1. Slide 1 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Cooperation with Member States on Internet Gunter Schäfer Eurostat B6: Dissemination

2. Slide 2 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Objectives Four potential quick-win actions identified with Member States in Dissemination Working Group (DWG): –ESS news on Eurostat and NSI Sites –Common format and interoperation of release calendars –Sharing of predefined statistical data tables –Common keyword system

3. Slide 3 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Conditions for cooperation Start with small practical projects Voluntary participation of NSIs Very limited resources required for implementation Each NSI can apply own schedule for implementation Very limited administration overhead, avoid coordination and alignment procedures. ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with participating Member States

4. Slide 4 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Status of projects ESS News: RSS technique selected as tool for exchange, pilot with few Member States is ready Release Calendars: Common template in line with IMF format as basis, presentation of pilot in next DWG meeting Sharing of data: Agreement on selection tables almost achieved, short-term XML format, pilot with few Member States in preparation, link with SODI project Common keyword system: 1400 keywords selected and discussed with Member States, next step: discussion of indexing practices with Member States

5. Slide 5 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 New Single User Interface for data extractions Gunter Schäfer Eurostat B6: Dissemination

6. Slide 6 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Current Situation in Eurostat Direct data extraction from statistical databases by users is a critical function for quality Multitude of existing extraction tools with different levels of functions, design concepts, and ease of use Mainly isolated tools with little integration and add on functions Lot of best practices in similar applications not yet used by Eurostat Strong separation between Comext and NewCronos

7. Slide 7 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 State of project Two phases: (1) Comprehensive feasibility study, start 12/2004, (2) Implementation, planned start January 2006 Involvement of external contractor specialised in Internet Site evaluation and design Intensive analysis of Eurostat internal data extraction tools as well as wide range of similar external tools Eurostat internal workshops Functional specification has been completed Next steps Presentation in Dissemination Working Group (DWG) Finalizing Feasibility Report, i.e. technical specification Go ahead decision for implementation phase

8. Slide 8 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Main Project Recommendations Need for a new single user interface for all extraction tasks is confirmed Design based on default tables (as starting point) and subsequent interactive modification by user until the target information is displayed Strong integration of user interface functions into the Internet Site (i.e. browsing, searching, links to publications, graphs, maps …) Function to save a customized table (as URLs) for immediate re- use/updates The integration of the advanced functions of Comext Analytical for advanced professional users

9. Slide 9 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Some impressions on the user interface

10. Slide 10 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005

11. Slide 11 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005

12. Slide 12 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005

13. Slide 13 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005

14. Slide 14 Eurostat Unit B6 – Dissemination IT Directors Group 24 – 25 October 2005 Thank you very much for your attention