national statistical offices (NSOs). this information after passing through routine compilation procedures , known as ^statistical systems" is fed into information systems geared towards planning monitoring and evaluation of national social and . economic development. Regional and international agencies are also engaged in compilation of usually macro-level / statistical series in order to provide comparative country profiles containing socio-economic indicators of development required for harmonization of regional economic policies, a necessary condition for promotion of regional groupings.
2. Due to an acute shortage of resources available at the national statistical offices of the region data needs of the public at large are rarely assessed and efficient and timely dissemination through traditional publications in itself is considered a major achievement.
3. Any type of statistical compilation, whatever the complexity in the steps involved... data gathering, editing, aggregation, statistical analysis, estimation and inferences etc., normally must .lead to dissemination of the compiled data in one form or another to the target users. From the outset it may be important to appreciate the difference btween two closely related processes namely data distribution and data dissemination.
2.0.0. Data distribution
4. Data-distribution, refers to the distribution of micro-level data (cleaned, recoded, "standardized" and structured and accompanied with at least the minimum data descriptions etc), to the other users, usually within the data-generating organization or closely associated to that organization. The data structures are normally rectangular in case of semi-processed distribution, but in the case of fully processed distribution these structures may be hierarchical, relational etc., depending upon the data base management system (DBMS) technique used.
5. Some of the data-distribution practices applied by the national statistical offices (NSO) may be data
distribution between NSOs and their regional offices,
line ministries, banks and other bonafide researchers
etc., for further processing and analysis and eventual dissemination.level data are distributed but in certain cases micro-level information has also been distributed. One example which may easily be cited is that of- Dynamic Demographic Data Base (DDB) maintained by the International Statistical Institute (ISI) where fertility and other demographic data are archived in the form of Standard Recode Files (accompanied by the necessary data transformations, descriptions and file , structure details etc), relating to around fifty countries. Through agreement, these files are distributed to the interested researchers world-wide for further analysis and dissemination in the form of technical papers etc.
3-0-0- Data dissemination
7. By definition data dissemination involves provision to the end-user the data aggregates in the form of a statistical presentation accompanied by the relevant meta-information. Dissemination requires further processing of data before the compiled data may be released to the target users in the form of aggregated data matrices, tabulations, graphics, maps and other statistical presentations.
8. As opposed to the information relating to
individuals, for inferential purposes it is the data
relating to groups which is usually released.Dissemination is usually a final step,in the process of data compilation resulting in presentation of macro-level information aimed at a market much wider than statisticians, planners and researchers alone, including among others students, pressure groups, marketers, advertising firms, politicians and the mass media etc.
9. Various methods used for data-dissemination are
discussed below, while other related considerations
which may need to be taken into account are listed inthe section 4.0.0.
3-1.0- Dissemination products i
10. There are various modes statistical data may be presented to the users. Depending upon the user needs and the technical complexity data may be disseminated as data-bases, tabulations, graphics,, maps, pamphlets
3.1.1. Statistical publications
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11. Periodic (monthly, quarterly and annual) statistical publications disseminated in the form of books, brochures and pamphlets and printouts are the basic responsibility of any statistical office. Due to the advances in the micro-computing and particularly desk-top publishing techniques, the quality of these products can be vastly enhanced.
However large-scale tabulation printing still may be more efficiently produced through the traditional printing procedures. Many of these printing machines have themselves been upgraded to accommodate the state-of-the-art processes and eliminating a number of intermediate steps involving time-consuming photo-reduction lithography etc. For small scale printing and specially when graphics work is also disseminated, colour printers may be utilized most effectively.
3.1.2. Thematic publications and social atlases
12. Country/district profiles, summary data supported by graphics and text can prove to be very popular.
Pictorial presentation of statistical data relating to cities, rural/urban comparisons (and internationally for_ countries and regions) providing indicators of socio-economic development may be disseminated to a wide market.
3-1-3. Haos and charts
13. Maps showing country/district boundaries and filled with the relevant information in the form of bars and pies are another type of simple but attractive dissemination of information.
3.1*4. Microfiche
14. Mostly, demand for this product is in the form of tables and matrices. This type of dissemination is primarily aimed at reference work and data extraction
; for secondary dissemination can be cumbersome.
15. ^ It is one of the early electronic dissemination media used for distribution and dissemination of Targe-scale data sets in the form of matrices along with the relevant meta-information. Depending upon the data structures and storage techniques used magnetic tapes can provide capacity for storing over 150 MB of information. Magnetic tapes are not only bulky for transmission but usually these may only be used on mainframes and mini-computers and often need purpose-built computer programs to view, extract and further process the information contained on them. l
(b) Floppy disks
16. Since the advent of the micro-computer and particularly since the wide acceptance of "DOS^-standard" operating systems, the dissemination of . . small to medium size data-sets has been effectively carried out through this medium, mostly utilizing spreadsheet or data base micro-computer utilities.
The data so supplied can not only be viewed on screens and printed, but also may be further processed or merged with the host data without much programming effort.
(C) CD-ROM
17. Compact Disk - Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) which like a floppy disk is much less bulkier than the magnetic tapes but provides much larger storage : : capacity (often over 600 MB) and its application like floppy-disk is much wider than magnetic tapes. A special CD-ROM drive (not too expensive) is needed to read such disks, however creation of such disks is much more expensive. IMF over the recent past has conducted an extensive research looking into the prospects of dissemination of their statistical products (which used to be distributed through magnetic tapes) through CD-ROM and an excellent paper on the topic has been released by IFS. Currently, parallel with its traditional practice of tape distribution, IMF is disseminating much larger and more complete data sets regarding IFS, GFS, DOT, and BOP through this medium.
possibility of updating and expanding the data according to their own needs may provide a good tool for dissemination to the institutions, engaged in statistical compilations or research. Dissemination modes of data bases are usually menu-driven necessarily with an extensive amount of meta-information and documentation. World Bank's STARS (Socio-economic Time series Access and Retrieval System), FAOs AGR9SSTAT and on a much larger scale IMF's periodic CD-ROM distribution are some of the examples of such dissemination. Statistics Sweden uses PC-AXIS for dissemination of their census data sub-sets.
3.1.7- Direct Access
19. Dissemination could also be achieved through establishment of direct access linkages via communication networks where user can tap into the information by connecting to the host computers through telecommunications and modems. In Western Europe and North America a whole host of such