"Birds of a Feather" Meeting on Tools for the DDI
Ann Arbor, MI
May 24, 2006 (at IASSIST)
Meeting proposed by Joachim Wackerow;
Discussion chaired by Ron Nakao;
About 40 people in attendance;
Notes taken by Tom Piazza
Types of Tools Needed
- Convert DDI version 2 to version 3
With various options:
- could convert instances 1-to-1 or 1-to-many modules
- tool should help decide on choices
- probably would be a set of XSLT sytlesheets
- need example of the mapping
- View a DDI version 3 instance, in a user-friendly way
- reduce some of the verbosity, if desired (e.g., categories?)
- Make a DDI version 3 instrument document
- must be built into the CAI system, for instruments of any size
- Blaise and CASES seem willing to do this
- MQDS system at Michigan currently makes version 2, but could
make version 3
- Make a DDI version 3 instance for pre-instrument steps
- capture the beginning of the life cycle (e.g., from researchers
and designers)
- form-based entry for each step in the workflow
- Convert a version 3 instance to data definitions for statistical
packages (e.g., SPSS, SAS, or Stata)
Tools Currently Being Worked On
- Pascal Heus
- Web site to upload version 3 examples and validate them
- Viewer for those instances (convert them to HTML)
- Develop an editor for version 3 on the Web (for small instances)
- Help file for the version 3 schema (basically finished)
- Joachim Wackerow
- Convert SPSS and SAS system files to version 3 DDI
- Convert version 3 into Docbook format (from meeting attendees)
- Arofan Gregory and Mark Diggory
- Migration tool for conversion between version 2 and version 3
(both ways) (may require user to make some choices or decisions)
- Mapforce definitions, to lay out the conversion rules
- SDMX registry tool that could be adapted for DDI
Resources Available
- Primarily rely on volunteers (DDI participants)
- Need some funding, however, to supplement and support that work
- Could try to get vendors (like StatTransfer and SPSS) to adopt the
DDI as a supported format
Next Steps
- Set up a DDI tools Web page, for information and interaction
- Set up a DDI tools working group and email list
- Generate additional documentation for version 3
- Generate many examples of version 3 instances
Addendum: Survey Results (From Meeting Attendees)
"Which statistical/data management software do you use?"
SPSS (25)
Stata (23)
NESSTAR (22)
SAS (20)
SDA (9)
Blaise (6)
R/S-Plus (6)
CSPro (2)
Statistica (0)
Other: PERL, ACCESS (2), Textpad (2), Oxygen (2), IPUMS, NHGIS, Eclipse (Microdata Management Toolkit), XMLSpy, Java, Ultra-edit, Visual Studio, Net2005
