Specific standards relevant to our work

SDMX - ISO/TS 17369
DDI
XBRL
ebXML Registry - ISO/TS 15000
ISO/IEC 11179
ISO/IEC TR 20943

Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX)

SDMX is an initiative sponsored by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the European Central Bank (ECB), Eurostat, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations (UN) and the World Bank (WB).It is aimed at developing and using more efficient processes for exchange and sharing of statistical data and metadata among international organisations, their member countries, the data providers, and the users of statistics.

SDMX technical standards are embodied in ISO/TS 17369. The version 1.0 standard was published in 2004 (and was approved by ISO as ISO/TS 17369 in 2005) and covers all aspects of data exchange and data dissemination. The version 2.0 standard (this is not yet a part of ISO/TS 17369) was published in 2005 and includes support for enhanced metadata and for metadata registries, for mapping between data and metadata structures and related code lists and taxonomies, and for data validation.

It is the metadata registry that gives the SDMX standards the ability to deliver data and metadata on demand, to deliver a generic and integrated approach to data warehouse architecture based on self describing data structure definitions, and to deliver aggregated data linked not only to metadata but to the primary data from which it is formed.

Useful websites:

SDMX standards: http://www.sdmx.org
SDMX User Forum: http://www.sdmxuserforum.org

Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)

For the past decade, data archivists and social scientists have been using this SGML/XML-based metadata format to describe their data holdings, promoting standard discovery and processing techniques. Now in the process of creating a major revision based on W3C XML Schema and a modular design, DDI has become the preeminent standard for describing raw data and microdata for social sciences archives throughout the world.

Useful websites:

DDI: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/DDI/

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)

XBRL is an XML format which allows reporting of balance-sheet and other types of accounting information. It relies on user-designed taxonomies to attach the needed standard semantics to reported data, providing a highly flexible way of leveraging XML in reporting systems.

Useful websites:

XBRL: http://www.xbrl.org

ISO 15000 parts 3 and 4 - ebXML Registry

The ebXML registry specification was developed under the auspices of the ebXML initiative. It has been refined over the intervening years, taking into account comments from a broad base of implementers.

The ebXML registry can be used to store and index any type of content - the registry itself is agnostic to the model underpinning the application to which the registry is used, it understands only the registry model upon which the ebXML registry APIs are built. This makes it useable for any type of content model. As an example, it is possible to register both SDMX and DDI data and metadata in an ebXML registry, and to use its repository functions to store, index, and retrieve the underlying structural metadata used in these standards.

There are numerous implementations of the ebXML registry, and notably there is an open source project called freebXML.

Useful websites:

ebXML http://www.ebxml.org
ISO/TS 15000: http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueListPage.CatalogueList
(enter 15000 in the search box)
ebXML registry technical committee: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=regrep
(find "public download" in the text for the registry standards)
freebXML open source project: http://ebxmlrr.sourceforge.net/

ISO/IEC 11179 and ISO/IEC TR 20943

ISO/IEC 11179 is a metadata content standard focused primarily on the semantics of data. Secondarily, it provides the rules and structures for registering descriptions of data.

The standard exists in 6 Parts, and the 2nd edition is now available. Part 1 explains the standard. Part 2 provides a structure for managing classification systems. Part 3 contains all the requirements for specifying and managing data semantics. Part 4 states rules and guidelines for creating good definitions. Part 5 supplies a naming convention. Part 6 furnishes the rules for registration.

ISO/IEC TR 20943 is a series of technical reports written to give guidance on how to use ISO/IEC 11179. Part 1 is about data elements, and it contains examples of how they are describes and registered. Part 3 is about value domains, and it provides many examples, especially how they may be related to each other.

Useful websites:

ISO/IEC Information Technology Task Force: http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/ITTF.htm
(click on "Freely Available", and scroll to find ISO/IEC 11179 and ISO/IEC TR 20943)

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