Eurostat Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 1 st meeting in Luxembourg Sept 2012 Item 5.2 of the agenda November 2012IT Director's Group Meeting

Eurostat Background  More horizontally and vertically integrated ESS  Mechanism for sharing experiences:  Technology, knowledge transfer case studies / experiences, IT tools  IT collaboration  Creative and burden-sharing solutions are needed to cope with limited resources  Census Hub (over 20 installations) and ESSVIP ICT  MSs individual projects. IT Director's Group Meeting – Nov 2012 Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 222

Eurostat The first meeting substantive items  Background  The scope and purpose of the Group and how it is positioned amongst other relevant (user/working/strategic) groups within Eurostat.  Proposing the Terms of Reference (Mandate) and the next steps.  Presenting the SDMX-RI development plans for IT Director's Group Meeting – Nov 2012 Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 333

Eurostat Mandate – Objectives  Sharing of experiences, knowledge and best practices through multilateral collaboration and building of a collective capacity;  Promote the implementation and use of the SDMX-RI in the ESS and other organizations;  Oversee and encourage the maintenance and development of the SDMX-RI serving ESS and other organizations in developing a more efficient statistical production applying the SDMX-based data sharing architecture;  Facilitate the use of SDMX-RI;  Improve the communication in the ESS and within the National Statistical Administrations on SDMX-RI;  Discuss and stimulate new developments and functionality of SDMX-RI and its integration into the ESS Enterprise Architecture;  Ensure that appropriate ESS training and knowledge transfer are in place. IT Director's Group Meeting – Nov 2012 Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 444

Eurostat Mandate – membership and governance  The SDMX-RI User Group (the Group) is composed of representatives of national statistical administrations which are members of the ESS. Observers from other national and international statistical organisations can participate.  The Group targets developers and IT experts, in National Statistical Institutes or other competent organizations, directly responsible for reporting, exchanging and disseminating statistical data and metadata. The participants should have a good IT user and statistical knowledge on the statistical business processes in their National Statistical System and within the ESS.  The Group works under the IT Directors' Group (ITDG) and also reports to the Directors' Group on Methodology (DIME). It interacts with other groups if necessary. IT Director's Group Meeting – Nov 2012 Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 555

Eurostat Mandate – communication Through website and documentation repository that:  Links to relevant information discussed during the user group meetings and stores the documentation provided;  Provides SDMX-RI news informing about the activity of the Group;  Provision for wiki section sharing experiences regarding installation, configuration and operation. IT Director's Group Meeting – Nov 2012 Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 666

Eurostat Main conclusions Participants confirmed the need for SDMX-RI User Group, e.g. for Census Hub, ESSVIP ICT and some of them already use SDMX-RI for other purpose or plan to re-use it. Since User Group targets technical level representatives MSs that would like to change the representing person are asked to inform Eurostat so the person can be kept informed. Eurostat will provide information on the planned way forward. Eurostat will set-up interactive site to provide users with information and gather user feedback and requests. If needed, template for feedback and requirements will be provided as well as access to bug tracking system. MSs are welcome to provide their requests for new functionality and to present functionality developed in their premises to be included in Eurostat version of the SDMX-RI. IT Director's Group Meeting – Nov 2012 Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 777

Eurostat The ITDG is invited to  Take note on the progress made of this initiative  Comment and endorse the terms of reference for SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group  Make suggestions on future actions IT Director's Group Meeting – Nov 2012 Report on SDMX Reference Infrastructure User Group 888