1. Ioannis Xirouchakis / Unit B3
The ICT Hub
Joint meeting of the ESS.VIP.BUS ICT Project
and the ESS.VIP IT TF
Luxembourg, 3 March 2014
Ioannis Xirouchakis / Unit B3

2. Completed activities 1/3
ICT Hub GUI implementation (basic version)
Collection and drafting of requirements
Implementation of the requirements
Deployment and testing
Establishment of central node
Establishment of new hosting environment
Deployment of ICT Hub application and administration tools

3. Completed activities 2/3
Establishment of country nodes
Test datasets (starting packages) preparation for the 11 pilot countries
Guidelines preparation for the pilot countries for re-using the SDMX-RI
Implementation and deployment of country nodes: Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Spain
Connection establishment between country nodes and ICT Hub

4. Completed activities 3/3
Analysis of on-the-fly aggregation of statistics
Design of scenarios and tests for extending the ICT Hub to support on-the-fly aggregations
Testing of the scenarios
Preliminary analysis of results
Outlining the Enhanced Hub (as an extension to the Census and ICT Hubs)

5. The Hub logic

6. Advantages of the Hub logic
End-user obtains the latest data revision available
No voluminous data transmissions to central node
No need to maintain large central database
Changes reflected on the Hub immediately after submission at country level
Countries own their data and assume responsibility
Countries revise data without technical impact on the Hub or other country nodes
Countries don't change the structure of their dissemination databases

7. Extensibility of the Hub logic
Very limited technical effort required to add another country to the Hub
Limited effort required to expand the system to include new datasets (corresponding to new DSDs and codelists)
The same dissemination databases can be made available to other Hubs with limited effort (for data mapping mainly)

8. Challenges of the Hub logic
Data availability on the Hub depends on country node availability
Response to queries can be slower compared to the traditional approach: the Hub needs to collect data from country nodes
Data validation takes place only once: at country level

9. The ICT Hub GUI Assumptions for basic version (Phase I)
Reuse of the existing Census Hub application
Reuse of the SDMX Reference Infrastructure
Dissemination of published data
No availability requirements for country nodes
Extension/adaptation to ICT domain in terms of structural metadata (dataflows, DSDs, codelists)
Only minor effort invested for modification/adaptation of the Census Hub GUI

10. Conclusions With the work package complete
All objectives of the work package were achieved by the pilot countries and Eurostat
Extension of the Hub logic to other statistical domains is possible with minor technical effort
Certain investment is necessary (mainly) for adaptation of the GUI to another statistical domain
The particularities of each statistical domain can play a role in the selection of the Hub logic for dissemination

11. Live demo of the ICT Hub [link]

12. Sample workflow 1
On Select dataset screen Indicator(s) pane  select E_ADE (not a mandatory step for selecting dataflow)
On Selected dataflow pane the colour of relevant dataflows changes  select isoc_bde15disc and press Select dataflow
On Specify dimensions screen choose:
Under GEO: e.g. Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Poland, Slovenia, Finland
Under INDIC_IS: E_ADE (other indicators in the same dataflow also appear)
Under SIZEN_R2: 10_C10_S951_XK, 10_C10_N82_XK, 10_BB, 10_NBB
Under TIME: click all entries
Under UNIT: PC_ENT (the system proposes all units relevant to the indicator)
Click Select layout
Click View data
the maximum response time is 20 seconds (timeout setting) and it depends on the slowest country response

13. Sample workflow 2
On Select dataset screen Indicator(s) pane  click Code radio-button and select E_BROAD and E_IBUY
On Selected dataflow pane select isoc_ci_it_en2 and press Select dataflow
On Specify dimensions screen choose:
Under GEO: e.g. Ireland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Netherlands, Austria, Poland
Under INDIC_IS: E_BBOTH, E_BROAD, E_BROAD2, E_DSL
Under SIZEN_R2: 10_ICT_T, 10_K6FINS
Under TIME: 2012
Under UNIT: PC_ENT, PC_ENT_IACC
Click Select layout
Click View data
several countries return [0] when a record does not exist in their dissemination database, while the expected result would be [:] or []
this is a Census Hub particularity and can be modified

14. Sample workflow 3
On Select dataset screen Selected dataflow pane  click Code radio-button, select isoc_sk_itsp_en2 and press Select dataflow
On Specify dimensions screen choose:
Under GEO: any countries
Tab INDIC_IS is now absent (structural metadata form the GUI dynamically)
Under SIZEN_R2: select all
Under TIME: 2012
Under UNIT: PC_ENT, PC_ENT_CUSE
Click Select layout
Click View data
Click Download
Save data in the desired format (XLS, CSV, SDMX)

15. Sample workflow 4
On Select dataset screen Selected dataflow pane  select isoc_bde15disc and press Select dataflow
On Specify dimensions screen choose:
Under INDIC_IS select E_SISC  under UNIT units PC_ENT and PC_ENT_CUSE are proposed
Under INDIC_IS select E_SISC, E_SISUCU  under UNIT units PC_ENT, PC_ENT_CUSE, PC_ENT_SISC are proposed
Under INDIC_IS select E_SISC, E_SISUCU, E_ADECU  under UNIT all units are proposed
Under GEO: any countries
Under SIZEN_R2: 10_BB, 10_NBB
Under TIME: 2012
Click Select layout
Click View data

16. Thank you for your attention!
Contact:
Unit B3, Eurostat