Cloud for Official Statistics

Progress

The sub groups for each theme are now regularly meeting with each other to discuss their topic. Sub group leader meetings with Claude our PM, Amilina and myself occur every two weeks. We had our first broad group meeting last week, with the sub group lead on procurement presenting their topic to the wider group for feedback and discussion. We also had a presentation from Microsoft on Cloud Models followed for a Q&A, thanks to Serbia for facilitating. We have had additional members join from the UK and Norway.

Next Steps
The work of the project will continue through meetings with the sub group leaders. This allows us to address any challenges and also ensures continued engagement and buy in across the groups. We plan to hold a full group meetings in May and June where other subgroups will present their topic for discussion, while benefiting from the feedback and insight from all members on the Project.

Risk and Issues
Issue	Mitigation
Currently sub group 2 is low on numbers of experts.	We are addressing with the support of Mikko Lindholm (project champion) to seek new members to join (such as Norway) and through the cross pollination from other groups input.

ModernStats Carpentries (phase 2 Meta Academy)

Progress

Work package 1 (curriculum) is well under way. Sub-groups for R, Python and Git have been made and we are finishing up the personas, learning objectives and curriculum outlines together for the end of the month.

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

Next Steps
Once the curriculum outlines have been approved by group members, we will start putting content together starting in May.

Risk and Issues
Issue	Mitigation
Continued leadership from StatCan. Currently StatCan provides leadership in the co-PM role, as well as sub-group leads for work package 1. Due to organizational changes and job changes, the continued priority of ModernStats Carpentries is up in the air. The leadership is likely to continue, but no longer guaranteed.	The deliverables and management of ModernStats Carpentries will continue as planned. However, if StatCan is no longer able to provide the same level of leadership, scope for deliverables for work package 1 - originally a pilot course in each R, Python and Git - may need to be reduced to only one pilot course and curriculum.

Data Governance for Interoperability Framework

Progress

Group and sub-groups are working on the document and on images that could help in completing the framework

Many discussions on the definitions, using also existing documents and standards to avoid overlapping and contradictions

There are advances in the three main sections of the document

Next Steps
May 3-4 Sprint meeting in Budapest, online and in person

Risk and Issues
Issue	Mitigation

News from the Groups
Blue-skies Thinking	Identifying Topics/Opportunities	CONTINIOUS	Ongoing. - We have had a discussion about ChatGPT, and will review a pitch talk on 27th April, along with a pitch related to sharing information on activities related to modernization of statistics.
	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	Eurostat has agreed to co-run this activity, which may involve a workshop. Kate is looking for volunteers to join this group.
	Other
Applying Data Science and Modern Methods	Implementing ML-based Solutions in Data Editing	IN PROGRESS	New members joined, and the team revised a new use case by BFS. They selected interesting topics from the Machine Learning workshop to approach authors and provide use cases.
	Understanding and Selecting Models	IN PROGRESS	The team is discussing the taxonomy template and adding labels to use cases for creating taxonomies/ontologies. The team will discuss label logic in a future meeting.
	Framework for Responsible AI	IN PROGRESS	The team made progress on guidelines and sub-teams made progress on three of the six pillars. The team suggested sharing short lectures on YouTube to help participants understand the subject better.
	Other	The group discussed machine learning operations, including platform development, MLOps maturity, and deploying ML models. A future meeting will feature a presentation on MLOps by StatCan.
Capabilities and Communication	Work and Job of the Future	IN PROGRESS	Future of Work change/growth model was proposed and team members are asked to map their organization to the proposed model. Next call is on 26 April.
	Job of the Future: Recruitment and onboarding	IN PROGRESS	This sub-team is working on change/growth model, as part of the main Future of Work team
	Job of the Future: Reaching Youth	IN PROGRESS	This sub-team is working on change/growth model, as part of the main Future of Work team
	Data Analytics	IN PROGRESS	Statistics Canada presented on the "Statistics Canada’s Data driven approach to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion". It was suggested to integrate this approach in the context of the change/growth model.
	Ethics Management (Data and Business)	IN PROGRESS	Team is planning to prepare Reference book on Business Ethics, that will also include information collected from the Ethics Surveys last year.
	Communication	IN PROGRESS	Team is also collecting case studies from the various countries on how to work through these communication issues through the lens of inflation.
	Ethics Workshop 2023	NOT STARTED	Task Team will discuss this Thursday, if it will be possible to organize Workshop on Ethics in Geneva on 11-13 September 2023. For the moment there is no decision on the topics of the workshop, or it's format.
	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 started discussing "bigger" issues based on the feedback received from the community until February. The work started from GSBPM Phase 8 Evaluate. For more details, please check our Github group @ https://github.com/UNECE/GSBPM_GAMSO_Revision/
	SDMX-DDI-GSBPM	IN PROGRESS	Work ongoing as planned, working together based on material prepared by Task Team members for different sub-processes of the GSBPM. Given the work of task team includes providing guidelines on the use of SDMX and DDI for non-experts on those implementation standards, it was highlighted that we need to explain concretely how different artefacts are used and where to look for the right information in the respective standard guidelines. 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	ModernStats Community of Practice: the group launched a new series of online events, inviting speakers, interested members in the community, all linked to the ModernStats models and their actual and pontential uses and users. The first event will take place on 28th April 15:00 CET, focusing on “Modernizing management systems” to discuss about practices to modernize different aspects of management systems (e.g., quality, production process) using ModernStats models. Fore more details on the first event, please check this: ModernStats Community of Practice Integrated view of the ModernStats models: the Supporting Standards Group is preparing the integrated view of the models, following a common logic and structure for the discussions. For more details please check our Google Doc here. The group expects a complete view of the "big picture" of our models that can also guide future developments. The work is carried out on group level, not in a Task Team. The work started with the GSBPM with discussions, now focusing on the GAMSO. Sprint: the group is organising an online sprint on 14 June. Visibility: ISI: the two CPS sessions now a place on the ISI agenda. One session is on Monday (IPS 186 - Challenges Of Modernizing The Production Systems In Official Statistics) and the other one is on Tuesday (IPS 329 - Standards-based modernisation of official statistics: the added value and recent advancements of the ModernStats models), same time. Please visit us if you are in Ottawa in July! Visiblity: new logo! With the help of expertise from INSEE, the Group now has a new logo that we plan to use from now on. The Group has voted with an overwhelming support of 89% for this version over other alternatives. Preview: