Developing a Model-Driven DDI Specification

This paper, an outcome of a 2012 Dagstuhl seminar on "DDI Moving Forward," captures the decisions and deliberations of the seminar participants on the approach to creating a new model-based standard.

The DDI Alliance has initiated new work to build a model-based specification from which technical bindings can be generated. This approach will carry many benefits in terms of communicating with other standards efforts and maintaining consistency. To launch this project, a group of experts met in Wadern, Germany, in October 2012, where different approaches to the modeling effort were discussed and design goals established. Also discussed were efforts to align DDI with the Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM), a reference model describing the process of producing official statistics. There are clear synergies between the DDI and GSIM, and the Alliance has offered to produce the implementation layer for GSIM. A roadmap outlining steps in realizing the DDI model is under development and will lay out concrete plans to realize the vision.