Sultanate OF Oman Ministry Of National Economy Directorate

Sultanate OF Oman Ministry Of National Economy Directorate General of Social Statistics Use of technological tools in the dissemination of census data Regional Seminar on Census Data Dissemination and Spatial Analysis for Arabic speaking Countries Amman, Jordan, 16 -19 May 2011 Prepared by Hamed ALDagheishi

Introduction The Sultanate of Oman conducted the Third population, housing and establishments census in December 2010. Its provided a wide range of demographic and other statistical data that contributed to the formulation of development plans and met most of the users needs. The dissemination of data strictly followed the statistical law set by the Royal decree No. 29/2001, which maintain confidentially of individual data. According to this law, it is prohibited to publish data unless in an aggregate form.

Objectives of the dissemination of census data The main objective of the dissemination of census data is to make it available for the public in domestic and international levels. The following goals are important to be achieved in order to obtain effective results and to achieve the desired development from the dissemination of census data: • Enriching the communication between producer and user of the Data. • Encouraging everyone to get and use census data in decision-making with regard to their fields. • Making the society much more aware of the importance of the information we can get from the census. • Realizing the interests of various populations and ensuring the completion of the census as fully as possible.

Experience of Oman in previous censuses (1993 and 2003) - Although 1993 census data were disseminated as published tables, no in -depth analysis was carried out by Ministry and other government agencies. -In 2003, the Ministry of National Economy paid more attention to analysis and evaluation of the census results to assist the data users in understanding the census results, In order to achieve this goal, the Ministry proposed a series of 9 short studies and 6 in-depth studies, and involved many stakeholders

Experience of Oman in previous censuses (1993 and 2003) Media of data dissemination - In 1993, the dissemination was done through hard copy publications such as pamphlets and books. -The 2003 census results were disseminated in a better manner because of the developments in technology such as CD and use of internet in dissemination. -Regarding the data that was not published, Census administrator had to prepare and process the data upon request either by public sector, private sector, individual users and academic researchers.

Experience of Oman in previous censuses (1993 and 2003) GIS and Mapping product - In 2003 census, Geographical Information System (GIS) was used to facilitate census mapping in the production of census results, the socio- economic Atlases were produced. The 2003 Atlas was enhanced by satellite Imagery and maps for every governorate, region and Wilayat. Its produced as a hard copy & as a soft copy.

2010 data dissemination - According to the rapid development in information technology, the possibility of publishing printed volumes for users in libraries can be reduced significantly to avoid over-stocking and waste. -The plan is to use the website & CDs extensively and to make the data available to support different types of users. -In order to facilitate the dissemination of data, a well-organized publicity strategy is developed and executed.

The tech nologica l tools in dissemi nation o the f census data

Tabulation and Dissemination System.

Background § Space-Time Research Pty Ltd will manage the end to end “Tabulation and Dissemination System” for Census 2010 which will specifically focus on the following: §A. Install the Super. STAR Tabulation and Dissemination Solution (desktop, server, web server, etc) §B. Load the data from the Census’s Oracle s schemas §C. Configure user access, confidentiality routines §D. Configure Super. WEB mapping (Google base maps, statistical boundaries from Arc. GIS Server) §E. Set up Super. VIEW report(s)

Software Description § Super. STAR is a software suite providing analytical processing, reporting and dissemination functionality of quantitative data at any aggregation level required. It contains a number of modules that may be utilized collectively or independently to address adaptation of source data, administration, charting , thematic mapping and reporting requirements. These Modules are *: - § Super. VIEW , § Super. WEB Unlimited Users on the population Census , Unlimited Users on the population Census § Super. TABLE , Unlimited Users on the population Census § Super. CROSS , Unlimited Users on the Statistics Department on the population Census § Super. CHANNEL, Unlimited Users on the Statistics Department on the population Census § Super. SERVER, Unlimited Users on the Statistics Department on the population Census ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــﺘﺖ * This License permits to use the 1993, 2003 and 2010 Population Census data

Super. VIEW is made up of a number of different reports to show a particular theme in the data. Its an interactive data analysis and visualization. Easy to use tabulation and analytics provide a DATA EXPERIENCE resulting in a wide variety of tables, charts, and maps. §Super. WEB™ is a Web solution for ad hoc tabulation, providing access and analysis of large privacy protected, confidentialized microdata tables of billions of cells. Super. WEB is designed for people who want to ask their own questions and create their own reports rather than rely on information produced by other people. Unlike other Business Intelligence and reporting products Super. WEB provides access to all the available data and allows users to follow a Query. Answer-Query process. This means data is turned into knowledge much quicker. Extremely fast queries allow for self-service querying and generation of integrated cross tabulations, charts, and maps. Data presented on a map can be examined in aggregated form or in detailed unit record view format. Super. WEB is integrated with Arc. GIS and used for geospatial analysis of data in government data provider applications around the world.

Super. TABLE is the free table reader component of the Super. STAR suite. It uses a drag-and-drop interface to create tables with any number of dimensions. Tables can be re-arranged, calculations added, and then the table can be printed or exported to a number of formats. §Super. CROSS™ is the desktop client for the Super. STAR platform. It has a powerful and intuitive, drag-and-drop graphical interface that facilitates fast, flexible tabulation and analytics for information producers. Super. CROSS is an easy-to-use solution for analyzing data at any level of detail, and then presenting the information in a variety of formats including tables, charts, and maps. Powerful, customizable confidentiality plug-in allow for greater automation of disclosure control, eliminating mistakes and reducing the time required to publish information.

Super. CHANNEL The Super. CHANNEL Advanced Course is designed to build on participants' existing knowledge of Super. CHANNEL. Through lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on labs, participants will be exposed to Super. CHANNEL's full capacity. Participants will gain the experience essential for creating more flexible and efficient Super. STAR databases. The target audience for this course includes: database administrators, data managers, business areas technical support providers, Super. STAR administrators. Super. SERVER The Super. SERVER provides the essential knowledge and skills for people who are responsible for setting up and maintaining a Super. STAR environment. Its contains a number of mandatory and optional topics (depending on the Super. STAR products being used) and therefore can be tailored to participants’ needs. The trainer will assist in developing a course best suited to your environment.

The Demo http: //www. spacetimeresearch. com/data-visualization-gallery. html http: //superstar. spacetimeresearch. com/mone/#

The tech nologica l tools in dissemi nation o the f census data

Interactive Database for Children in Oman by Dev. Info Game. Works.

Background The Director General of Social Statistics and UNICEF are interested in exploring innovative database technology for creating an interactive database for children in Oman. This database will be used by children in Oman to improve their statistical literacy about social and economic issues in the country. The database will be child-friendly, easy to use and interactive to allow children to play-and-learn using real information pertaining to Oman.

Objective § Create a system which will be used by children, both online and on CDs, to learn more about their country and the achievements made in human development. This interactive database will be easy for children in Oman to use and will be effective in helping them explore socio-economic information about their country and the region. The database will be in Arabic with an option for English. Statistical literacy among children and youth of Oman is an important result that will be achieved by the interactive database planned under this initiative.

Idea The idea of participatory media is well-established in the areas of text, images, audio, and video, and game play certainly incorporates many-to-many participation. BY DIGW Users can: - PLAY games with others online, or as solitaire - DESIGN games from game templates, using Dev. Info data and/or other data sources - SHARE games with "buddy" users, interest groups, or school-based classes - DISCUSS the games online via chat, "message walls", and private messaging

The Demo http: //www. devinfo/gameworks/

Conclusion Public access to census information is an important issue, the dissemination of census data needs to make the data available for agencies and individuals who use the data for variety of projects. These issues can be achieved by utilizing the new technology in this field.