Page 272 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS493 Irene S.
2.8 Data ecosystems
For a long time, CBS gathered the information required to produce statistics
by distributing question¬naires to businesses, citizens and the government.
Nowadays, most of the data come from registers and new data sources, which
make it possible to produce far more intricate statistics that are also more
identifiable. To meet the public demand for statistics, CBS is endeavouring to
further expand its role as data hub and producer of statistics from and for the
entire government. Therefore, CBS is working on so-called data ecosystems
where CBS fulfils the role of a platform, enabling a broad cooperation between
municipalities, scientific institutes, governmental bodies and businesses. The aim
of a data ecosystem is to create an environment in which the cooperation
between CBS and (decentral) governments results in innovative clusters of
innovative enterprises and institutes making use of the rich data infrastructure
that CBS has to offer. Ensuring essential guarantees like privacy, quality and
consistency.

3. Discussion and Conclusion
Although surveying is still indispensable (e.g. for large and complex
Enterprises due to globalisation, or measurement of specific behaviour and
sentiments), CBS’ influence on the content of the data that is captured is steadily
diminishing. The technological possibilities increasingly determine what data are
collected, and producing statistical information from these new sources is
becoming more complex in conceptual and methodological terms. Validation of
the results and measuring errors and biases are a big challenge for the future.
Modern developments also create tremendous opportunities and by combining
various sources, greater possibilities occur to produce new, more detailed
statistics. The future of data collection will undoubtedly be “Advanced” and build
upon these new developing fundaments. Thereby having impact on multiple
dimensions: Monetary (reduce costs and response burden, increase revenue and
efficiency), Culture (change the way of thinking, operating and presenting
outcome), Policymaking (rational, fact driven and evidence based, empowering
local government) and Technical (data sharing across public and private
organizations). Collecting through connecting.

References
1. Jarmin, R.S. (2019) Evolving measurement for an evolving economy:
thoughts on 21st Century US economic Statistics. Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 33 (1), 165 – 184.
2. Groves, R.M., Harris-Kojetin, B.A. (2017) National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine. Innovations in Federal Statistics: Combining
Data Sources While Protecting Privacy. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24652.

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