Statistics Netherlands CRISTAL, a Model for Data and Metadata Statistics Netherlands Erik van Bracht METIS Feb 2004

Statistics Netherlands Strategy of Statistics Netherlands l Problem: increasing competition l Potential trump cards: t Quality t Coherence l But still moderate: t Definitions of statistical terms t Relations to neighbouring information t Information about statistical processes l Further improve quality and coherence

Statistics Netherlands Improve Quality and Coherence l Many related organisational problems l Also information modeling problems: t ER:Entity Relationship models t RDBMS: Relational Database Management Systems t DW:Data Warehouses t UML:Unified Modeling Language l Highly heterogeneous statistical information l Current modeling paradigms not sufficient l Development of CRISTAL

Statistics Netherlands The CRISTAL Model l The Philosophy behind CRISTAL: Integration of two philosophical disciplines: t Mereology Mereos = Part Logos = Discourse Study of the relations between parts and wholes t Combinatorial Ontology Ontos= To be, to exist Logos= Discourse Study of the existence of objects as logical combinations of properties

Statistics Netherlands The CRISTAL Model l Metadata model t Simplified mereological system t Partial ordering of extendible ‘categories’ l Data model t Simplified combinatorial ontology t Make any logical combination of ‘categories’

Statistics Netherlands Conclusions l Important to improve coherence and quality l Current modeling paradigms not sufficient to coordinate data and metadata in case of highly heterogeneous statistical information l The CRISTAL model tries to provide a solution with: t Mereology t Combinatorial ontology l The CRISTAL model works satisfactory at Statistics Netherlands