Suggestion from informal discussions during the 2016 standards workshop: "Where should someone start with GSIM? With traditional metadata such as classifications? Should there be a separation into "core" and "non-core" information objects, to makke GSIM look less daunting? Is there scope for a task team to work on this?"
From a capacity building perspective, I see this as an important issue. People seem to understand GSBPM and GAMSO much more easily than they do GSIM. Perhaps it is related to the relative complexity of GSIM, both conceptually, and in how it is described? From this perspective, I particularly support 2 of the points above:
1) Where to get started - a document on this, written in non-technical terms, would be useful.
2) "Core" and "non-core" GSIM. At the moment there is no distinction between information objects regarding how "important" they are. This can create extra work for someone new to GSIM, as they try to work out what, for example, a "Node" is, and how important it is. A cut-down set of core GSIM information objects could be useful, e.g. excluding some or all of the "sub-type" objects, and others which are less essential for a basic understanding. I am thinking of something about half-way between the diagram below, and the full set of 110 information objects. The "Core" objects could then have simplified definitions and descriptions, to make them as easy to understand as possible.
Both of these would help for capacity-building purposes, where there is also often a need to translate material to other languages. Simplified "plain English" texts and definitions would greatly facilitate this.
2 Comments
Jenny Linnerud
In Statistics Norway, we are making good use of an introductory silde deck, (based on the one on the GSIM home page, with approximately 10 slides, the more detailed of the slides are hidden/shown depending on the known interests of our audience), the GSIM Brochure and the GSIM Communication Papert. That has been sufficient for us to get started. Of course, these are translated into our own language and we have trusted internal experts who have explored GSIM more deeply and are recommending it's use.
Jenny Linnerud
In Statistics Norway, we have translated, but not simplified the definitions. It is very important to maintain consistency between or own information model and GSIM in order to reap the benefits of international communication and collaboration. We have reduced the number of information objects by 18 (too abstract, too detailed). We have created our own explanatory text for each information object and will continually update this to explain the use of the information object in the context of various user groups and statistics as we gain more experience with implementation in our modernisation program.