ulrich wieland, eurostat msis 2010, daejeon, korea statistics explained – a user-friendly and...

Ulrich Wieland, EurostatMSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea

Statistics Explained – a user-friendly and low-cost

disemination system

Statistics Explained, MSIS 2010, Daejeon, Korea 2

The problem

Large amounts of value-added content available in publications

Publications do not easily reach the audience Production process for publications is very cumbersome

-> The Eurostat management committee asked for more effective ways of dissemination


The approach

Using Wiki for content creation Collaborative approach Same software as Wikipedia (Mediawiki) A procedure for content validation


Reaching the audience

Familiar look and feel, clear presentation Intensive hyperlinking Visible in search engines (Google etc.) Internal navigation through hierarchical themes,

through categories, and through search


Implementation timetable

January 2008 Request from Management Committee September 2008: First proptotype November 2008: Concept approved by the Management

Committee September 2009: Opening to the public as a beta

version


User reaction

About 1 million page views in 5 months Monthly increase 20% Numerous hyperlinks from other sites including both

professional sites and public blogs and forums Two awards (‘Resource of the week’ by ResourceShelf

and ‘Business Website of the Week’ by JJHill Library)


The governance

Balance between efficient cooperative working and the need to control the content

Updating by all Eurostat staff Validation of content by the competent statistical unit;

each page is owned by one unit Validation of layout, language, structure, readability,

hyperlinks etc. by the dissemination unit All changes are traced


Simplification of the production process

(Example: Statistics in Focus, 4-12 pages)

14 steps with traditional publishing, 3 months 4 steps with Statistics Explained, a few days:

• Article written/modified by somebody• Verification/correction by the thematic unit• Verification/correction by the dissemination unit• Dissemination


The overall structure of Statistics Explained and its articles

Statistical articles: presenting and explaining statistics; standard structure

Background articles: Explanations of statistical concepts or definitions in a popular way


Technical infrastructure

Mediawiki (also used for Wikipedia) Numerous extensions to adapt to the Eurostat

requirements Piwik for traffic monitoring, in adition to SAS webhound

already used in Eurostat

The system is exclusively based on open source software

Total techical work (including experimenting and testing) is about 15 man-months


Integration

Although technically an independant system, Statistics Explained is an integral part of the Eurostat website

Hyperlinks go from the Eurostat homepage and from topic pages to Statistics Explained pages, and from Statistics Explained pages to detailed data, publications and dedicated sections

The search will remain separate but the search of the Eurostat portal will include the number of hits of the search in Statistics Explained, and a hyperlink to the search page.


Statistics Explained and publications

Several major and smaller publications (e.g. the Eurostat yearbook and the regional yearbook) are already integrated

Further publications and content will be added The possibility to use Statistics Explained as a

production system for publications will be tested in 2010/2011 with the Eurostat yearbook

It is expected that the number of printed publications will decrease, but the most important ones will remain


Overall benefit

A much faster and a more efficient way of disseminating value-added content

A much better use of the analytical and contextual information available in Eurostat

Better integration of all Eurostat output (data, analysis, methodology, cross-cutting topics, etc.)

Over time, substantial quality improvement of all Eurostat value-added output

Little development and maintenance cost


Medium term developments

Future publications such as the Eurostat yearbook should be developed on the basis of the content of Statistics Explained

Archiving of Eurostat content should be done by regularly converting the Statistics Explained into a pdf file

Integration with the Eurostat website is to be completed

Integration of the Eurostat glossary and other available information is planned


How to access

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained




Contact

Ulrich Wieland, Eurostat

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

ulrich wieland, eurostat msis 2010, daejeon, korea statistics explained – a user-friendly and...

Documents

eurostat yearbook

eurostat homepage

eurostat requirementspiwik

eurostat portal

eurostat websitehyperlinks

search page

eurostat management

content validationreaching