The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI): An Introduction for National Statistical Institutes

This paper introduces DDI to those coming from national statistics institutes (NSIs). While there is a large amount of information regarding DDI available today, sometimes it is difficult to know where to start, and much of it comes from domains which are not familiar to those working with official statistics. Here, we attempt to characterize the flavors and uses of DDI, give some general background on the standards organization (the DDI Alliance), describe available tools, and relate the DDI to other initiatives and standards which are more familiar to this audience.