The Web has had a profound impact on the way National Statistical Institutes publish data. Europe is moving towards a global market and providers of official statistics will have to work in this context. It will utilise the advances in statistical techniques for data harmonisation, the emergence of agent technology, the availability of standards for exchanging metadata and the power of Internet information retieval tools. The result will be a modular software suite aimed at enabling providers of official statistics to publish data in a unified framework, and allowing users to share methodologies for comparative analysis and harmonisation. The modules are distrbuted over the web and communicate via agents.
Several scenarios are possible including that of a third party Independent Metadata Provider.
Such decision-making must be made on the basis of the best available advice if stakeholders are to be convinced that they too can contribute to solving these problems. With partners contributing data from their own region, the consortium will be able to test techniques for robustness. Plans for the development of these methods into operational tools will be investigated as part of the integral project exploitation plan. The project will create an Internet site with reference material and multimedia enhanced training courses on Official Statistics. In addition, a system based on groupware technology will be developed for the delivery of distance training in virtual classes or in self study sessions.