Seminar on Emerging Trends in Data Communication and
Dissemination
Statistical Data as a Service and Internet Mashups
by Zoltan Nagy
19 February 2010
What do we have today?
Statistical organizations became competent and
capable content providers and users of the
Internet. Most National Statistical Offices and
International Agencies have their websites with
static or dynamic content and with interactive
databases or downloadable datasets.
With the current approach we are distributing
statistical data as goods but are there other
ways to provide access to statistical data?
Providing Data as a Service
Data as Goods
Data as Service
(bottled water)
(plumbing)
Bulk onetime download
Dynamic access
Dated with the time of
download
Always latest update
Need for storage
Storage is provided
Analysts, researchers, data
enthusiasts
Dynamic content providers,
mashup creators
What is a Mashup?
• A web application that
combines data from more
than one source into a
single integrated tool

an example is the use of
data from Google Maps
to add location
information to statistical
data, thereby creating a
new and distinct web
service that was not
originally provided by
either source
What are the benefits mashups?
-
Creation of new dynamic user experience
Gain valuable insights through information remix
Further promotion of our services and data
Minimized application data management
Reduced development effort
Get results faster by accessing information in
place
- Ability to quickly assemble applications for new
situations
How a mashup works?
User
User Request
Data presentation
Mashup website
API Call
Website 1
Data
API Call
Data Manipulation
Data
Website 2
APIs and web services
- API is an abbreviation for Application Program
Interface, a set of routines, protocols, and tools for
building software applications. A good API makes it
easier to develop a program by providing all the building
blocks. A programmer then puts the blocks together.
- Web services today are frequently just Application
Programming Interfaces (API) or web APIs that can be
accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and
executed on a remote system hosting the requested
services.
How to plan for a mashup?
• Pick a subject

A Mashup of What?
 Map + Statistical data?
 Google Fusion tables for transformation + Statistical data?

More sources of data  More complicated
• Decide your data sources

Who is your data provider?
 Google maps, Bing maps, etc..
 Online data UNdata, Comtrade, Dallas etc..


Usually language agnostic
Varying complexity
• Other concerns



How much time do you have?
Do you have a server to run it on?
Which programming language?
Data dissemination – UNData
UNdata is unique initiative of the Statistics Division to bring
statistical information together from various international and
national sources and present it in an easily understandable and
accessible format.
• Make UN databases freely available
• Organize international databases to allow searchability and
open access
• Promote national data dissemination
• Build a global data dissemination infrastructure
Data dissemination – UNdata
Data dissemination – Undata
Data dissemination – UNdata
UNdata API
UNDATA API project – an API version of the great data
made available by the United Nations on the UNDATA
site. The aim is to make this data accessible and
reusable in a variety or ways so it can be easily mashed
up and recombined into new applications or analysis.
Mashups with UNdata
Mashups with UNdata
Data dissemination – Comtrade
•
Data from over 150 countries
processed into a standard format
•
Data by partner country/commodity
from 1962 covering about 90% of
the world trade
•
1.5 billion statistical records, 0.5
Terabyte of data
•
Free Web access to any record and
paid subscription for use of
download services
•
6 billion records downloaded since
June 2003
Data dissemination – Comtrade API
Trade Data Transfer Architecture
United Nations
Comtrade
Tariff Line
Total Trade
Comtrade
Web Services
Web Server Database Server
SDMX-ML
Element based XML
Organization #1
Http protocol
Internet
PC
XML Files
Organization #2
Comtrade Tools
Other Tools
PC
Organization #3
Http protocol
Comtrade Tools
Text Files
XML Files
Other Tools
Database Server