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*** an announcement from The Association for Survey Computing.
*** Apologies for any cross-postings
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OPEN STANDARDS. BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS
Thu 19th September, 2002
Alexander Fleming Building, Imperial College, London
CALL FOR PAPERS
Many different data formats, protocols and proprietary systems are used
by the various software packages for survey research. The resulting
barriers to the free movement of data and information have historically
been difficult and expensive to overcome.
XML (eXtended Markup Language) is a generic language for representing
complex data structures as linear text and is therefore of crucial
importance. XML is supported by many tools and systems for defining
standard structures, for manipulating them into and out of program
code, and for transforming them into other forms. However, this does
not solve the problem of deciding what is a useful structure for a
particular application, nor of defining the meaning of the various
components - we still need to define standards for that.
Over the past few years, new standards for data interchange have been
defined, triple s for example. Some are now well established and others
are emerging in the key areas. Can one have too many standards?
This conference aims to establish the current situation and explore the
possibilities for the future. It will be of benefit to users in all
sectors: public, private and academic. Some papers will discuss
technical issues of tools and specific proposals for standards, but the
fiscal and quality benefits of standardisation will also be covered and
the conference will therefore appeal to managers and practitioners at
all levels.
Abstracts are invited from authors of standards, from users, and from
those who have benefited from their application. In refereeing
submissions, some preference will be given to papers which demonstrate
the real practical use of standards in survey research. Case studies in
particular will be welcome.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is June 30, 2002.
Further and updated information will be posted to our web pages ...
http://www.asc.org.uk
... or you can always contact our Administrator, Diana Elder at the
address below.
Thank you.
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Please reply to:
Diana Elder, Administrator ([log in to unmask])
ASC, PO Box 60, Chesham, Bucks, UK HP5 3QH
tel/fax: +44 (0)1494 793033
http://www.asc.org.uk
This message has been sent on behalf the ASC by:
Randy Banks ([log in to unmask])
Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)
University of Essex, Colchester, UK CO4 3SQ
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