Changing nature of official d ata s ources

1. Changing nature of official data sources • Diminishing support by national statistical offices for population censuses • Declining number of surveys produced by national statistical offices • Increasing dependence on administrative data sources • Increasing talk about the use of transaction databases and social media • All of this in the midst of Open Data!

2. The Future of Producing Social and Economic Statistical Information Census Bureau Director's Blog, Robert M. Groves. September-October, 2011 [3 posts] http://tinyurl.com/futurecensus The current Census Bureau survey and census methods are unsustainable. Changes must occur in the acquisition of data and construction of statistical information for the Census Bureau to succeed.

3. The Future of Producing Social and Economic Statistical Information Census Bureau Director's Blog, Robert M. Groves. September-October, 2011 [3 posts] http://tinyurl.com/futurecensus The world is now producing large amounts of data without active participation of persons (e.g., data from Internet searches, credit card transactions, retail scanners, and social media). There also are more and more digital administrative data (e.g., tax records, social security records, Medicare/Medicaid records, food stamp records, HUD records). Some of these data are not directly linked to the populations we study; some have item missing data problems; none offer a real replacement for our surveys, but many will be useful as auxiliary data sources.

4. The Future of Producing Social and Economic Statistical Information Census Bureau Director's Blog, Robert M. Groves. September-October, 2011 [3 posts] http://tinyurl.com/futurecensus The future is likely to value more timely statistical information, while certain populations may become more difficult to measure directly.  However, many of these difficult-to-measure businesses, households, and persons will be included in administrative data systems (data already supplied by the units) that could be used as companions to survey data.  This future will require using multiple alternative sources of data simultaneously.

5. The Future of Producing Social and Economic Statistical Information Census Bureau Director's Blog, Robert M. Groves. September-October, 2011 [3 posts] http://tinyurl.com/futurecensus Many of our surveys are discovering that multiple modes of data collection (e.g., paper forms, internet, telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews), employed in one survey, can address some of their participation problems within current budgets (with administrative records considered a “mode”). Indeed, there is a consensus among survey methodologists that multi-mode surveys will be a key component of the future of statistical information.

6. Data-rich social sciences • “Ensuring the Data-Rich Future of the Social Sciences,” Gary King • “[I]n the midst of a massive collision between unprecedented increases in data production and availability about individuals and the privacy rights of human beings worldwide” • Need “improvements in methods for sharing sensitive, private, or proprietary data”

7. Changing nature of designated communities • Interest by researchers outside the social sciences in social science data • Citizen science and naïve users • Expectation to assist school-aged children access data