Cloud for Official Statistics

Progress

Subgroups continue to meet and collaborate on their respective cloud theme. Meetings with subgroup leaders (to discuss progress) and all experts (to share and discuss development) were held on a monthly basis. Each subgroup has shared a working document on which all project experts can comment. The project has decided to hold a sprint in Belgrade from September 12 to 14. The sprint will conclude with a webinar during which the project experts will share their initial results.

Next Steps
Hold a last development meeting (next week) before the summer period Set up a means to continue collaboration and communication during July and August Organize the sprint Announce the sprint Start combining the subgroup documents into a first draft

Risk and Issues
Issue	Mitigation
Lack of in-person attendance at sprint; we need at least 12 participants in person	Count on support from Executive Board members Setup virtual attendance

ModernStats Carpentries (phase 2 Meta Academy)

Progress

Progress is being made on the curriculum for R, Python and Git. The initial review and modification of existing content is on tract to be completed at the end of June

Work package 2 (governance, business model) has started with OECD joining the Carpentries and experimenting their setting (community support, governance, communications, participation in instructors' trainings...). It would be great if 1-2 other organisations would formally join the Carpentries to have more experience with the Carpentries governance.

Next Steps

Finalize and integrate modified content with existing Carpentries material. We will be created the new chapters over the summer.

Work Package 2 (governance, business model) is planned to progress in the second Semester. A webinar will be organised with interested organisations in the second week of July in order to take stock of the information gathered and discuss governance / business model options).

Risk and Issues
Issue	Mitigation
Only StatCan and OECD have joined the Carpentries as member; we would need more organisations joining to share views on the experience with the Carpentries.	1-2 organisations join the Carpentries as members in S2.

Data Governance for Interoperability Framework

Progress

In May we had a fantastic Sprint in Budapest in hybrid mode; for those present the delicious hospitality of Zoltan (sigh!) and Andrea

In the Sprint the global design of the document has been thoroughly clarified and shared.

In the Sprint we decided also to ask Dan to write a Note on Interoperability: after a couple of weeks, the note was shared with the group and discussed.

Later we had good progresses in Chapter 1 (Introduction) and Chapter 3 (Tools).

Next Steps

Integrate the Dan's note with Chapter 2 (Interoperability)

Complete Chapter 1 and 3

Collect contents for Chapter 4 (Recommendations)

Risk and Issues
Issue	Mitigation
Lack of Zoltan	Unsolvable

News from the Groups
Blue-skies Thinking	Identifying Topics/Opportunities	CONTINIOUS	Pitches have been made on keeping track of modernisation activities, as well as on ChatGPT, which is turning into a joint endeavour with the ADSaMM group. (There will be a session on ChatGPT for SAS→R code translation on 19th June.) Further pitches have been proposed related to data collection, but otherwise the response to the call for pitches has been slightly modest.
	Non-Probabilistic Surveys	IN PROGRESS	This work is underway, with its own subgroup.
	Digital Twins	IN PROGRESS	The work of this subgroup has been paused, but the leader is hoping to resume this activity.
	Open Source Adoption	IN PROGRESS	Kate is making good progress with the themed min-workshops. Additionally, there will be a seminar on open-source at the plenary meeting of the Conference of European Statisticians.
	Other
Applying Data Science and Modern Methods	Implementing ML-based Solutions in Data Editing	IN PROGRESS	The Data Editing Task Team has now collected a number of use cases on the application and implementation of machine learning methods for data editing and imputation. They have drawn out a list of common issues from these use case and will now work on fleshing out these issues and collating advice for addressing them from the use cases. This advice will provide a set of guidelines for those looking to implement similar projects in the future.
	Understanding and Selecting Models	IN PROGRESS	The Models Task Team are building a taxonomy that provides a high level framework on how to group or understand statistical and data science methods. Given some recent developments the team believe this can be quite a high level set of guidance. In a surprising twist of events the team are testing the usefulness of LLM models as a ‘recommendation engine’ for statisticians and data scientists. They are testing whether different models can provide useful recommendations given a set of defined methodological problems. Early days but seems positive – and might mean that they do not need to create a low level or granular taxonomy. It is likely that they’ll build a set of guidance and examples.
	Framework for Responsible AI	IN PROGRESS	Progress is ongoing as the Responsible AI team works on the three deliverables: a document that outlines core guiding principles for responsible AI/ML and provides practical guidelines, an assessment tool in the form of a checklist, and a description of a review process (audit) to ensure quality assurance for ML algorithms and AI-based systems. To enhance efficiency and focus, the team members have formed smaller groups, with each group dedicated to a specific pillar or core guiding principle. Additionally, it is worth noting that while attendance has been satisfactory, contributions have been limited over the past few months.
	Other	At the last two ADSaMM meetings, Christian Ritter (StatCan) presented an MLOps Model – this generated a stimulating conversation and some enthusiasm to continue the discussion subsequently. Several new members have expressed an interest in joining the ADSaMM Group, and so are joining the monthly meetings initially as an ‘observer’. Jointly, ADSaMM & BSTN held two discussions relating to ChatGPT / LLM – both events were highly successful, and will be discussed with the EB.
Capabilities and Communication	Work and Job of the Future	IN PROGRESS	We continue to work on the growth development model. Team did research on the internet and prepared a growth model that was tested by a few countries. General conclusion is that model is generic, intuitive and easy to use. Next steps: make model more concise and with better graphics (CSO Ireland, Netherlands were asked to help with graphics) to add tips and best practices descriptions on what to do to move to the next level in the model
	Data Analytics	IN PROGRESS
	Ethics Management (Data and Business)	IN PROGRESS	Work is focused on the following main points: 1) Analysis of the surveys for the reference book 2) Wiki page was created to collect ideas/information about areas of interest for the reference book and ethical dilemmas . Definitions for the wiki concepts will be sent in the next couple of days.
	Communication	IN PROGRESS	Working on the document describing communication through the lens of inflation, at the moment putting pieces together from the different countries, like values, objectives, channels and segmentation. Many countries are experiencing issue of communicating inflation regarding disinformation, but also economic education.
	Ethics Workshop 2023	NOT STARTED	It was decided to move Workshop to 26-28 March 2024. Organization of workshop on Ethics is at the early stages. Workshop will deal with application of ethics in different areas, like communication, wellbeing, fraud prevention, etc.
	Other
Supporting Standards	GSIM Revision	IN PROGRESS	Work ongoing as planned, Task Team will soon conclude its work. Clickable and change log for 4 other completed groups (Base, Exchange, Business and Structure) can be found on the Github. Communication paper is currently reviewed by the Task Team. User Guide requires more substantial update due to changes to the model and expected to take a few more weeks to complete. For more details, please check our Github group @ https://github.com/UNECE/GSIMRevision/
	GSBPM-GAMSO Revision	IN PROGRESS	The Task Team has most recently examined feedback regarding the "Disseminate" phase. Once Disseminate is complete, the group will next consider the "Analyse" phase, and a possible Process phase. For more details, please check our Github group @ https://github.com/UNECE/GSBPM_GAMSO_Revision/
	SDMX-DDI-GSBPM	IN PROGRESS	Work ongoing as planned. For more details please check our Google Doc here.
	Core Ontology for Official Statistics version 2	NOT STARTED	Work on COOS version 2 is scheduled to start after the summer break. COOS results are available here: https://linked-statistics.github.io/COOS/coos.html
	Other	Sprint: This was unfortunately cancelled due to unforeseen developments. Call for contributions for: Conference On Smart Metadata for Official Statistics (COSMOS), to be held on 11-12 April 2024 in Paris. The COSMOS conference is a place where the official statistics community can work together to define, share, use, and manage smart metadata. Through sharing of experiences, techniques, and tools, and through forward-looking consideration of the challenges we face as a community, we can better meet the demands of the modern data landscape. The call for contributions can be found here: http://cosmos-conference.org/2024/cfc.html