[DDI-ADG] Notes from Call

[Sandra.A.Cannon at frb.gov]

Here's what I could capture coherently from the conference call on Tuesday,
July 19.  I apologize for missing statements or misstatements - it was
difficult to follow all the discussions since I missed the previous call.
Please let me know what needs added or amended.

/san/

On the call (which started at 11:20):
J
Sanda
Wendy
Kate
Fred
San

Discussion of Wendy's comments:
- Decided geographic time is correct but needs to be added
- Bounding box is a search piece for geographic cover.  It allows a person
or program to determine if a point is in the area covered.
- Structural hierarchy issues:  over lapping hierarchies cause problems.
If you take two or more hierarchies and overlap them then you have a result
set not easily addressed.

Unique geographic identifier discussion:
- Much discussion over what uniquely identifies a geographic reference and
what it should be called.  Currently it is geographic structure but it was
suggested that geographic key might work better since it functions like a
key in a database.
- Agreed that there should be the ability to either outline values
explicitly or use an external source.
- An example would be helpful  - Fred is going to work on that for the next
call. He'll look at study #409 and Kate's markup and see what comes out and
then resend his example that he sent only to Mary.

Geographic level vs. coverage:
- Much discussion over what was previously agreed upon and how to deal with
(and whether or not to deal with) coverage of "incomplete" regions (e.g. 40
out of 50 states).  I confess that the outcome of this discussion did not
make it to my notes.

Scheduling:
- There are 6 calls left before the September 1st deadline.
- Further geographic discussion should be taken offline and the next
several calls will concentrate on time.


-------------------------------------------------
San Cannon
Chief, Economic Information Management
Federal Reserve Board
Washington DC 20551
(202) 452-3710
scannon at frb.gov