1. GSIM Stakeholder Interview Feedback HLG-BAS Secretariat January 2012

2. What purposes should GSIM should serve? A powerful means of communication (almost a trademark) that: – bridges the gap between business and IT staff in NSIs – gains mindshare for uniting statistical specialists A model of perceived reality – unifying and uniting around a core concept about the ‘content’ of statistical information A ‘tree’ that graphically links statistical objects and their relationships to “root” statistical concepts so that we can map the distance between concepts such as industry, person, different definitions of “household” etc. – Although tempting, the model we need is not about variables, classifications and datasets. These are just roles our concepts are playing. This model is about the concepts of our trade. It is a common language – common terminology Standard terminology relevant to both business and IT Promotes interoperability of data and metadata standards Cornerstone of industrialisation Will enable standardisation High level view that standardises sufficiently to be able to share methods Standardise and operationalise statistical metadata Complement to the GSBPM – identify information objects as part of process GSBPM describes the HOW (statistical processes) and GSIM describes the WHAT (information objects and concepts the statistical trade uses) in the production of statistics 2

3. Why does the world need GSIM? For harmonisation and industrialisation To derive better connection with the global public Interoperability and sharing of data is core to the future of our business GSIM should do for information objects what GSBPM did for processes There are many terminology standards out there and many terms for the same concepts We don’t all use the same metadata terminology or structures GSIM provides a standardised semantic framework for NSIs to streamline and improve their operations and systems GSIM should achieve: – Streamlined and generalised processing resulting in greater efficiencies – Increased data quality – Increased efficiency and error reduction through fewer transformations of data and metadata – Improved framework for information management through better classification of information and standard metadata – Improved framework to support information security 3

4. What benefits does GSIM offer your organisation and the broader statistical community? Delivers cost savings through improved economies of scale ie shared processing and solutions GSIM provides a ‘bridge’ to get a common view of reality – establishing agreement to this provides a longer-term unifying view Uniting under top down concept views facilitates increased sharing between NSIs GSIM should bridge standards; and describe and manage the lifecycle of data in an NSI It will support reference infrastructure Provide a bridge and alignment between international metadata standards (SDMX, DDI and whatever else the NSI uses) requiring less effort to meet publishing and data sharing obligations A tool to influence international standards A starting point for information architecture work, as well as providing opportunities for reuse of best practices, tools, and methods obtained through international collaboration Focuses and influences IT providers on meeting the needs of the statistical community 4

5. What outcomes would you want to see from GSIM Sprint #1? Very clear statements about GSIM: – what it is and what it’s not – high-level model reflecting a top down view of what statistical businesses have in common – well-defined concepts that can be recognised, readily understood and valued by a wide audience including management, business and non-technical people A harmonised set of requirements to ensure that DDI/SDMX don’t diverge from the needs of an NSI A reference model for common terminology and a semantic framework Explanation of – the derivation of the model – value and benefits of GSIM – identification of issues and difficulties – some defined use cases to test the model Strong links to other initiatives explored Outline set of documentation for supporting layers Very good understanding of the business case 5

6. Possible inputs to the GSIM Sprint Mapping of different data and metadata standards Documentation about technical initiatives such as DDI, SDMX, CORE Mobilisation of the community utilising the wiki Information architecture models Stakeholder views from METIS, EuroStat, SDMX, DDI communities Interviews with HLG-BAS members Customer perspectives from business areas with an understanding of IM Teleconference with people who would like to participate but can’t attend Intelligence and other approaches from other sectors Enterprise architecture models and standards associated with these Is there a possibility of developing a common taxonomy and thesaurus for NSIs? Consider lifecycle management for GSIM so it can adapt to future requirements Build on what we have – don’t start from scratch 6

7. Other Matters to Consider What might the GSIM/GSBPM ‘metamodel’ represent? What is the scope of GSIM? – Variables, classifications and datasets and/or statistical concepts and relations – Process related information models – Information lifecycle management & GSIM lifecycle management – Quality and methodological metadata What are the enumerated layers of GSIM and how can we describe their relationship to other artefacts? How do we represent a visual trademark for GSIM – the tree of most important concepts and relations? Should GSIM do anything to ensure implementations are either consistent or interoperable? 7