2004 Hansen Lecture
Jennifer Madans, National Center Statistics
"Bridging the Gap: Moving to the 1997 Standards for Collecting Data on Race and Ethnicity"
Opening remarks: Nathaniel Schenker, National Center for Health Statistics
Discussants:
Clyde Tucker, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Robert Hill, Westat, Inc.
Abstract: Data Ferrett is a tool that enables analysts to easily examine and manipulate data from different sources of the U.S. Census Bureau. The DataWeb servers are sets of Server software services that networks different databases and datasets together. This can be done potentially throughout the Census Bureau's Intranet to provide quick and simplified analytical access to internal confidential data, and public use data. Such access could provide Census analysts simple access to data located in various computers throughout the Census Bureau representing potentially data from different programs or different stages of survey production processing. The software is being developed to create the kind of specialized, often complex tabulations that are the standard output of Census Bureau processes. The system is designed to quickly tabulate datasets ranging in size from the complete 2000 confidential microdata file to small private spreadsheets and Microsoft Access databases. The tools also provide online business charting, graphing and a full set of Census Geography mapping facilities.
The presentation will demonstrate some of the advanced data manipulation facilities of the toolset, discuss how it is being used inside the Bureau to streamline production processing. We will also show how it is being used by non-profits outside the Bureau to build topical websites that highlight data from the Census and other statistical agencies. Finally, a brief overview of future directions will be discussed.
