2. Outline of presentation
Intergovernmental data
Barriers to use of intergovernmental data
Tearing down barriers (Development of a new user community, part 1)
Making data digestible (Development of a new user community, part 2)
(User support)
Online demonstration
Conclusion

3. Intergovermental data
What do I mean by “intergovernmental data?”
Who provides the data?
What datasets do they provide?
Who uses the data?

5. Barriers to use Lack of awareness of what is available
Prohibitive data licence and/or subscription costs
Multiple interfaces
Different service providers
Multiple registration systems
Absence of a co-ordinated data acquisition strategy
Size and complexity of some of the databanks
Absence of an integrated user support service
Lack of appropriate data handling/analysis skills

6. Establishment of ESDS International
Established in 2003 to remove all of the barriers to use
One part of a larger service called the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)
Government funding for 5 years initially; now funded until 2012

7. Tearing down barriers: Development of a new user community, part 1
Data licence agreements
Single, web-based user interface: Web Data Server (Beyond 20/20 Inc.)
User registration system
Access management systems: Athens & Shibboleth
User training
Collaboration with data librarians

8. Negotiation of UK-wide data licence agreements with data providers
Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD)
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido)
World Bank UN
Eurostat
International Labour Organisation
UK Office for National Statistics
International Energy Agency

9. Data licence agreements cover these datasets:
OECD Main Economic Indicators
UNIDO Industrial Statistics
UNIDO Industrial Demand Supply Balance
IMF Balance of Payments Statistics
IMF Direction of Trade Statistics
IMF Government Finance Statistics
IMF International Financial Statistics
World Bank World Development Indicators
World Bank Global Development Finance
UN Common Database
Eurostat New Cronos Database
ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market
additional datasets from OECD
IEA datasets

11. Making data digestible: Development of a new user community, part 2
The main problem we wanted to solve: We needed to convert each dataset into a group of Beyond 20/20 files and publish the files on a web server
Each dataset consists of a unique set of files and, thus, requires a unique set of processing programs
What sort of files? Data files, code tables, footnote definitions, documentation files and metadata files.

12. Data file formats The data files come in different formats:
Beyond 20/20 format (IVT)
Comma separated values (CSV)
Tab separated values (TSV)
data stored in fixed-width columns
other: UN Common Database format & Microsoft Access

13. Data conversion procedure
Data & user interface analysis
Design a structure for the Beyond 20/20 files
Write data processing programs to convert original data files into Beyond 20/20 format (“Builder” tool)
Load footnotes (“Footnote Loader” tool)
Publish Beyond 20/20 files and dataset documentation (“Publisher” tool)

14. Usage Statistics

15. User support Web site: the focus of user support Training courses
Helpdesk
User guides
Annual conference

16. ESDS International: Online Demonstration
Browse to:
Access data (e.g., World Bank data)
Online registration
Agree to special conditions (one time only)
Authentication (enter Athens username and password)
Beyond 20/20 user interface

17. Conclusion ESDS International Home page:
By providing free, web access to intergovernmental data via a single user interface it has been possible to create a new user community in the UK.
ESDS International Home page: