ADDSIA: Access to Distributed Data for Statistical Information and Analysis
Overview
A research project
funded by the European Commission (ESPRIT) |
Background |
This was a collaborative project with: University of Edinburgh; the Office for National Statistics; DESAN Market Research, Amsterdam; University of Ulster; Central Statistics Office, Cork, Ireland; Statistics Finland and Athens University. At National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), statistical information is held in a variety of ways and it is not practical to convert existing practice to the latest technology. This project aimed to use distributed database techniques and World Wide Web (WWW) technology in order to facilitate more effective access to statistical data by Europe's research and policy community. The project aimed to provide a facility that would allow an NSI to make available with minimum effort, whatever data and metadata it currently has, under its own control. The central model exploits developments in statistical theory to construct a client/server architecture in which computation is carried out at a local level, and partially processed statistical queries are passed to a global model which combines them. The project also exploited Web technology, particularly the indexing of free text metadata, and the use of 'active agents' (such as the program Java) to interface with users. It uses data from the Dutch and Scottish school leavers' surveys to test the feasibility of comparable educational data from 2 different countries in an open environment such as the Web. |
The main concept of ADDSIA was to allow aggregated data from different data sources to be passed to a central location and merged using statistical algorithms which take into account the characteristics (defined by metadata) of the system. This project formally ended in March 2000, after a three-month extension. The final year of the project was spent in consolidating the code developed by the partners. The overall approach of ADDSIA assumed a hierarchical situation where Data Providers would supply information on their data to a Domain manager. While we were successful in defining the architecture and developing the framework for capturing data and metadata, we felt that the approach was too restrictive. Consequently we developed the MISSION architecture and this proposal was successful. The new project started in January 2000, and incorporates ideas and code from ADDSIA. |
Researchers
Joanne Lamb, Colin Smart, Defeng Ma |
Publications
Published
and working papers from this project will be posted on this site
when they become available. |
e-mail: c.newton@ed.ac.uk or phone no: 0131 651 6243