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CESSDA Vocabulary Service tool now available

Submitted by lyle on Thu, 2019-10-17 11:06

 

The CESSDA Vocabulary Service is a unique tool which enables developers to search, browse, and download controlled vocabularies in a variety of languages. The tool is also useful for researchers, for administrators and translators of controlled vocabularies, and for data repositories providing metadata. 

Researchers can use the tool to study the terms used in the data descriptions which in turn enables them to do more precise searches in the CESSDA Data Catalogue. For translators and data repositories, the CVS facilitates easy and robust vocabulary management. 

Strong collaboration between CESSDA and the DDI Alliance means that internationally-recognised and widely-used DDI controlled vocabularies are hosted within the CESSDA Vocabulary Service alongside CESSDA’s own Topic Classifications. 

A publication pipeline will be created from the tool so that DDI Alliance can publish the vocabularies on its own website as well.

How it works

English source versions of the controlled vocabularies have been translated by CESSDA members and other organisations, to provide unique multilingual functionality and usability.  Authorized users of the CVS can create, manage, version and translate controlled vocabularies via an easy-to-use, well-supported interface: 

“The intuitive and user-friendly editor interface makes both user access and vocabulary management quick and easy. The system also facilitates version control by guiding users towards consistent documentation of changes made between published versions.” (Henri Ala-Lahti, CVS content editor).

Other handy features include a version comparison table, automatically generated citation for the vocabularies; and automated cloning of the previous source and translated vocabulary versions as a basis for creating new versions. 

The CVS also provides a browsing platform for all users. Data repositories using the vocabularies in their metadata, for example, can download the vocabularies in various formats suitable for upload into technical systems, reference documents and web services, enhancing their flexibility and usability. Detailed version history details changes between vocabulary versions, so they can update their legacy metadata and systems.

The CVS is a useful and timely resource that promotes international standardisation by providing a source of controlled vocabularies to suit varied metadata systems. 

More information:

CESSDA Vocabulary Service

Contact person: Claus-Peter Klas

News on Finnish translations: New CESSDA vocabulary service has been launched

News on Swedish translations: SND news item: Swedish Translations Now Available in CESSDA Vocabulary Service

DDI Training Group welcomes two new co-chairs: Jane Fry and Anja Perry

Submitted by lyle on Thu, 2019-09-12 23:18

The DDI Training Group welcomes two new co-chairs: Jane Fry (Carleton University) and Anja Perry (GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences). They replace Amber Leahey (Scholars Portal), who served as chair for four years. The DDI Alliance is very grateful for the time and effort Amber put into training activities.

The mission of the Training group is to:

  • Introduce people to DDI and improve people's competence in working with DDI
  • Gear training to specific audiences
  • Develop expertise within the community for training purposes
  • Maintain a training library with updated training material for reuse

To fulfill this mission, the group is taking the following steps in the next year:

  1. Complete sets of training material based on the output of a Train-the-Trainer Workshop at Dagstuhl in 2018 and add them to the Training Library for reuse.
  2. Recruit new members for the group and additional instructors to be able to teach DDI to a wider audience.
  3. Identify conferences and further outlets where DDI teaching can take place and set up a yearly teaching schedule.
  4. Use GO FAIR to further promote DDI through training events.

The Training group is looking for more members! Interested in joining? Please contact Jane (jane.fry@carleton.ca) or Anja (Anja.Perry@gesis.org).

DDI Alliance Executive Board election results

Submitted by lyle on Wed, 2019-09-11 16:31

The August 2019 DDI Alliance Executive Board election resulted in Bill Block (13 votes from 16 recorded responses) and Joachim Wackerow (12 votes) being reelected to the Board.  Special thanks to Bill and Achim for their continued service on the Board.  And thanks to all Alliance designated member representatives who voted in this election.

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The Executive Board is the policymaking and oversight body of the Alliance. In addition to Bill and Achim, continuing members of the Executive Board include:

Steve McEachern, Australian Data Archive (ADA) – 2017-2021
Catherine Fitch, Minnesota Population Center, 2017-2021
Dana Müller, Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency, Institute for Employment Research (IAB), 2017-2021
Barry Radler, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2017-2021
Margaret Levenstein, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), representing the Host Institution, 2016-present
Jared Lyle, ICPSR, DDI Alliance Executive Director, ex officio non-voting member, 2015-present

Elected members of the Executive Board serve for a term of four years.  For more information about the Executive Board, please see: https://ddialliance.org/executive-board.

Next Annual Meeting of Member Representatives: 18 May 2020 in Gothenburg, Sweden

Submitted by lyle on Wed, 2019-07-31 00:23

The next DDI Alliance Annual Meeting of Member Representatives will be held 18 May 2020 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Monday of IASSIST. 

The Annual Meeting of Member Representatives provides a forum for member discussion and feedback. Please save the date. We look forward to seeing many member representatives at the meeting.

June 2019 DDI Alliance Annual Meeting Minutes Available

Submitted by lyle on Tue, 2019-07-30 23:55
The minutes of the DDI Alliance June 1, 2019 annual meeting are now available, including from the morning Annual Meeting of Members and the afternoon Scientific Board meeting.
 

Call for Nominations: DDI Executive Board

Submitted by lyle on Mon, 2019-06-24 23:10

This is an election year for the Executive Board, which is responsible for managing the operations of the Alliance, including setting the overall policy and budget, and providing strategic guidance and review of the Alliance’s activities. Elected members of the Executive Board serve for a term of four years, with terms starting in July.  Only full members are eligible to have a representative elected to the Executive Board 

If you would like to nominate yourself or a colleague to this position, please contact us by 5 July.  The election will be held directly thereafter.

DDI XKOS released for public use

Submitted by lyle on Thu, 2019-06-20 20:57

The DDI Alliance (http://www.ddialliance.org/) is pleased to announce the public release of XKOS version 1.2, a free and open specification that facilitates sharing and management of statistical classifications.

XKOS is a simple and elegant model to represent complex classifications via their structural and textual properties, as well as the relations between classifications. By leveraging the widely-used Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), XKOS extensions allow linkages to a wealth of existing thesauri and taxonomies to better support statistical classifications and concept management systems. XKOS also refines SKOS semantic properties to allow the use of more specific relations between statistical concepts, classifications, or any other case where SKOS is employed.

XKOS is currently used at a number of national statistical agencies and has been available as a draft since 2013. Since undergoing a final review in 2017, all issues have been addressed and corrected in preparation for the publication of version 1.2.

Links to the specification and instructions for comment are found at:

http://www.ddialliance.org/Specification/RDF/XKOS

DDI Alliance annual meeting: 1 June at the UNSW Sydney

Submitted by lyle on Sun, 2019-05-26 18:19

The DDI Alliance will hold our annual meeting on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in Hugh Dixson Theatre, AGSM Building, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney.  The morning will be devoted to the Meeting of Members and the afternoon to the meeting of the Scientific Board, with lunch provided in between.



The agenda for the meeting is available at:



https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e7aNBpxG7uSmDLA_4Fj8dCNY3GMQRVU2d7vPrdod2yE/edit# 


We are providing a virtual connection for those who cannot attend the annual meeting in person.  To join the meeting virtually:



https://bluejeans.com/161085099


To join via phone:

1.) Dial:

    +1.888.240.2560

    International Callers (http://bluejeans.com/numbers)

2.) Enter the Meeting ID: 161085099



Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!  

EDDI19 - 11th Annual European DDI User Conference: Call for Papers

Submitted by lyle on Fri, 2019-05-17 09:46

CALL FOR PAPERS

11th Annual European DDI User Conference (EDDI19), DDI - The Basis of Managing the Data Life Cycle

EDDI19 is organized jointly by the Finnish Social Science Data Archive, Tampere University, Statistics Finland, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and IDSC of IZA - International Data Service Center of the Institute for the Study of Labor.

The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is an international standard for describing the data produced by surveys and other observational methods in the social, behavioural, economic, and health sciences.

The meeting will bring together DDI users and professionals from all over Europe and the world. Anyone interested in developing, applying, or using DDI is invited to attend and present.

Call for Papers

We are seeking presentations, talks, papers, posters on all things DDI:

  • Case Studies
  • Mature implementations
  • Early Implementations
  • Interplay of DDI with other standards or technologies
  • Projects in early phases in which DDI is under consideration
  • Critiques of DDI

The topics of the conference include, but are not limited to:

  • User Needs, Efficient Infrastructures and Improved Quality
  • Official Statistics
  • Reusing and Sharing Metadata
  • Data Harmonization
  • Incentives to Document Data
  • Open Data and Linked Open Data
  • Privacy and Access Control
  • Metadata versus Data and Related Ethics
  • Software / Tools

Submission

Proposals are welcome for multiple content types and presentation forms.

Content Types

  • Scientific Method
  • Impact for the Community
  • Project Report

Presentation Forms

  • Complete Session
  • Full Paper
  • Regular Presentation
  • Short Presentation
  • Poster/Software Demonstration

Other Submission Types

  • Tutorial or Workshop
  • Side Meeting

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please have a look at the overview on submissions and use the online submission system of the conference (opens on 23.05.).

  • The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2019, 23:59 CEST.
  • Please have a look at the Call for Paper page for further details.
  • Please consider to indicate your availability as reviewer as well.

General Information

For more information about the EDDI conference series and details on the previous EDDI conferences, look at http://www.eddi-conferences.eu/.

We look forward to welcoming you to EDDI2019 in Tampere!

Mari Kleemola and Jon Johnson (co-chairs) 
on behalf of the EDDI19 Program Committee

Welcome New Member: Statistics Canada

Submitted by lyle on Wed, 2019-05-01 23:30

The DDI Alliance welcomes Statistics Canada (Corey Chobanik, member representative; Flavio Rizzolo and Farrah Sanjani, Scientific Board representatives) as a Full Member!