Abbreviations and descriptions

API	Application Program Interface
CATI	Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing.
CSPro	Survey Processing System
ESCAP	Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
GIS	Geographic Information System.
HTML	HyperText Markup Language
ICR	Intelligent Character Recognition.
IMPS	Integrated Microcomputer Processing System
ISSA	Integrated System for Survey Analysis
OCR	Optical Character Recognition.
OMR	Optical Mark Recognition/Reader.
PopMap	Integrated geographical software providing maps and a graphics database.
REDATAM	Retrieval of DATa for Small Areas by Microcomputer
SIAP	Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific
TIGER	Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
UNFPA	United Nations Population Fund
UNSD	United Nations Statistics Division
URL	Uniform Resource Locator
XML	Extensible Markup Language

I. Organization of the Workshop

A. Attendance

1. The Workshop on Population Data Analysis, Storage and Dissemination Technologies, funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under the project RAS/96/P12, was held in Bangkok from 27-30 March 2001. It was organized by the secretariat of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) with active support of the Working Party on the Application of New Technology to Population Data.

2. The Workshop was attended by 38 participants from 20 selected countries in the Asian and Pacific region: Armenia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.

3. The members of the Working Party, consisting of nine experts from Australia; Bangladesh; Indonesia; Japan; Macao, China; New Zealand; Philippines; Singapore and Thailand; and representatives of the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), the UNFPA Country Technical Services Team in Bangkok, and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) also participated as resource persons. Invited private sector companies also participated as observers and made presentations.

4. The list of participants is attached as Annex I.

B. Opening of the Workshop

5. The Workshop was inaugurated by Mr Kim Hak-Su, the Executive Secretary of ESCAP. He welcomed the participants and thanked UNFPA for funding the project, under which the Workshop was organized. He noted with appreciation that the collaboration between UNFPA and ESCAP would continue with a number of multi-year projects scheduled to start later in the year.

6. Thanking the resource persons, the Executive Secretary commended the role of the members of the ESCAP Working Party on Application of New Technology to Population Data in putting together the programme for the Workshop, and in delivering presentations and moderating discussions. Mr Kim also expressed his appreciation to the resource persons from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the United States Census Bureau, the UNFPA Country Support Teams in Bangkok and Kathmandu, the United Nations Statistics Division and the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific. Finally, he thanked the representatives from the private sector for their role in making demonstrations of state-of-the-art software applications for analysing and disseminating census data, which was in accordance with the Secretary-General’s Guidelines on Collaboration between the United Nations and the Business Community.

7. Noting the general importance of population censuses and surveys as a foundation for socio-economic statistics and for timely and targeted policy action by governments, the Executive Secretary encouraged the participants to make census data as easily available as possible to the clients, which goal could not be achieved without application of modern information technology.

8. Outlining some changes that the evolving information technology had caused at ESCAP, the Executive Secretary indicated that the main challenge for the secretariat was to mainstream the response to the development challenge created by information technology. The first step taken was to ensure that ESCAP’s programme planning always incorporated IT considerations when the technology could add value to the projects. The Executive Secretary informed the Workshop that larger programmes addressing sectoral and national IT development goals had been initiated. He also indicated that after the upcoming fifty-seventh session of the Commission, the secretariat intended to analyse whether any organizational adjustments might be warranted in order to respond more effectively to the challenges and opportunities that IT created in the region, particularly at the policy level.

C. Workshop arrangements

9. The Workshop adopted the following agenda:

1. Opening of the Workshop.

2. Adoption of the agenda.

3. Technological lessons from the 2000 round census data collection.

4. Data storage - from inactive to dynamic.

5. Latest innovations in methods and tools for census data analysis.

6. Translation of data users' needs into dissemination strategies.

7. Innovative technologies for data dissemination.

8. Other matters.

9. Adoption of recommendations

10. The Workshop noted that the tentative time schedule (see Annex II) prepared by the secretariat was based on the provisional agenda, and agreed to proceed accordingly in five sessions as follows:

Sessions	Chair
1. Introduction to the project RAS/96/P12 (Item 2).	ESCAP secretariat
2. Technological lessons from the 2000 round census data collection (Item 3).	Mr David Archer and Ms Carmelita N Ericta
3. Converging data storage and data analysis (Items 4 and 5).	Ms Rosemary Crocker
4. Translation of data users' needs into dissemination strategies (Item 6)	Mr Edward Lim
5. Innovative technologies for data dissemination (Item 7)	Mr Sihar Lumtantobing and Mr David Archer

11. The Workshop acknowledged with thanks the following presentations and support by private sector companies:

Topic		Presenter
5.3	Demonstration of PC-Axis	Mr Lars Nordbäck, Statistics Sweden
5.4	Demonstration of Beyond 20/20	Mr Jean E Carr, Beyond 20/20 Inc.
5.5	Demonstration of SuperSTAR System	Ms Ursula Hoult, Space-Time Research

D. Documentation

12. The documents presented and presentations made at the Workshop are listed in Annex III to the report.

E. Participants' evaluation of the Workshop

13. The evaluation questionnaire of the Workshop was completed by 37 participants.

II. Introduction to project RAS/96/P12

14. On the basis of document STAT/WDT/3, the secretariat made a brief introduction to the project RAS/96/P12, “Application of New Technology in Population Data Collection, Processing, Dissemination and Presentation”, and its outputs. The document highlighted the significant role that the ESCAP Working Party on the Application of New Technology in Population Data had played in the implementation of the project activities, including the organization of two workshops and four technical expert meetings. The Workshop noted that the members had not only provided strategic and pragmatic guidance, but also themselves produced a large number of high-quality technical documents and guidelines on using selected new technologies in population census and survey operations.

15. The Workshop noted that the presentations, demonstrations, hands-on sessions with computers and the participants’ interaction during the sessions were expected to generate a set of recommendations, to be adopted at the end of the Workshop. The adopted recommendations are included in section VII of this report, starting from page 8.

III. Technological lessons from the 2000 round census data collection

16. The first day of the Workshop was dedicated to the sharing of recent experiences in the application of new information technology to the collection of population census data. Powerpoint presentations were made by the Working Party members from the National Statistical Office of the Philippines, the Statistics and Census Service of Macao, China, Statistics Indonesia and the Singapore Department of Statistics. In addition, there was a moderated session based on country papers that had been prepared by the participants.

17. The data capture strategy of the 2000 population and housing census in the Philippines was based on optical numeric recognition in four regional data capture centres, each having the following hardware: Windows NT network with five mid-volume scanners (Kodak 3510), fifteen Pentium III workstations, three magneto-optical disk drives, three CD-writers, a network printer and a 500 MHz Pentium III server with 90 GB hard disk capacity. The software components were Kodak MVCS for scanning, Eyes and Hands for Forms for ICR, and a tailor-made Census Progress Monitoring System. The four data capture centres were operated by a total of 146 persons, in two shifts, six days a week. A work shift was staffed by a shift supervisor, four data controllers (preparing forms for scanning and checking the validity of geographic codes), five scanner operators, four verifier operators and an operator for file preparation and transfer. In comparison, the staff required for capturing the data for the 1995 population and housing census had been more than 600 persons.

18. The Workshop noted that the recognition rate in the Philippines for OCR fields had been nearly perfect but that for handwritten fields, a much lower rate had been achieved, giving an average recognition rate of 90-95 per cent. Altogether over 15 million forms had been scanned and the average speeds for interpretation and verification were 3,400-3,500 and 270-320 forms per hour, respectively.

19. The Workshop heard that the Philippine configuration had too few (only four) software licences for data verification; 8-10 verification licences would have been optimal. Other problems included an uneven quality of the printed forms and illegible or too faint handwriting entries, which increased the work needed before scanning and at the verification stage. Some forms had to be enhanced or rewritten before scanning.

20. Encouraged by the overall success, the National Statistical Office of the Philippines had decided to use the ICR equipment and software again in the census on agriculture and fisheries; it was also considering using them in the processing of foreign trade documents.

21. The pilot project for the 2001 census in Macao, China, had also given very promising results. A client-server software of the OCR system had been developed in-house from the following components: Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, MS Access 97, Delphi 4.0 Enterprise Edition, ImageEN 1.6, and a dual recognition module consisting of a commercial API recognizer and an in-house developed neural network recognizer. The hardware included an image server, six document scanners and 24 Pentium workstations. The pilot runs had given an average recognition rate of 95.6 per cent, with error rate of 0.28 per cent. Within the reject rate (4.4 per cent), the confirmation rate and correction rates were 75.6 and 24.4 per cent, respectively. Compared to manual data entry, the Statistics and Census Service estimated that it would save 50 per cent in cost and that the time needed for data capture, validation and correction would be cut down from six months to one month.

22. The data capture of the Indonesian census, enumerated in June 2000, was decentralized to 41 centres, having a total of 79 scanners at their disposal. The 55 million double-sided household forms (representing the number of households in Indonesia) created a huge number of individual files during the capture process, which required robust file management features of the recognition software.

23. The Workshop noted that despite careful advance preparation, Statistics Indonesia encountered a number of problems in the recognition. The quality of the drop-out colour varied too much in the printed forms, and sometimes the guiding colour marks were not omitted as expected, requiring manual entry of the data. Like in the Philippines, optical mark recognition was nearly perfect while the recognition of numbers encountered problems caused by illegible or too faint handwriting and by the use of unapproved or dull pencils. The problems were partially caused by training the enumerators too far in advance; the inflexible regulations prevented use of the allocated training budget at an optimal point of time. The three-month gap between the training and enumeration had led to understandable memory lapses and ignorance of instructions; also a number of recruited enumerators had become unavailable in the meanwhile and had to be replaced by inadequately trained enumerators.

24. The Workshop heard that in Indonesia’s experience, human intervention by enhancing the quality of numbers did not markedly improve the recognition results. Besides, the manual editing process left rubber particles and other dirt on the forms, which increased the frequency with which the scanners needed cleaning.

25. The Workshop noted that in all three census offices (Philippines; Macao, China; and Indonesia), data were validated by using software to run predetermined logical tests. Tests were also run to detect systematic wrong recognition results, such as number 2 being recognized as 5, or number 0 incorrectly becoming 6 or 8.

26. The fourth presentation, by the Singapore Department of Statistics, was on its ground-breaking Internet census information submission, which was one of the three ways to collect census data in the Singapore Census 2000. The Workshop noted that the system, which was in the English language only, represented the second generation of Internet data collection systems in Singapore. (The first one, for the Business Expectation Survey, was launched in March 1998.) Of all Census respondents, 15 per cent chose to submit their information through the Internet while others responded either to computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) or to person-to-person interviews.

27. The Workshop noted that the Internet data collection system had been designed keeping in mind nine target features, namely (i) fast performance, (ii) user-friendliness, (iii) security, (iv) stability, (v) compatibility with a large number of browser platforms, (vi) possibility to continue form completion in another user session, (vii) integration with other data collection modes, (viii) intelligent branching of questions, and (ix) verification during and after completion of the form. It further noted that given the existing technology, many of those requirements were in obvious contradiction with each other.

28. Based on prototyping and intensive user-acceptance testing, the front page of the Singapore Census site was made small in size (kilobytes) and the form was split into many parts in order to achieve satisfactory performance for users. For the same reason, the number of automated checks, which were first built into the form, had to be reduced and moved to the server side. Special attention was paid to the clarity of the form layout, questions and definitions. During the enumeration period, hotline telephone support was available, and in response to the feedback, frequent system upgrades were made. High-level security was maintained at all times, with escalation procedures and plans for contingencies in place.

29. Reviewing data capture technologies in the 2000 round of censuses in participating countries and areas, the Workshop noted that twelve of them relied on keyboard entry (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam), two on OMR (Bangladesh and Pakistan), nine on OCR/ICR (Australia; Bangladesh; China; India; Indonesia; Macao, China; New Zealand; Philippines; and Thailand) and one on tri-modal capture (Singapore). Although technological challenges and problems still existed in using modern OCR/ICR, such as minimizing and detecting false positive recognition, the Workshop was pleased to note that with technological progress, the maturing technology had significantly lowered the total cost of census taking and improved the timeliness of the release of the results compared to the previous round of censuses.

30. The Workshop then made several recommendations regarding census data collection and capture (see page 9), including on

- the use of cell phones and emails to support data collection (paragraph 79)

- the establishment of a web site to provide information to census respondents (paragraph 80)

- the importance of careful questionnaire form design in successful character recognition (paragraph 81)

- just-in-time training of enumerators in filling out OCR/ICR forms (paragraph 82)

- the use of proper pencils or pens in filling marking OCR/ICR forms (paragraphs 83 and 84)

- the maintenance of scanners (paragraph 85)

- the robustness of the file management component of the data capture chain (paragraph 86)

- the testing of the proposed data capture configurations in real situations and making necessary modifications to them (paragraph 87)

- bandwidth, security and other considerations in Internet data collection systems (paragraph 88)

- the testing of Internet data collection forms in different bandwidths and improving the real and perceived performance (paragraph 89)

- data collection control when Internet collection was accompanied by other collection methods (paragraph 90)

IV. Converging data storage and data analysis

31. Noting that data storage and data analysis had become increasingly closely related with each other because of technological innovations (such as data warehousing, data mining and the Internet), the Workshop decided to discuss them under one agenda item. A presentation “Setting up a statistical warehouse – salient points for consideration” was made by the Singapore Department of Statistics, which was currently in a process of analysing bids for the tender on development of a data warehouse. The presentation was followed by a discussion and sharing of regional experiences about data warehousing.

32. The Workshop noted that, compared to conventional data warehouses that were holding transaction and business data, statistical data warehouses had to facilitate more elaborate data analysis. In particular, statisticians required that data warehouses facilitated highly flexible data analysis, displayed metadata dynamically during analysis, and allowed the customization of reports and other outputs.

33. The Workshop noted that moving from a database model, where each census year formed a dedicated database with specialized codes and definitions, to a data warehouse consolidating data from censuses conducted at different times or combining census data with other data, was effectively facilitating increased use of census data. Setting up a data warehouse was a challenging process and involved a lot of preparatory work, including standardization of codes and definitions and cleaning of data.

34. The Workshop noted that a thin-client design, where most processing was done at the server-end, was preferred for warehouses that stored huge volumes of census data. In the system design, special attention had to be paid to the integration of data extraction and data analysis tools, since statistical analysis was often an iterative process, requiring testing of a large number of variables.

35. The Workshop noted that the Singapore Department of Statistics considered in its own evaluation that a hierarchical drilldown was a suitable method for selecting data, especially if business metadata was dynamically displayed. The ability to save previously selected items was very important for queries that were needed frequently or repeatedly. The Workshop noted that a “drag and drop” -type of interface made statistical analysis convenient: statistical parameters, such as the mean and standard deviation, could be calculated by ‘dropping them into’ data items (records or variables) or data items could be ‘dropped into’ statistical parameters. It also noted that the possibility to make revisions to data both locally (affecting only the analyst) and globally (affecting all users of the data warehouse) was a very useful feature.

36. The Workshop agreed that graphical and topographical tools, with integration to tabulation and drill-down possibility into points of interest in a graph or map, were desirable features in a census data warehouse. It emphasized that a good data warehouse system supported saving of data outputs, including data extracts, tabulations, analytical and other reports, or graphs, in common data formats which could be read by third party software.

37. In a discussion that followed, the Workshop noted that the practices of retaining census forms and stored electronic data varied in the region. Some census offices were legally bound to destroy census forms soon after data capture was completed. More often, however, census forms were stored for 10 years, or until the data of the next census was captured. The Workshop heard that in its 2001 census, Australia was going to make an exception to its stringent legal requirement to destroy census forms and records as soon as possible, by giving respondents a choice of having their names, addresses and census form information retained by the National Archives of Australia and released for research purposes after 99 years.

38. Noting that information presented on maps was useful at all stages of census operations and that geofererence databases were the core of GIS, the Workshop heard two presentations on GIS. The first one, based on document STAT/WDT/1, suggested a grid square database as a low cost alternative for presenting small area data. The Workshop noted that a grid square database could be considered by census organizations that did not have the resources and expertise required for digitizing the enumeration boundaries. Noting that the allocation of households to grid squares was resource consuming and required fairly detailed maps, the Workshop reviewed various techniques that could be used for allocating complete enumeration districts to grid squares.

39. In the second presentation, the Workshop was given an overview of how the United States Census Bureau used georeferenced data to display census results. The Workshop noted that the Bureau’s GIS system was building on its TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) database, which contained detailed geographic features for the United States. TIGER mapping was used at all stages of census, from enumeration to reporting of results.

40. The American FactFinder was a web-based system for access and dissemination of Census Bureau data on the Internet, built from TIGER boundaries and other geographic information, census data and metadata. The Workshop noted that the elaborate online system was a result of incremental work over the past two decades, responding to the legislative mandate to provide the public a full and free access to census statistics. In the FactFinder, it was possible to ‘drilldown’ the maps (which were based on vector graphics) from country-level down to the census block level. The Bureau also disseminated census information through printed atlases and tailor-made GIS products.

41. In addition, the Workshop reviewed GIS features of three CD-ROM products, described elsewhere in this report, by the Cambodian National Institute of Statistics (paragraph 59), the Statistics Bureau of Japan (paragraph 58), and the General Statistical Office of Viet Nam (paragraph 61)

42. The Workshop then made several recommendations regarding census data storage and analysis (see page 9), including on

- using new technologies to link census data longitudinally and with other data sets (paragraph 92)

- reviewing the applicability of data warehousing technology when new storage systems were considered (paragraph 93)

- starting the building of a data warehouse in a modular fashion and with manageable data content (paragraph 94) and with business and statistical considerations in mind (paragraph 95)

- the high cost and effort involved in setting up a data warehouse and cleaning the data (paragraph 96)

- building a central system for maintaining statistical metadata (paragraph 97)

43. It also made a few specific observations and recommendations on the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in data dissemination, including on

- starting the application of GIS from low-cost alternatives and moving to advanced GIS technology when skills improved (paragraph 101)

- considering grid square GIS as an alternative for presenting census data on maps (paragraph 98).

- the visually effective use of low-end GIS (Cambodian National Institute of Statistics) and high-end GIS (United States Census Bureau), see paragraphs 99 and 110.

V. Translation of data users' needs into dissemination strategies

44. The Workshop discussed the importance of building census data dissemination strategies on the users’ needs on the basis of three presentations, namely “Maintaining relevance in an environment of change” and “2001 census dissemination: a world wide web transition” by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and “Responding to changes in users expectations” by Statistics New Zealand.

45. The Workshop observed that both countries were paying significant and continuous attention to soliciting feedback from the established and potential users of census data; often also independent evaluators were used. The results of user consultations were normally made public. The Workshop noted that in those two offices, user feedback formed a basis for a proactive product development strategy. Improved technology, government-wide policies and prior success of products were other key factors affecting their dissemination strategies.

46. During the development of census products, internal and external users were involved in prototype and acceptance testing. The Workshop noted that Australia and New Zealand routinely considered outsourcing as a possible alternative for product improvement and development.

47. Noting the experience of some participants that the audience in data users’ meetings remained largely unchanged over the years, the Workshop recommended that census offices diversify their strategies when approaching different user groups, such as the private sector, the public at large and children. Noting that the users’ awareness of available census products and services was just as important as good design, the Workshop recommended that census offices establish marketing strategies to inform established and potential users about the benefits of census products. Those strategies might use several modes of communication and include visible product launches. Maintaining ongoing awareness during and between the census cycles was also an important part of the strategy.

48. Observing that the participation of the private sector in user consultations was generally sporadic in the region, and in some countries absent altogether, the Workshop recommended that census offices make special efforts to contact potential clients in the private sector and involve them in producer-user consultations and other promotional activities as equal customers.

49. The Workshop noted that both Australia and New Zealand considered the web as the main dissemination channel for their 2001 censuses, focusing their development efforts accordingly. It warmly recommended that other census offices adopt a similar strategy as their delivery capability and users’ access infrastructure developed. It noted that using self-service and dynamic access to data, it was possible to make data users more self-reliant and lower the overall dissemination cost. The Workshop observed that modern information technology was also changing the role of printed material: while some of the ‘traditional’ publications were being phased out in Australia and New Zealand, efforts were made to develop a capability to print any electronic publication, on an individual basis, as and when needed.

50. The Workshop noted that both Australia and New Zealand were planning to continue to publish community profiles of key census data as those products had been effective in raising public awareness of census data and in increasing its use.

51. The Workshop noted that the Internet significantly shortened the delivery time of census data to users; the technology also improved the predictability of data release as the printing process and distribution often took a longer time than expected.

52. The Workshop then made several recommendations on general implications arising from the need to take data users’ needs into account in dissemination strategies and technologies (starting from page 10). It recommended that statistical and census offices

- adopt a proactive strategy towards the improvement of data dissemination (paragraph 102)

- diversify data dissemination strategies and technology solutions according to the needs of different types of users (paragraph 103)

- utilize the possibility offered by optical recognition to capture and release census data gradually, starting from key information (paragraph 104)

- use prototyping and vigorous testing to perfect dissemination products (paragraph 105)

- use modern marketing techniques to increase data use (paragraph 106)

- choose hardware and software platforms that are compatible with standard technologies (paragraph 107)

- provide web links to national counterpart sites and other sites containing useful census information (paragraph 108)

- consider creating community profiles of census data to increase its use (paragraph 109)

VI. Innovative technologies for data dissemination

53. Under this agenda item, the Workshop heard an introduction to new data dissemination technologies by Statistics New Zealand, and reviewed four CD-ROM products (by Australia, Cambodia, Japan and Viet Nam) and three state-of-the-art data dissemination packages and suites (PC-Axis, Beyond 20/20 and SuperStar System). On the basis of a presentation by the Interregional Adviser on Computers and Informatics of the United Nations Statistics Division, it also considered what census offices needed to take into account when setting up a web site.

54. From the users’ point of view, the Workshop saw modern information technology as a means of breaking down the barrier to accessing census data. The technology brought users large volumes of data more easily and cheaply and allowed the creation of systems where users could service themselves. The ultimate goal, which was well within the reach of currently available technology, was that all publishable census data was made available on the Internet. A significant advantage of that dissemination strategy was that the same facility could cater for the needs of both internal and external users.

55. The Workshop recognized that general data users, such as students, pensioners, libraries, and small businesses normally required relatively simple sets of data for one-time use. However, all those uses covered a large range of information. Analysts, on the other hand, had complex and often voluminous requirements, with detailed regional and other breakdowns; they were also interested in detailed metadata. The Workshop acknowledged that development of a web site catering for all those needs was challenging; that task was not made easier by the requirement of delivering acceptable response to user front-ends at all times.

56. The Workshop noted that Statistics New Zealand was planning to expand the use of intermediaries in connection with its 2001 census, including the media, libraries, information brokers and bundlers, channel managers of high speed networks, community organizations and government organizations who already had close contacts with user groups. That office was also planning to significantly improve the navigation of their census web site and pay special attention to the users’ ability to service themselves. That was achieved, among other things, by using common language; removing or explaining census jargon; increasing the ways to access data, terminology, area breakdowns and maps; and by improving sorting-by-topic and other features of the search facility.

57. The Workshop agreed that considering the cost savings and benefits the application of present-day technology brought to census taking, processing and data dissemination, the expenditure on information technology was relatively easy to justify.

58. The Workshop was given presentations on two educational CD-ROMs for children and schools, ‘Let’s use the Census data’ by the Statistics Bureau of Japan, and ‘A Tale of Two Worlds’ from the Australian Bureau of Census. The Japanese CD used GIS technology to visualize census data by small area and different scales. On the Australian CD, the history, purpose, benefits and conduct of the census were explained by using interactive multimedia techniques, including games.

59. The Workshop also reviewed CD-ROM products disseminating the results of two recent censuses. The 1998 Cambodian Census was available on four separate CD-ROMs, of which three were demonstrated to the Workshop. The first one had been released in 1999 and contained 47 priority tables at country, province and district levels, altogether over 11,000 tables. The second CD contained mapping and graphing database based on PopMap and the third one a very large REDATAM-based database containing microdata of all person and housing records. The fourth CD, which was not demonstrated at the Workshop, contained aggregated data for Cambodia’s 13,339 villages in six DBF-databases, each covering a different topic.

60. The Workshop was especially impressed by the visual effectiveness and user friendliness of the PopMap-based product. The application consisted of detailed maps for Cambodia, its provinces, districts and communes, with line layers for the main routes and rivers and point layers for the villages and schools. A total of 123 different indicators down to the commune level formed the heart of the application.

61. The General Statistical Office of Viet Nam demonstrated a CD-ROM containing a three per cent sample of the 1999 census. The application was based on the IMPS (Integrated Microcomputer Processing System) suite, including its database, cross tabulation, and table and map viewer components. In that connection, the Workshop noted that IMPS was the main data processing tool for censuses in several statistical offices in Asia and the Pacific. Its popularity was due to its low cost (acquisition free) and the possibility to use it flexibly, either as a complete processing system or any of its data entry, data editing, tabulation, data dissemination, statistical analysis and data capture control modules individually.

62. The Workshop noted that IMPS was being replaced by the Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro), which was an integrated public domain software package for entering, tabulating and mapping census and survey data, featuring the user-friendliness of IMPS and the computational power of the Integrated System for Survey Analysis (ISSA).

63. The Workshop also reviewed three commercial data dissemination tools suitable for small and large data sets, and having powerful desktop data manipulation facilities and web based detailed data access facilities. PC-Axis was a product developed in collaboration with many statistical organizations in Europe and Africa, with Statistics Sweden as the main initiator and coordinator. Beyond 20/20, by a Canadian company with the same name, was a comprehensive tool for analysing and sharing statistical data, while SuperSTAR was a powerful tabulation tool for aggregating, viewing and presenting multidimensional data, developed by Australian Space-Time Research. The Workshop reviewed some web sites, as well as data dissemination CDs, delivering data in the three formats.

64. The Workshop observed that the performance, especially in terms of retrieval and tabulation speeds, and the flexibility and ease of control of the demonstrated commercial software went well beyond what off-the-shelf database packages and some of the public domain packages provided. Without ranking the demonstrated commercial tools, the Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices consider evaluating them when creating dissemination strategies. It noted, however, that the sophistication carried a price tag and that the prices for census offices were subject to one-to-one negotiation. Among other factors, the prices depended on the population of the country, the size of data sets involved, and the volume of dissemination.

65. The final presentation at the Workshop, by the Interregional Adviser on Computers and Informatics of the United Nations Statistics Division, was based on the learning experiences of Statistics Sweden in keeping up with increasing traffic to its web site. When Statistics Sweden was releasing its annual population figures on the web at the end of 1999, its server soon became inaccessible due to the unprecedented surge in the number of requests. The Workshop noted that to prevent similar embarrassing breaks in service in the future, the agency had taken several swift actions. It changed the most popular data content to relatively small static HTML pages; increased the server’s bandwidth to the Internet; added a second web server; upgraded the server operating systems from Microsoft Windows NT to Windows 2000; used software to automatically balance the load between the servers; and rerouted email elsewhere to avoid large files taking up bandwidth from the web service. It also included a direct link from its home page to the most wanted population tables for easier and faster navigation.

66. The Workshop noted that after the incident Statistics Sweden had substantially upgraded its staff development programme to improve technical skills and organizational coordination in content preparation. More attention was being paid also to the monitoring of the web site traffic, including the popularity of pages, and to periodic test runs under heavy external load.

67. The Workshop noted that traffic monitoring was also a necessary security measure. Hostile attacks to the web server were best countered by mainstream firewalls that were kept up to date. The Workshop agreed that security technology had to complemented by a contingency plan that allowed a quick recovery of service and minimized the escalation of damage.

68. The Workshop noted that the interruption of web service because of heavy peak traffic was not uncommon. For instance, the Australian Bureau of Statistics had once been forced to close down its web server as the demand for national accounts figures jammed its capability to deliver. The corrective measures taken were very similar to those adopted in Sweden.

69. At the end of the Workshop, several participants demonstrated their live web sites and invited the audience to visit their census pages. The URLs of the offices of the participants and resource persons are included in Annex I (List of participants).

70. On data dissemination through the Internet, the Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices

- adopt the Internet as part of their dissemination strategy, use hypertext interface on CD-ROM, and use email for data promotion and for disseminating summary results (paragraph 111)

- develop an internal policy and utilization of the Internet in general and include the production of web material in training programmes (paragraph 112)

- create functional coordinating mechanisms for web site management (paragraph 113)

- improve internal web site management skills through recruitment and training (paragraph 114)

- design census dissemination sites for relatively low bandwidths by using various page authoring and data access techniques (paragraph 115)

- provide file formats and scripts that all common browsers could handle (paragraph 116)

- include in web sites census metadata in an easily accessible format (paragraph 117)

- consider features that helped clients service themselves when accessing census data (paragraph 118)

- monitor the web site traffic and adjust the site content and navigation as the reports might suggest (paragraph 119)

- pay special attention to the clarity of information and test the individual pages and the whole site thoroughly (paragraph 120)

- provide the most popular content in static HTML in order to improve the site performance (paragraph 121)

- be prepared to adjust the number of servers and balance the load as the traffic increases (paragraph 122)

- to ensure the uptime of the public web site, use separate servers for resource-consuming tasks (paragraph 123)

- keep production servers isolated from the Internet (paragraph 124)

- consider using XML to code structured data pages (paragraph 125)

VII. Conclusions and recommendations

71. The Workshop adopted the following conclusions and recommendations.

General, IT management

72. The Workshop reviewed the recommendations of the previous workshop (Workshop on Application of New Information Technology to Population Data, 12-20 October 1999), noted that they were still valid and requested that the secretariat, in due course, merge them into the recommendations of this workshop.

73. The Workshop noted that the utilization of IT had brought considerable quantifiable benefits to census processing, especially in the form of direct cost savings and improved timeliness of statistics. It recommended that statistical and census offices continuously accumulate experiences in evaluating, developing and using information technology, as the development of organizational practices and of the skills required to manage information technology effectively was a long process.

74. Noting that maintenance of the privacy and confidentiality of data providers was very important, the Workshop recommended a very cautious approach towards outsourcing of census data collection and data capture operations. For the same reason, the release of unit record data and the dissemination of small area statistics had to be subjected to careful confidentialization. The Workshop noted, however, that similar concerns were not generally involved in the dissemination of census statistics and recommended that census organizations consider the possibility of outsourcing the development and marketing of census products, in order to make them more attractive to paying customers and other users.

75. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices continue to share information about their application development with other government departments and foreign counterparts. It requested that the secretariat facilitate such exchange in the region.

76. The Workshop recommended that before initiating extensive in-house development or procuring expensive software and applications from outside, statistical and census offices evaluate available public domain software and the possibilities of creating applications by customizing common off-the-shelf packages and office suites.

77. When an Internet application did not support all browsers, the Workshop recommended that information be supplied on which browsers were supported and for which versions and screen resolutions the site was optimized.

Data collection and capture

78. The Workshop noted that data capture through OCR/ICR had become a proven technology that could make significant cost, timeliness and accuracy improvements in census data capture.

79. Noting the challenges many countries have in communicating with the large number of temporary enumerators at census time, the Workshop noted the significant improvements that established technologies such as cell phones and email could make.

80. The Workshop noted that respondents to censuses now expected to be better informed about the ways census data was to be collected, disseminated and utilized, and recommended that census offices establish a web site with information for respondents in a question-and-answer format.

81. The Workshop noted that, despite the well-known importance of careful questionnaire form design in successful optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR), shortcomings in questionnaire design had been an important reason for incomplete or improper markings on the forms in recent enumerations, leading to lower recognition rates. The Workshop therefore recommended that statistical and census offices pay even greater attention to forms design.

82. The Workshop recommended that census organizations pay special attention to just-in-time training of enumerators in filling out the OCR/ICR forms, as inadequate training or training given too far in advance had affected the quality of marking.

83. The Workshop made several observations and recommendations regarding marking the OCR and ICR forms. Some census offices reported deviations from the specifications to use certain types of pencils or pens. The Workshop noted that the problem could be alleviated by the provision of proper pencils or pens and by emphasizing the importance of their use in training.

84. The Workshop heard that, in certain conditions, pencil markings had started fading within a few weeks, which had adversely affected the recognition results. Therefore, it recommended that scanning of the OCR and ICR forms should be completed as soon as possible after the enumeration. The Workshop noted that enhancing of faint markings manually before scanning was another solution to the problem. However, that method was labour-intensive and sometimes introduced double lines, and thereby could confuse recognition engines or lead to false positive recognition of characters.

85. The Workshop recommended that operators follow the manufacturers’ instructions on the maintenance of scanners. Rubber particles, dust and dirt had to be removed on a daily basis, or more frequently.

86. Noting that scanning of multi-page questionnaires created a large number of individual files, the Workshop recommended that system evaluators pay attention to the robustness and customization possibilities of the file management component of the data capture chain.

87. The Workshop noted that an optimal census data capture configuration depended not only on the hardware and software but also on many locally determined factors, including the procurement and operating budget. Therefore, the Workshop recommended that census organizations test configurations proposed by vendors in real situations and make necessary adjustments to the numbers of workstations in a data capture chain, the number of operating personnel and the number of capture clusters, and in the case of a decentralized strategy, the number of capture centres also. In some cases, such adjustments required (re)customization of the software interface.

88. The Workshop noted that Internet data collection systems needed to be fast, easy and secure to use and that the Internet form needed to work without glitches in all common browsers and operating systems. In today’s typical Internet user environment, many of the requirements were in obvious contradiction with each other. The Workshop noted that the bandwidth was an important consideration and that Internet applications needed to be designed with the available community bandwidth in mind.

89. The Workshop recommended that Internet data collection forms should be tested externally with different bandwidths. Splitting lengthy forms into several smaller parts was one way to improve users’ perception about system performance. The Workshop advised offices to keep the portal page of a data collection site compact and to place pages that took longer to download below that level.

90. Although the Internet technologies provided significant opportunities in electronic data collection in general, the Workshop noted that it could not become a sole method for census data collection. When using more than one method of data collection, the Workshop urged census offices to pay particular attention to collection control matters in order to avoid duplication and gaps in enumeration.

91. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices establish a hotline and other support services to coincide with the introduction of an Internet data collection application.

Data storage and analysis

92. The Workshop took note of many advances in information technology that had made the linking of census data longitudinally and with other data sets easier. Noting that the same evolution was becoming also a user requirement, the Workshop recommended that such features should guide new systems development.

93. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices review the applicability of data warehouse technology in their circumstances when they consider building data storage systems from scratch.

94. The Workshop recommended that data warehouse construction should be started with manageable data content, at the same time planning for an incremental development that allowed expansion at a later stage.

95. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices approach data warehousing, and data warehouse vendors, with their business needs in mind and from a statistical point of view. That meant, for instance, building in analytical flexibility and the possibility for client customization (save retrieval criteria, allow local data changes).

96. The Workshop cautioned that data warehouses were not typical off-the-shelf products; they were expensive and difficult to set up. In addition, data cleaning was very resource intensive. The Workshop noted that the Singapore Department of Statistics was in a better position than most census organizations to set up a data warehouse as they had a long history of maintaining structured electronic data, which had led to certain consolidation and harmonization of coding schemes and classifications in their holdings.

97. Noting that census data could not be analysed and released without associated metadata, within or outside statistical and census organizations, the Workshop recommended that offices work towards establishing a system that allowed central maintenance of metadata.

GIS

98. The Workshop recommended that census organizations that did not have access to digitized boundary maps of enumeration districts consider grid square GIS as a cost-effective alternative for presenting census data on maps.

99. The Workshop compared with interest effective illustrations of census data by using “low-end” and “high-end” GIS technologies. The United States Census Bureau had been developing its GIS system in an incremental fashion for more than two decades and was now using very elaborate GIS features on its public web site disseminating the results of the 2000 census.

100. The geographic presentation component on a CD-ROM containing the results from the 1998 census of Cambodia, which had been created by using PopMap, a free software package developed by the United Nations, was also visually very effective.

101. The Workshop recommended that census offices which do not yet have GIS-based dissemination capability consider low-cost alternatives for disseminating mapped census data, and move to advanced GIS as maps and skills improve.

General aspects of data dissemination

102. Noting that new technology allowed much more flexible and dynamic data dissemination than previously, the Workshop recommended that statistical and census organizations adopt a proactive strategy towards developing their data dissemination strategy and tools. That included, among other things, regular user consultations, internal and external evaluation of established products, monitoring changes in existing and potential new clientele, and monitoring what new technologies had become available and how those affected customers’ expectations.

103. The Workshop noted that taking into account the needs of different types of users required alternative product designs. Occasional users, for instance, wanted to access simple tables and charts quickly without the clutter of extensive metadata. In contrast, analysts wanted to manipulate data flexibly, to drill down to disaggregated data and to have easy access to all available metadata.

104. The Workshop recognized that optical data capture technology had allowed census organizations to move to a gradual release strategy, in which basic counts for important information were recognized, coded, edited and published soon after enumeration, leaving less important data and data that were difficult to code and recognize for a later stage.

105. The Workshop recommended that census organizations use prototyping when creating new dissemination products and subject the prototypes and “beta” versions to a meticulous user acceptance testing. As even rigorous testing did not reveal every problem, the Workshop recommended that developers include in all census products intuitive help features and information on how to contact technical support.

106. The Workshop cautioned that technological maturity and functional design did not guarantee that a data product became successful. It recommended that census organizations use modern marketing techniques in the launch of a product, including attractive packaging, advertising, public relations and promotion.

107. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices choose hardware and software, including firewalls and other data protection technology, that were compatible with standard platforms. That generally reduced the maintenance cost in the long run and allowed greater flexibility in choosing software and hardware in the future.

108. The Workshop recommended that census offices provide on their web sites links to counterpart sites in the region and to technical web sites that contained useful census information.

109. Hearing the positive experiences of Australia and New Zealand in publishing community profiles based on their censuses, the Workshop recommended that other census offices consider disseminating similar products in suitable media as a means to increase the use of census data.

110. The Workshop heard with interest that the Australian Bureau of Statistics was evaluating a relatively inexpensive tool that could convert existing digital raster maps into scaleable vector graphics, and welcomed its offer to share its experiences in due course.

Data dissemination via the Internet

111. Noting that many developed countries, within and outside the region, considered the world wide web as the most important channel in disseminating the results of their year 2000 round of censuses, the Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices adopt Internet technology as part of their data dissemination strategy. In circumstances where live Internet dissemination was not feasible, the development of a hypertext interface for a dissemination CD, for instance, prepared census offices for an eventual launch of a live data dissemination site. The Workshop noted that e-mail could be used for keeping known customers informed about release schedules; e-mail could also be used for disseminating summary results.

112. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices develop a house policy and guidelines on the utilization of the Internet in general. As an increasing number of staff was becoming involved in one way or the other in web publishing, the Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices include the production of material for the web in staff development and training programmes.

113. Noting that a successful web operation involved all levels in the managerial hierarchy, and administrative, substantive and IT staff, the Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices prepare for functional coordination mechanisms to deal with various aspects of web site management within the organization.

114. The Workshop noted that the rapid evolution of the world wide web had broadened the range of tools and techniques needed for the management of ever more complex web sites and for arranging dynamic access to data. Although it was possible to procure web site design and hosting services commercially, the Workshop agreed that statistical and census offices were better served if they acquired sufficient in-house skills through recruitment and staff training.

115. The Workshop recommended that census offices design their Internet dissemination sites for a relatively low bandwidth as census data per se was in compact character format. That meant, among other things, including a possibility to access hierarchical navigation and search tools from the front page, placing maps and other graphical information in optionally downloadable pages and offering compressed file format as an alternative for downloading large files. In addition, the Workshop recommended mentioning the file size next to its download link.

116. Noting that the need to download dedicated data browsing software could be an impediment to the use of census data, the Workshop recommended that census offices make their Internet data accessible by using file formats that could be accessed through common browsers and viewers.

117. The Workshop recommended that census offices include metadata in their census products in an easily accessible format, for instance by using pop-up windows and hyperlinks.

118. The Workshop noted that one of the objectives of Statistics New Zealand’s dissemination strategy for the 2001 census was to improve customers’ ability to service themselves when accessing census data. That affected especially the design of how data and metadata could be found, retrieved and downloaded from the web site.

119. The Workshop also recommended that statistical and census offices monitor the traffic on their web site, including the number of hits, successful retrievals and return users, the popularity of pages and data and the common entry points, in order to identify key user groups and changes in their browsing behaviour and to improve the site content and navigation.

120. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices pay attention to the clarity of information on web pages and test pages technically with different browsers and speeds of connection. Periodically, a more thorough testing of the whole site was needed, including simulating a heavy external load.

121. To improve the capacity of a web server to cater for a maximum number of requests, the Workshop recommended delivering the most popular content in small and static HTML pages, which could be cached and downloaded quickly.

122. As the volume of traffic to the web site grew, the Workshop recommended that census and statistical offices be prepared to increase the number of servers and use software control to balance the load between them.

123. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices use separate servers for specialized resource-consuming tasks, such as data collection, table building and delivery of maps, in order to ensure that the front end public web site maintained standards of delivery at all times.

124. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices keep their production servers isolated from the Internet.

125. The Workshop recommended that statistical and census offices consider using Extensible Markup Language (XML) in their data pages as it was a universal format for structured documents and data on the web; it also recommended that they monitor developments regarding adding special statistical features to it, including the discussions at the 2002 session of the Statistical Commission.

Tentative timing	Session	Presenter
Tue 27 March	0900-0915	Opening of the Workshop (Item 1 of the provisional agenda)	Mr Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary, ESCAP
	0915-0940	Arrangements for chair; Introduction to the project RAS/96/P12 and the Workshop; Review of the agenda and time schedule (Item 2); Introduction of participants	ESCAP secretariat, Participants
		Technological lessons from the 2000 round census data collection (Item 3).
	0940-1010	Philippines Census (Pilot application, ICR technology, recognition rates)	Ms Carmelita N. Ericta, National Statistical Office, Manila
	1010-1030	Coffee break
	1030-1050	Use of OCR technology in population census of Macao based on a pilot project for August 2001	Mr (Paul) Ieong Meng Chao, Statistics and Census Service, Macao, China
	1050-1120	The use of OCR Technology in 2000 Population Census: Indonesian Experience	Mr Sihar Lumbantobing, Statistics Indonesia, Indonesia
	1120-1200	Internet data collection in Singapore Census 2000: Lessons for future improvement	Mr Edward Lim, Department of Statistics, Singapore
	1200-1300	Lunch break
	1300-1445	Moderated discussion based on country reports and the recommendations of the previous workshop	Moderator 1 (Ms Rosemary Crocker), Participants
	1445-1500	Coffee break
	1500-1530	Preview of educational material for children (Item 7): 'Let's use the Census data' – CD-ROM for children in Japan	Mr Akira Takami, Statistics Bureau, Japan;
		‘A Tale of Two Worlds’ - CD-ROM for schools in Australia	Ms Rosemary Crocker, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra
	1530-1630	Observations and recommendations on data collection to be included in the report	Working Party, ESCAP secretariat, Participants
	1700-1900	Welcoming reception (Public Foyer, Ground Floor, UNCC)
Wed 28 March		Converging data storage and data analysis (Items 4 and 5).
	0830-0930	Setting up a data warehouse for census data, with particular attention to features that are used for statistical analysis	Mr Edward Lim, Department of Statistics, Singapore
	0930-1000	Data warehouse – A solution for all statistical offices? - Discussion based on the presentation	All participants
	1000-1015	Coffee break
	1015-1045	An alternative approach for presenting census small area statistics: A grid square database	Mr Toshio Shigematsu, Consultant, New York
	1045-1200	Disseminating geodemographic information to the Census Bureau’s user community	Ms Trudy Suchan, US Census Bureau, Washington
	1200-1300	Lunch break
	1300-1415	Moderated discussion based on country reports	Moderator 2 (Mr Maarten Boon), Participants
	1415-1430	Coffee break
	1430-1500	Observations and recommendations on data storage and analysis to be included in the report	Working Party, ESCAP secretariat, Participants
		Translation of data users' needs into dissemination strategies (Item 6)
	1500-1600	Maintaining relevance in an environment of change	Mr Shaun Hardy, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra
Thu 29 March	0830-0910	Responding to changes in users expectations	Mr David Archer, Statistics New Zealand, Wellington
	0910-1000	2001 census dissemination: a world wide web transition	Mr Shaun Hardy, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra
	1000-1015	Coffee break
	1015-1100	Moderated discussion based on country reports and the recommendations of the previous workshop	Moderator 3 (Ms Luisa Engracia)1/, Participants
		Innovative technologies for data dissemination (Item 7)
	1100-1130	Introduction to new data dissemination technologies	Mr David Archer, Statistics New Zealand, Wellington
	1130-1230	Lunch break
	1230-1300	Dissemination of census statistics on CD-ROM: Cambodia and Viet Nam	Participants from Cambodia and Viet Nam
	1300-1330	Demonstration of PC-Axis	Mr Lars Nordbäck, Statistics Sweden, Stockholm
	1330-1400	Demonstration of Beyond 20/20	Mr Jean E Carr, Beyond 20/20 Inc.
	1400-1415	Coffee break
	1415-1445	Demonstration of SuperSTAR System	Ms Ursula Hoult, Space-Time Research, Melbourne
	1445-1600	Hands-on trials on data dissemination packages – Meeting Room to be advised	All Participants
	1600-1615	Observations and recommendations on data dissemination strategies and tools to be included in the report (in the same Meeting Room)	Working Party, ESCAP secretariat, Participants
Fri 30 March	0830-0930	Going to the net with national statistics: What is there to consider	Mr Sten Bäcklund, Interregional Adviser on Computers and Informatics, United Nations Statistics Division, New York.
	0930-1015	Virtual visits to selected web sites disseminating census data – Meeting Room to be advised	All Participants
	1015-1030	Coffee break
	1030-1130	Moderated discussion on data dissemination based on country reports	Moderator 4 (Mr David Archer), Participants
	1130-1300	Lunch break
	1300-1500	Adoption of recommendations (Item 9); Closing comments	All participants

Symbol	Title
STAT/WDT/3	Introduction to project RAS/96/P12 and expectations for the Workshop
Technological lessons from the 2000 round census data collection (Agenda item 3)
Presentation	Latest Innovations in Methods and Tools for Census Data: Technological Lessons from the 2000 Round of the Philippine Census
STAT/WDT/4	The Use of OCR Technology in Population Census of Macao, China
Presentation	The Use of OCR Technology in Population Census of Macao, China
STAT/WDT/5	The use of OCR Technology in 2000 Population Census: Indonesian Experience
Presentation	The use of OCR Technology in 2000 Population Census: Indonesian Experience
Presentation	Internet data collection in Singapore Census 2000: Static Demonstration & Lessons for future improvement
Presentation	Discussion of Data Collection Technologies based on country papers
Presentation	'Let's use the Census data' – CD-ROM for children in Japan
Presentation	‘A Tale of Two Worlds’ – CD-ROM for schools in Australia
Converging data storage and data analysis (Agenda item 4 and 5)
Presentation	Setting up a Statistical Data Warehouse - Salient points for Consideration
STAT/WDT/1	An Alternative Approach for Presenting Small Area Statistics: A Grid Square Database
Translation of data users' needs into dissemination strategies (Agenda item 6)
Presentation	Maintaining relevance in an environment of change
Presentation	2001 Census of Population & Dwellings: Approach to Data Dissemination in New Zealand
STAT/WDT/2	The world wide web and Australian Census 2001
Presentation	The world wide web and Australian Census 2001
Presentation	Moderated discussion based on country reports and the recommendations of the previous workshop
Innovative technologies for data dissemination (Agenda item 7)
Presentation	Using technology to break down the barriers to accessing data
Presentation	Disseminating Geodemographic Information to the Census Bureau’s user community
Presentation	Dissemination of census statistics on CD-ROM: Viet Nam
Presentation	Demonstration - PC-Axis
Presentation	Demonstration - Beyond 20/20
Presentation	Demonstration - SuperSTAR System
STAT/WDT/6	Going to the net with national statistics: What is there to consider
Presentation	Going to the net with national statistics: What is there to consider
Country Papers (Relevant to agenda items 3-7)
STAT/WDT/Bangladesh	Bangladesh Population Census in the New Millennium
STAT/WDT/Brunei Darussalam	Brunei Darussalam 2001 Population and Housing Census: Methods in Data Collection, Storage, Analysis and Dissemination.
STAT/WDT/Cambodia	Country Paper: Cambodia
STAT/WDT/China	The Introduction of China’s 2000 Population Census
STAT/WDT/India	Country Paper: India
STAT/WDT/Kiribati	Methods in Data Collection, Storage, Analysis and Dissemination of Data for the 2000 Population Census of Kiribati
STAT/WDT/Malaysia	Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2000
STAT/WDT/Mongolia	The 2000 Population and Housing Census Data Processing and Dissemination Strategy
STAT/WDT/Nepal	Nepal’s Upcoming Population Census 2001
STAT/WDT/Pakistan	Methods/Technologies of Collection, Analysis, Storage and Dissemination of 1998 Census Data of Pakistan
STAT/WDT/Papua New Guinea	Country Paper: Papua New Guinea
STAT/WDT/Philippines	Latest Innovations in Methods and Tools for Census Data: Technological Lessons from the 2000 Round of the Philippine Census
STAT/WDT/Republic of Korea	Population Data Analysis, Storage and Dissemination Technologies in Korea 2000 Census
STAT/WDT/Samoa	Population Data 2001 – Samoa
STAT/WDT/Sri Lanka	Census of Population and Housing, 2001 – Sri Lanka
STAT/WDT/Thailand	The Intelligence Characteristic Recognition in Capturing Thailand 2000 Population and Housing Census Questionnaire
STAT/WDT/Viet Nam	Country Paper: Viet Nam
Background Material:
STAT/WNIT/Rep	Report on the Workshop on Application of New Information Technology to Population Data
…	Handbook on census management for population and housing censuses, Series F, No. 83, United Nations, New York, 2000

* This document was reproduced without formal editing.

** Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the United Nations Secretariat

1/ In view of Ms Engracia’s indisposition, Mr Sten Bäcklund moderated this discussion.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) URL: http://www.unfpa.org	Mr Pornchai Suchitta, Assistant Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Bangkok
	Ms Viennarat Chuangwiwat, External Relations Assistant, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Bangkok
United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) URL: http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/	Mr Sten Bäcklund, Interregional Adviser on Computers and Informatics, United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), New York
______________

Mr Kim Hak-Su	Executive Secretary
Ms Kayoko Mizuta	Deputy Executive Secretary
Mr S. Thampi	Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary
______________
Mr Andrew J Flatt	Director, Statistics Division
Ms Selma Guven	Statistician, Statistics Development Section, Statistics Division
Mr Ilpo Survo	Programme Officer, Statistics Development Section, Statistics Division
Mr Joel Jere	Statistician, Statistics Development Section, Statistics Division
Mr Blaise Ehounoubakrohi	Database Administrator, Statistical Information Services Section, Statistics Division
Mr Roberto Pagan	Associate Statistician, Statistical Information Services Section, Statistics Division
Ms Heidi Arboleda	Regional Adviser on National Accounts, Statistics Development Section, Statistics Division
Mr M. Nuri Ozsever	Specialist on Population Data Processing and Database Management, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Technical Services Team for East and South-East Asia
Ms Varaphorn Prapatsakdi	Administrative Assistant, Statistics Division
Ms Krisana Boonpriroje	Project Assistant, Statistics Division
______________
Ms Michelle Lee	Chief, Division of Administrative Services
Mr B. W. Heath	Chief, Conference and General Services Section, Division of Administrative Services
______________
Mr David Lazarus	Chief, United Nations Information Services
______________

Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) URL: http://www1.kcom.ne.jp/~unsiap/	Mr Maarten Boon, Lecturer/Statistician, Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific, Tokyo
______________

ContentS

VII. Conclusions and recommendations

MEMBERS OF THE WORKING PARTY

UNITED NATIONS BODIES

OBSERVERS

Tentative timing

Session

Presenter

Tue 27 March

0900-0915

Opening of the Workshop (Item 1 of the provisional agenda)

Mr Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary, ESCAP

0915-0940

Arrangements for chair; Introduction to the project RAS/96/P12 and the Workshop; Review of the agenda and time schedule (Item 2); Introduction of participants

ESCAP secretariat, Participants

Technological lessons from the 2000 round census data collection (Item 3).

0940-1010

Philippines Census (Pilot application, ICR technology, recognition rates)

Ms Carmelita N. Ericta, National Statistical Office, Manila

1010-1030

Coffee break

1030-1050

Use of OCR technology in population census of Macao based on a pilot project for August 2001

Mr (Paul) Ieong Meng Chao, Statistics and Census Service, Macao, China

1050-1120

The use of OCR Technology in 2000 Population Census: Indonesian Experience

Mr Sihar Lumbantobing, Statistics Indonesia, Indonesia

1120-1200

Internet data collection in Singapore Census 2000: Lessons for future improvement

Mr Edward Lim, Department of Statistics, Singapore

1200-1300

Lunch break

1300-1445

Moderated discussion based on country reports and the recommendations of the previous workshop

Moderator 1 (Ms Rosemary Crocker), Participants

1445-1500

Coffee break

1500-1530

Preview of educational material for children (Item 7):

'Let's use the Census data' – CD-ROM for children in Japan

Mr Akira Takami, Statistics Bureau, Japan;

‘A Tale of Two Worlds’ - CD-ROM for schools in Australia

Ms Rosemary Crocker, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra

1530-1630

Working Party, ESCAP secretariat, Participants

1700-1900

Welcoming reception (Public Foyer, Ground Floor, UNCC)

Wed 28 March

Converging data storage and data analysis (Items 4 and 5).

0830-0930

Setting up a data warehouse for census data, with particular attention to features that are used for statistical analysis

Mr Edward Lim, Department of Statistics, Singapore

0930-1000

Data warehouse – A solution for all statistical offices? - Discussion based on the presentation

All participants

1000-1015

Coffee break

1015-1045

An alternative approach for presenting census small area statistics: A grid square database

Mr Toshio Shigematsu, Consultant, New York

1045-1200

Disseminating geodemographic information to the Census Bureau’s user community

Ms Trudy Suchan, US Census Bureau, Washington

1200-1300

Lunch break

1300-1415

Moderated discussion based on country reports

Moderator 2 (Mr Maarten Boon), Participants

1415-1430

Coffee break

1430-1500

Working Party, ESCAP secretariat, Participants

Translation of data users' needs into dissemination strategies (Item 6)

1500-1600

Maintaining relevance in an environment of change

Mr Shaun Hardy, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra

Thu 29 March

0830-0910

Responding to changes in users expectations

Mr David Archer, Statistics New Zealand, Wellington

Tue
27 March

Preview of educational material for children
(Item 7):

Wed
28 March

Thu
29 March