CAIRD3 ESRC/ONS 2011 Census Collaboration

This project builds upon a history of successful and productive co-funded collaboration between the ESRC Census Dissemination Unit (CDU) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which has focussed on providing knowledge exchange and technical assistance from the CDU to inform and support the development of ONS data feed capabilities for improved and more efficient dissemination of the 2011 Census Aggregate Outputs (2011 AO) via an ONS Application Programming Interface (API).

The project supports the ESRC's priorities of working closely with ONS, encouraging knowledge exchange and co-funding with important non-academic organisations, and continuing to develop the national social-science research infrastructure to ensure its widespread use and improved exploitation of existing data resources and services. It also develops expertise in data feed dissemination technologies within ESRC, and maintains its position at the forefront of data feed research.

The project is intended to run for twelve months from the end of CAIRD2 on 13 September 2011 to 12 September 2012.

The CDU has developed extensive and unique expertise in data feed development through pioneering work on the current CAIRD2 Project and previous data feed research over several years. It also has leading skills and experience in application and interface design and development acquired over a fifteen year history of online dissemination of aggregate outputs from recent UK censuses to meet the requirements of academic users. These have been combined to develop InFuse, a new interface to census aggregate outputs based on a data feed developed through extensive restructuring and rationalisation of the original 2001 Census Aggregate Outputs. InFuse was launched as an operational CDU service at the beginning of May 2011. The initial version of InFuse exploits some of the benefits of the data feed approach to dissemination to make it easier for users to understand, find and use information of relevance to them from within the aggregate outputs.

The CDU has proven ability to apply its expertise quickly, responsively and flexibly, working with several different units within ONS to deliver high quality, appropriate results for CAIRD2. This project will extend the collaboration to assist with and accelerate data feed development at ONS to ensure timely, high quality delivery of the 2011 AO to users by ONS, and to the UK academic community via InFuse.

The first four of the project work packages will develop and deliver some of the key components required to realise ONS's current plans for core dissemination of the 2011 AO via a data feed and API, as well as providing knowledge exchange on requirements to combine them into an effective data feed with appropriate functionality.

The final two work packages will develop RDF capability for the 2011 AO, which will provide benefits in enabling the 2011 AO to be exposed as Linked Data, and will then use the RDF description of the 2011 AO as a basis for the development of similarity/comparability structures and measures between the 2011 and 2001 AO, along with interface functionality to make this information available to users.

A review of 2011 AO interface development will be carried out at an appropriate time approximately half way through the project. This will decide on a final model which could involve provision of some aspects of the outputs, such as information on comparability between the 2001 AO and 2011 AO, via open access versions of CDU interfaces including InFuse, which would require further negotiation between ONS and ESRC over licensing and funding.

Census datasets are unique and extremely valuable information resources. A considerable amount of decision making of national and international importance across all sectors is based to some degree upon evidence provided by research using census information.

If the project is successful in achieving its aims, it will provide mechanisms to make more comprehensive and integrated census information available in ways that make it easier to understand, find information of relevance and use it appropriately. This will extend across the academic community and beyond through influence on the 2011 Census, and will stimulate increased and more effective use of census information by existing and new user communities. More research of higher quality will be produced, which will improve decision making, and result in numerous beneficial societal, economic and other impacts.

The methods developed by the project have relevance far beyond census datasets as they offer a potential for development of unifying data infrastructure to enable combined and comparative use of a wide range of important UK and international aggregate datasets via a new generation of interfaces offering users advanced and tailored functionality, with obvious dramatic impacts. This is the future information environment being anticipated and worked towards by the international information dissemination community, and which the CDU intends to continue to play a pioneering role in realising.