How NSOs can respond to changing user needs in the Internet era ¹⁾²⁾

Abstract

In their capacity as public service providers, national statistical offices (NSOs) are today faced with the challenge of having to adapt to the dual nature of a new operating environment on the Internet. On the one hand, the Internet represents a world of organised information, 'a universal library open to all'; on the other hand, it is a commercial marketplace for information, competencies and commodities. These two roles of the Internet do not necessarily fit together all that easily. The choice that statistical offices are going to have to make is precisely between the commercial world and the world of structured information.

The transfer that has followed with technological advances from printed to electronic products has highlighted various problematic aspects about the traditional product concept. The main problem with the traditional product oriented way of thinking is that before they can gain access to the statistical information they are looking for, users need first of all to locate the product within which that information is held. This is obviously not the best recipe for good customer service. If statistical offices are to take full advantage of the new opportunities opened up by the Internet, then they are going to have to resolve the conflicts created by product thinking, change their paradigms and adopt instead a service oriented way of thinking.

The service concept is geared to immediately meeting the end user's information needs. In an Internet service of this kind that is based upon a simple self-service system, users can carry out simple searches and inquiries from amongst a wide range of information. This presupposes that the information content of the basic service is comprehensive and the information can also be found extensively in the service, that the information always contains the metadata required for its correct interpretation, that direct reference to the information is always possible, and that the information can be freely utilised.

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Heikki Rouhuvirta
00022 Statistics Finland, P.O. Box 5V, Finland
Tel. +358 9 1734 2248; Fax. +358 9 1734 2474; E-mail: heikki.rouhuvirta@stat.fi
Markku Huttunen
00022 Statistics Finland, P.O. Box 3C, Finland
Tel. +358 9 1734 3337; Fax. +358 9 1734 2474; E-mail: markku.huttunen@stat.fi

1) The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of Statistics Finland

2) Article is published in the Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Volume 20, Number 1 (2003).

Last updated 8.12.2004

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