DDI 4 Update

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DDI Annual Meeting

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Early Registration for NADDI 2018 ends February 14th

Early Registration is still available for the 2018 North American Data Documentation Initiative Conference (NADDI) being held at the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. on April 5-6, 2018. Workshops are being held on April 4th.

http://naddiconf.org/2018/

The theme for NADDI 2018, ‘Benefits of Describing National Statistics with Common Standards’, emphasizes the benefits of using metadata to drive efficiencies in a research data lifecycle, as well as promotes subsequent re-use of end data products, especially those generated by federal and national statistical agencies.

DDI Alliance Executive Board Election Results

The DDI Alliance recently held elections to fill four seats on the Executive Board, which is responsible for managing the operations of the Alliance, including setting the overall policy and budget, and providing strategic guidance and review of the Alliance’s activities. Elected members of the Executive Board serve for a term of four years, with terms starting on July 1st.

The member representatives unanimously elected include:

• Dr. Catherine Fitch is Associate Director of the Minnesota Population Center (MPC) and founding Co-Director of the Minnesota Research Data Center (MnRDC), a United States Census Bureau Research Data Center (RDC).  Throughout her career, she has been closely involved in the creation of several MPC databases, including IPUMS (USA and International) and Terra Populus.
• Dr. Steven McEachern is Director of the Australian Data Archive.  He has high-level expertise in survey methodology and data archiving, and has been actively involved in development and application of survey research methodology and technologies over fifteen years in the Australian university sector.  Steve currently serves as Chair of the DDI Executive Board and was first elected to the Board in 2013.
• Dana Müller is Head of the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research.  Dana worked as a researcher at the Technical University in Chemnitz before joining the staff of the Data Research Centre of the Federal Employment Agency at IAB.  Dana was first elected to the DDI Executive Board in January 2017.
• Dr. Barry Radler is a Distinguished Researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute on Aging and a researcher on the Midlife in the United State (MIDUS) study.  With 20 years of experience in the behavioral sciences, he has worked with universities, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.  Barry is Chair of the DDI Marketing and Partnerships Group.

Additionally, a special thank you goes to outgoing Board members, Leanne Trimble (University of Toronto) and Louise Corti (UK Data Archive).

DDI at AAPOR

DDI exhibited at AAPOR, as well as presented a session, titled...

DDI at IASSIST

DDI exhibited at IASSIST

Welcome New Members!

The DDI Alliance welcomes the TBA21 Group (represented by TBA21 Germany) an Associate Member of the Alliance.  David Schiller is the representative.

The DDI Alliance also welcomes the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur (Ingo Barkow, representative) as a Full Member! 

Moving Forward: Lawrence Sprint Report

The latest DDI development sprint was held in Lawrence, KS, following the IASSIST Conference. Eight participants focused on two primary tracks: evaluating the codebook view and reviewing and revising patterns.  Additional work was done on rules for realization of patterns, a technical and environmental assessment for publishing the DDI, identifying a 'ready' state,  recommendations for documentation, and other technical updates. The full report is available on the sprint's wiki page, along with all supporting documentation.