[DDI-ADG] Re: [DDI-SRG] time method controlled vocabulary (Attention: Oliver)

[Katherine McNeill-Harman]

Oliver,

Thank you for your response and I'm forwarding it to our whole group (I was 
the sender, but it's an issue the whole group has been discussing).  I 
briefly skimmed through Reto's presentation just now, but am not sure that 
I entirely understand your distinction between "independent" and 
"empirical" definitions.

I certainly think your pudding metaphor is an appropriate one, as we were 
struggling with that as well.  However, we ended up prioritizing what we 
imagined to be an attempt to make that field more machine actionable.  This 
with the purpose of facilitating more structured end-user searching (e.g. 
one in which a user can, say, select from a menu of different types of 
timeMethod studies).

It sounds like you are still planning on having some controlled vocabulary 
(and thus machine actionability) for this element--as you do mention 
definitions--but I'm not clear on how it would differ from what we 
initially imagined.  Thanks for your offer to keep us updated.  Maybe once 
you have a better sense of your definitions for that element you could 
share them with us to give us a better idea (you can send your reply to 
ddi-adg at icpsr.umich.edu).

Thanks,
Kate

At 12:58 PM 8/9/2005 +0200, Oliver Watteler wrote:
>Hi Kate,
>
>thanks for your mail and sorry for not getting back to you any earlier. 
>Well, your list of survey terms is surely helpful, but the CDG has decided 
>to take a somewhat different turn. Based on the work of our Swiss 
>colleague Reto Hadorn and the MetaDater project we will try to use some 
>more independent definitions. The problem with an empirical approach like 
>yours is that you soon run into all those variations for similar things 
>and nobody really wants to pin things down, because it is sometimes like 
>"nailing a pudding to the wall", as we say in German. If you want to have 
>a glimps of what Reto has proposed on this matter, you find his IASSIST 
>presentation on their homepage under "H2: Shaping Metadata Insight: The 
>Metadater Tool".
>I'll keep you updated on what we are going to do.
>
>Greetings from Cologne,
>Oliver.
>
>
>Katherine McNeill-Harman wrote:
>
>>Oliver (and other members of the SRG),
>>We in the Aggregate Data, Geography & Time Working Group have been 
>>considering various time-related elements in the DDI, including 2.3.1.1 
>><timeMeth> (time method).  In doing so, we investigated different 
>>definitions of items that could be included in this element (e.g. "panel 
>>survey") to see how controlled the vocabulary in this element could be.
>>In the process, we learned from Wendy Thomas that the Comparative Data 
>>Group will be responsible for recommending controlled vocabulary for this 
>>element, as it often relates to groups of related datasets.
>>Oliver, as you are chair of that group, we wanted to pass onto you the 
>>information that we collected thus far for your use.
>>I went through several social science methods reference books and 
>>compiled the attached list of different survey definitions.  It's a 
>>lengthy Word document (if you can't read this format, I'll put it in a 
>>plain-text email to you).  Pages 1-14 are organized by topics, with the 
>>different definitions for a topic listed on a single page; pages 15-20 
>>are the definitions organized by their source.
>>It is our hope that this will be helpful to you in selecting vocabulary 
>>for this element.  However, we would like to call your attention to the 
>>fact that this element describes the time method used in creating a data 
>>set, but this is not limited to groups or families of data sets.  For 
>>example, some of the options for this element (e.g. cross-section, time 
>>series) could refer to a stand-alone data set with no connection to 
>>others in a group.  We trust that you will keep this in mind in 
>>formatting this element.
>>If our group can provide yours any assistance in this project, or if you 
>>have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us.
>>Sincerely,
>>Kate McNeill-Harman
>>for the Aggregate Data, Geography & Time Working Group
>>ddi-adg at icpsr.umich.edu
>
>--
>
>GESIS - Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA)
>   Oliver Watteler, M.A.
>
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>  /Documentation and Archiving
>
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>

___________________________________________
Katherine McNeill-Harman
Data Services Librarian
Dewey Library for Management and Social Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, E53-100
Cambridge, MA 02139
mcneillh at mit.edu
617-253-0787