progress report. project, including a revised road map up to 2008. regarded as a step towards the production phase Eurostat agrees that there was some potential for and should include also evaluation of developed confusion between SODI and other projects, and tools. would try in future to give a clearer explanation Once SODI goes into production, adequate tools of how each project fitted into the whole work should be available to MSs, on the other hand programme (see also conclusions to point 2.4 - there are countries who will only need the X-DIS). standard specifications to build their own infrastructure to exchange data with Eurostat. Some lack of clarity was perceived on the overall picture of ongoing projects and the role

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 2 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point of SODI with respect to other projects.

2.1.5 Examples of domain-specific applications of (2 interventions) SDMX Eurostat presented the planned Census Hub The reusability of SODI tools for the Census Member States took note of the planned Census project, which would provide an efficient means Hub is an important aspect. Hub project. to enable dissemination of data tables from the Particular attention will have to be paid to issues 2011 census round, based on the agreed common related to transfer of large files between MSs and set of census data according to the proposed Eurostat. Council and Parliament Regulation on population and housing censuses.

2.2 Project on access to databases (1 intervention) Member States were presented with the new Germany expressed its strong support to the As the remote access project has a very strong IT funding opportunities in the 7th Framework issue. Germany is already developing facilities component, IT Directors are recommended to Programme for Research and Development for for remote execution and would support strongly discuss with their national colleagues in charge "an infrastructure for Remote Access to the remote console development facility. of methodological or disclosure control in order Confidential Data for Researchers". The call for to prepare and present a good proposal for the 7th proposal will be issued in late November and Framework programme. closing end of February 2008. The presentation covered the format that the proposal should follow as well as thepotential structure of the future infrastructure. Information was also given on the two possibilities of Remote Access to data, that is: remote execution and remote console.

2.3 Dissemination .

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 3 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point

2.3.1 XML publishing (1 intervention) Eurostat presented the XML-publishing pilot The delegate from Germany pointed out that project highlighting the main building blocks of according to their investigations ODF is not the solution: Alfresco and ODF. The main suitable for mapping of the semantics of objective of Eurostat's project is to reduce statistical publications. production times. However, since Eurostat aims only to reduce the production time, full semantics does not need to be represented by the content model adopted. The full semantics will remain available in the dedicated dissemination databases. The delegate from Finland presented an XML- based publishing system fully integrated with the website. The system has been in development since 2001 and is now fully operational. A specific content model was designed to fully capture the semantics of the statistical publications.

2.3.2 New tools for the Eurostat portal (2 interventions) The presentation concentrated on the new The delegate from Germany asked for the origin Eurostat will continue the deployment of the internet tools for the Eurostat web site in of the data for these interfaces. Eurostat stressed interfaces as scheduled in order to improve particular the new user interface for extracting that the data are those on line since the free substantially the usability and functionality of its and visualizing the data ( NUI), the table, graph dissemination. The data are extracted from its 2 website. Concerning the sharing of information and maps interface for the predefined tables reference dissemination databases (NewCronos with the Member States and in particular the ( TGM), the interface to compare two countries and Comext ). code and software used, Eurostat will facilitate (GUIP), the principal European Economic The delegate from Italy mentioned the tagging of the exchange through the Dissemination indicators pages PEEIs, the business cycle watch the internet sites and pages as well as its utility Working Group. to display the evolution over time of the PEEIs when searching. Eurostat underlined that the

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 4 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point ( BCW) , the new navigation tree and the tagging has not been envisaged at all at the approach of the DWG on sharing software and moment. information.

2.4 X-DIS (XML for Data Interoperability in (2 interventions) Statistics) Eurostat presented the plans for the next two There are national e-Government standards in The SPC has endorsed the continuation of the years of the X-DIS project under the IDABC certain countries, which could be investigated as project in September, and confirmed the leading programme. sectoral standards for a European-wide use. role of the ITDG in this project. The ITDG shall There is an excellent co-operation with ECB in be continuously informed about X-DIS. the SDMX field; ECB announces a tool for Eurostat will provide a clearer explanation of the visualisation of SDMX using Adobe Flash links and the coherence between the different Player which will be shared with the ESS. projects and programmes in this field. As Eurostat experienced in its own efforts in international standardisation, the challenge of standards is: the easier a standard is to adopt, the easier it will be to have it accepted on international level.

2.5 Progress reports on developments at Eurostat

2.5.1 CVD (data life cycle project) (Presentations (4 interventions) from Eurostat, IE, NBB) Eurostat presented the point, covering aspects Italy is oriented to the use of license free 1. Many countries have similar projects, and such as CVD timetable, Governance, Strategy products in order to avoid dependences on firms recognised the importance of going towards and Achievements. The Irish representative (ex: SAS). rationalisation and adoption of standards. presented the [Irish] CVD implementation. The Eurostat’s opinion is that dependences exist 2. Properly skilled human resources are representative of the National Bank of Belgium frequently and most importantly from operating presented a set of functionalities on Time Series.

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 5 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point Main strategy consists of gradual systems. necessary to build an integrated architecture. implementation and use of opportunities. Germany’s opinion is that open source products Governance is implemented through various present a problem of knowledge in firms and instruments namely the IT steering Committee also internally. Moreover mathematical the Change Advisory Board, the CVDSC the algorithms are implemented very well in SAS. Master Plan and Reporting to DM. Current implementations are focused on Dissemination, Malta’s opinion is that architecture should be Building Blocks development and Target Data independent of any specific product. Storage (TDS) prototyping. The Irish CVD implementation covers the aspects of dissemination, aggregation, imputation and surveys. The project begun in 1999 and has been outsourced. At present the surveys are moved to the new environment and according to the plans, this operation will be finished by March 2008. The system is written in Java and uses Sybase. Internally the system is currently supported by 10 officials as maintenance is being provided by the Service Provider

2.5.2 eDAMIS and the Single Entry Point (1 intervention) Eurostat gave a progress report on the latest One country asked if the eDAMIS Web Forms Member States took note of the progress report. enhancements to the eDAMIS applications, and could be made available through the locally All proposals for changes to the eDAMIS on the coverage of the Single Entry Point. installed eDAMIS Web Application. application are added to the official list of change requests, which is discussed twice per year in the GLC (Working Group of Local Coordinators for data transmission).

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 6 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point In 2008, Eurostat will again report to the SPC on progress in the implementation of the Single Entry Point.

3. TOWARDS THE SHARING OF IT TOOLS WITHIN THE ESS

3.1 Existing statistical applications for sharing (5 interventions) among Member States Experience on specific IT developments (Presentations from SE, AT, DE, BE) Member States presented: The costs of PC-Axis are subject to negotiation – PC-Axis (Statistics Sweden) between the NSI and Statistics Sweden; NSIs should contact Statistics Sweden directly for a – SuperSTAR (Statistics Austria) license. – SteP (DESTATIS) Multilingual support for tables will be added to – Time series toolkit (National Bank of Belgium) SuperSTAR in 2008; the Australian company STR has now a branch in London for support in All presentations available on CIRCA. Europe; the licensing fees vary and are subject to negotiation with STR. SteP includes a system to scan the data, which is supported by bar codes, and allows the coding into XML. The modular approach allows the replacement of single modules without touching the others.

3.2 Eurostat project on Open Source Software (4 interventions) (OSS) for statistics Eurostat gave a progress report and road map for PC-AXIS is not open, but shared software (the

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 7 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point the X-DIS work area on OSS for statistics. file format and the metadata model are open) The progress report included the first results Eurostat’s vision of sharing is a pragmatic from the survey of NSIs on the subject of OSS. extension of the “official” OSS definition, as the About one-third of respondents in the survey community of official statistics is small. were already using statistical OSS. The distribution of tools under OSS solves some legal questions, however, the maintenance and support is not automatically solved by applying an OSS license.

3.3 Example of a Eurostat application as possible (3 interventions) OSS: Eurostat presented the functionality and time The Italian representative asked if there is a 1. Experience in the development of building table of deployment of XTNET/Edit. WEB version of the software and the German blocks should be shared. one about the internal functionality. Eurostat responded that currently there is no WEB version and that XTNET / EDIT is entirely menu driven (not only rules but also data input). Ireland and Italy mentioned that they developed similar products. Germany mentioned that it has a similar project where rules are translated in Java.

3.4 Exchange of views on collaborative (15 interventions) frameworks for shared software development (Open discussion, presentations from SE, NO) Sweden presented its ongoing process Member States generally welcomed the views We are not starting from scratch, so we should

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 8 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point reengineering based on SOA (Service-Oriented expressed in the presentations. The discussion be pragmatic. There are already items shared, Architecture), highlighting the opportunities this showed a very high interest in the Member and we have to give more awareness to this. offers for sharing development. States on questions of SOA and modelling their The exchange in the ESS is valuable on different Norway presented its view on OSS and business processes. The business processes in the levels, from ideas to ready-made tools. interoperability in the ESS. NSIs are very similar; a common view on the Business Process Model seems possible. We have to look into pilots for the Business The open discussion made use of the issue paper Process Model; one example is the seasonal prepared jointly by Eurostat and Member States. The participants supported a pragmatic approach adjustment pilot based on DEMETRA and the for sharing applications: neighbourhood clusters NBB time series toolkit. and offering of existing tools and seeking for partners for further development were proposed; Eurostat will propose an informal structure to some countries favoured working through a follow up the discussion, possibly at the margin steering committee or task force. of the next MSIS meeting (to be held in April 2008 in Luxembourg). Maintenance is an issue when sharing software, but a group of active users strengthens sustainability as shown by PC-Axis. The maintenance model should be taken into account from the very beginning of the lifetime of an application. An ESSnet could enable subsidies for joint development; some budget may be available for this in 2008.

4. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

Tour de Table (Item 1)

 Several integration projects. Metadata driven. Business process re-engineering.

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 9 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point  Reorganisation of IT system  Difficulty with staff continuity, recruitment, skills  Some cases of move towards outsourcing. Keeping architecture and main knowledge in-house.  Dissemination (Portal)  Census  Register data  IT internal governance  IT governance at national level  Moves toward centralisation and harmonisation  IT Security  Support from EU MS to non-EU MS

SDMX

1. Implementation Plan

– Plan supported – Need of end-to-end integration of SDMX into production processes. – Implementation plan should involve the Business both at Eurostat and MS. 2. Metadata

– The structure in place (Metadata WG and TF) will lead the process.

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 10 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point – A prudent approach will be followed to ensure that standards are not only developed, but also implemented. 3. SODI

– Evaluation of project planned in Q1 2008 will include evaluation of tools. – Need continued commitment from Task Force countries in order to properly test the approach with real data. 4. Overall

– Need to show clearly the coherence and synergies between the different projects.

FP7 project on Remote Access for Researchers

 Opportunity for NSI in a call for projects under FP7 at end 2007  Remote access TF in place to eventually develop a ESS project.  IT issues may need the support of IT units at national level

Dissemination tools

 Presentation of XML publishing (Eurostat, Statistics Finland)  Presentation of Portal Tools (Eurostat)  Opportunities for sharing ideas and eventually tools

X-DIS

 Last phase of the project will be launched

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 11 Agenda Presentation Discussion Conclusions Point  Provides the financial support for most of the activities mentioned in the meeting  Eurostat commits to target the synergies and to present in a coherent way all the actions

eDAMIS / SEP

 Very good progress towards 100% coverage in NSI  Need to promote use by other national organisations  Eurostat effort in WGs  Local coordinators to play a role for promotion at national level

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 12 List of Participants

Country Expert Email address Country Expert Email address

Belgique/ Mrs Els ARYS [email protected] Italia Mr Carlo VACCARI [email protected] Belgie National Bank of Belgium ISTAT Belgique/ Mr Jean PALATE [email protected] Kypros Mr Costas DIAMANTIDES [email protected] Belgie National Bank of Belgium Statistical Service ov.cy Bulgaria Mr Georgi STANEV [email protected] Latvia Mr Karlis ZEILA [email protected] National Statistical Institute of Central Statistics Bureau of Latvia Bulgaria Lithuania Mr Vygandas NORKUS [email protected] Czech Mr Ivo MAKALOUS [email protected] Statistics Lithuania t Republic Czech Statistical Office Luxembour Mr Laurent MARETTI [email protected]. Danmark Mr Torben SØBORG [email protected] g STATEC lu Danmarks Statistik Hungary Mr József KÓPHÁZI [email protected] Deutschland Mr Dieter SARREITHER [email protected] Hungarian Central Statistical Office Statististiches Bundesamt e Malta Mr Robert MIZZI [email protected] Estonia Mr Allan RANDLEPP [email protected] National Statistics Office Statistics Estonia Nederland Mr Koos VEEFKIND [email protected] Ireland Ms Margaret MCLOUGHLIN [email protected] Statistics Nederlands (CBS) Central Statistics Office Norway Mr Rune GLØERSEN [email protected] Ellas Mr Andreas VELLAS [email protected] Statistics Norway National Statistical Service of Greece Österreich Mr Dieter BURGET [email protected] España Mr Miguel Angel MARTINEZ VIDAL [email protected] Statistik-Österreich Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Poland Mr Wladyslaw IGNACZAK [email protected] France Mr Jean-Pierre GRANDJEAN jean- Central Statistical Office of Poland INSEE [email protected] Portugal Ms Conceição MATOS [email protected] Iceland Mr Björgvin SIGURDSSON bjorgvin.sigurdsson@hagsto INE Statistics Iceland fa.is Romania Mr Gheorghe VAIDA-MUNTEAN [email protected] Italia Mr Alberto SORCE [email protected] Romanian National Institute of ISTAT Statistics

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 13 Country Expert Email address Country Expert Email address

Romania Mr Cristian BELDIMAN [email protected] ECB Mr Christos ANDROVITSANEAS christos.androvitsaneas@ec Romanian National Institute of European Central Bank b.europa.eu Statistics UNECE Mr Juraj RIECAN [email protected] Slovak Mr Pavel JASTRABÍK [email protected] United Nations Economic Commission Republic Statistical Office of the Slovak for Europe (UNECE) Republic European Pedro Díaz Muñoz [email protected] Suomi/ Mr Harri LEHTINEN [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Direction B Finland Statistics Finland European Adam Wroński [email protected]. Suomi/ Mr Sven BJÖRKQVIST [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-1 eu Finland Statistics Finland European Antonio Consoli [email protected] Sverige Mr Per CRONHOLM [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-1 .eu Statistics Sweden European Wolfgang Knueppel [email protected] Sverige Mr Lars NORDBÄCK [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-2 ropa.eu Statistics Sweden European John Allen [email protected] Switzerland Mr Bertrand LOISON [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-3 Office Fédéral de la Statistique .ch European Leonhard Maqua [email protected] Croatia Mr Dubravko SKRLEC [email protected] , Commission Eurostat, Unit B-3 a.eu Central Bureau of Statistics of the [email protected] Republic of Croatia European Giuseppe Sindoni [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-3 pa.eu Former Ms. Helena PAPAZOSKA [email protected] Yugoslav State Statistical Office .mk European Vincent Tronet [email protected]. Commission Eurostat, Unit B-3 eu Republic of Macedonia European Marco Pellegrino [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-4 a.eu Turkey Mr Ramazan CELIKKAYA [email protected] State Institute of Statistics of Turkey v.tr European August Götzfried [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-4 pa.eu Bosnia & Mr Radoslav LATINCIC [email protected] Herzegovina Republika Srpska Institute of Statistics European Pascal Jacques [email protected] Commission Eurostat, Unit B-5 u Bosnia & Mrs Maida HASANBEGOVIC [email protected] Herzegovina Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and European Gunter Schäfer [email protected] Herzegovina Commission Eurostat, Unit B-6 .eu

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 14 Country Expert Email address

European Bernard Le Goff Bernard.Le- Commission Eurostat, Unit B-6 [email protected] European Pavel Borkovec [email protected]. Commission Eurostat, Unit B-6 eu

Doc. Eurostat/ITDG/15-16 October 2007/DRAFT Minutes 15