The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)

Fostering Community Engagement and Adoption

Breakout 9RDA Sixth Plenary, Paris

Mary Vardigan, ICPSR, University of Michigan

Presentation Outline

DDI description and background

Best practices for engagement and adoption

• Funding and sustainability

• Governance

• Tools

• Engagement mechanisms

• Relationship to other standards

What is DDI?A freely available international metadata standard

Began in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences but now branching out to related fields

Two development lines: DDI Codebook and DDI Lifecycle

Documents data at the study, file, and variable levels

Structured, machine-actionable, optimized for metadata re-use

DDI Website

www.ddialliance.org

From the website, you can:• Download

the specification

• Explore tools• Learn more

about DDI• Join the DDI

Alliance• And more…

DDI Alliance Organizational Structure

New Charter and Bylaws (2013) detail the structure of the DDI Alliance

40 current members – repositories, libraries, national statistical offices, data centersMember Representatives – Vote on administrative

mattersExecutive Board – Elected by the membersScientific Board – Vote on changes to the

specificationTechnical Committee (TC) – Makes changes to the

specification

Working Groups and Committees

Controlled Vocabularies Working GroupExperimental Data Working GroupQualitative Data Model Working GroupRDF Vocabularies Working GroupWeb Site Development GroupMarketing and Partnerships GroupTraining GroupDDI Developers Community

Funding and SustainabilityFunding a standards effort can be challenging1995: DDI established by ICPSR as a volunteer effort1997: ICPSR received funding to enhance and

beta-test the specification2003: DDI transitioned to a self-funded membership

Alliance ($2500 annual institutional fee)2015: Tiered membership structure adopted (fees

will increase to $3000 minimum in 2017)

Voluntary contributions not sufficient -- need to be supplemented by other sources

GovernanceA recognized organizational infrastructure is important

DDI’s administrative home is in ICPSR in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan

Original Charter and Bylaws had ICPSR, the Roper Center, and others as Host Institutions with seats on Steering Committee

An External Review in 2011 recommended “democratizing” the governance; now an elected Executive Board

Governance of the standard itself is also important – clear procedures for development and updates needed

ToolsGood tools are key to success, but as a standards

body the DDI Alliance does not build tools itself

DDI owes much of its uptake to the Nesstar tool, which produces native DDI XML

The World Bank’s International Household Survey Network provides Nesstar Publisher to data producers in low-income countries

DDI now used in over 60 countries of the world

ToolsTools producing metadata should ideally be part of

software that researchers use routinelyDDI for Excel is one such tool, with versions for SPSS

and Stata plannedStatTransfer also produces DDICapturing metadata at the source – e.g., from

Computer Assisted Interviewing software – the best approach

Some RFPs to survey firms are mandating export in DDI XML to document the questionnaire – See A Call to Action for Questionnaire Documentation

Engagement Mechanisms Over the years, we found these methods effective:

Nurture communities of practice. With some support, User Meetings emerged from the community – one held in Europe and one in the Americas annually

Encourage training. Yearly training at Schloss Dagstuhl in Germany supported by DDI members. The Alliance supports a “train the trainer” program

Conduct outreach for visibility. Presentations given each year at IASSIST, other meetings; Marketing Committee is targeting new conferences

Have a communications strategy and infrastructure. DDI Annual Report, Newsletter, email lists, collaboration platform (Atlassian products), GoToMeeting

Relationship to Other Standards

With disciplinary boundaries blurring, standards need to be aware of each other and potentially interoperate

Mappings to other standards are good resources to have

DDI developing an Information Model: To increase understanding by others, especially other metadata

standards efforts To permit flexibility in rendering – e.g., XML, RDF, relational

databases To broaden content coverage

Dagstuhl workshop in October to focus on review of DDI model, with representatives from other standards

Random Lessons LearnedResearchers are most difficult audience to reach

Finding champions is key

It’s easy to get too complicated; tools need to handle complexity and hide it from users

Support for specific expertise often needed – DDI provides modest support to a technical consultant and support for “sprint” participants

Periodic outside reviews are a good practice

Questions?Mary Vardigan

vardigan@umich.edu

www.ddialliance.org