Publication Online

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Publication Online

• Presented by
• Rob Brown
• Regional Economic Measurement Division

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Why Am I here?

• AUBER members are primary users of BEA regional
  statistics
• You have helped us disseminate, market, and fund
  our regional statistics for over 30 years
• We are more than happy to share our experiences
  in online publication with you

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Reason 1--Back Yard
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Reason 2--Front Yard
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Lesson Learned

• Never underestimate the power of AUBER

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Why Publish Online?

• Funding restrictions
• Lack of funds
• Funds in control of someone else
• Publishing online is cheap and in our control
• You can reach a new audience
• Books went to depository libraries, BEA User
  Group members, and AUBER members
• Online documents accessible to millions of
  Internet users

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Why Publish Online?

• You can provide more information
• Our books provided 6 years of data
• Our online could provide entire database
• You can provide flexibility of presentation
• In our books, we gave you the most current 6
  years
• Online, you decide what you want displayed
• Years, tables, lines
• BEARFACTS narratives for any year
• Interactive maps

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Why Publish Online?

• You can link information together
• In books we provided a glossary of terms
• Online we link the data with the glossary of terms

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How Do We Publish Online?

• Part 1--Survey of Current Business
• Old method of publishing
• New method of publishing
• Software used
• Process improvements
• Part 2--BEA Regional Web site
• How we started
• Improvements added and being considered

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How were tables in the Survey published in the
past?
email
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Problems With This System

• Too many options for input
• Too labor intensive
• Tables were hand-crafted
• Quality and accuracy had to be repetitively
  checked
• Making corrections meant starting from step 1
• Too complex
• FrameMaker with Microcomp

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Central Publishing System

• A database driven system that gives us the
  ability to efficiently and accurately publish
  large data tables
• The CPS written by BEA. It uses
• Microsoft SQL Server for database
• Cold Fusion to access the database
• Frame Maker for layout
• Pattern Stream to develop the tables

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Central Processing System

• CPS supports
• Publication of Survey style tables for a variety
  of publications
• Data submission in two ways
• Database-to-database transfer
• CSV upload
• Browser-based table review using Internet Explorer

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How does the CPS work?
Divisions
System
CPS Processes
Files Submitted to CPS CSV or DB-to-DB
PS
Browser
Browser
Publication
Immediate data review
NEXT SLIDE
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CPS Output
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Benefits of New System

• Streamlined process for producing data tables
• Increased quality control
• Reduced time required for data review
• Results Iterative review process collapsed by
  75
• Increased program areas productivity in table
  production
• Results Reduced average data-table turnaround by
  more than 50

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Future Improvements

• Eventually access all data through a database
• Use layout software that has larger base of
  programmers
• Contractor will work on replacing Pattern Stream
  with Visual Basic
• Upgrade to Adobe version 6
• Will allow users to access output in pdf files

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Regional Web Site

• Initial online publications used pdf files
• Electronic file was a replica of the actual
  publication
• Allowed editors to edit once
• Maintained the look and feel of the publication
• BEA maintained tight control of text
• Also initially provided our state data files that
  were on diskette for download

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Regional Web Site

• My goal was to have the REIS CD-ROM data and
  documents on the Web to display, print, or
  download--just like the CD-ROM
• My staff explained that it was impossible
• Also explained that it didnt take advantage of
  the strengths of the Web
• I listened
• Simplified the goal

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Web Strengths

• Accessibility
• Access to data wherever there is an Internet
  connection
• Data available immediately upon release
• Documents and data can be downloaded to your
  computer
• Data can be updated rapidly

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Web Drawbacks

• Archiving
• Select documents may be easy to archive, but
  complete database of tables is difficult to
  archive
• Updates that users may not realize have happened
• Bookmarking--users lose data pages when files
  moved
• Possible attacks/hacking on Web site files
• Crashing computers if downloading too much info

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What Did We Want?

• Interactivity--display and if possible save
  tables
• Allow user choices--table, years, areas
• Start small
• Find out what works and doesnt work in a
  manageable environment
• Expand on the successes and dump the failures

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Setting the Basics

• Began with gross state product
• Used a team from 3 divisions--each member with
  different skill
• Developed a SQL Server database
• Developed programs to access database and display
• Cold Fusion

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Adding to Basics

• Took lessons learned and expanded to personal
  income
• quarterly state personal income
• annual state personal income
• local area personal income
• Length of time to create each product was
  shortened because we built off knowledge and
  software we already had previously created

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Taking Off

• Adding new features
• One line all states or one state all lines
• Printable version button
• Radio buttons
• Rank button
• Interactive state maps
• Adding new databases
• Interactive BEARFACTS
• Glossary linked to tables

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Future

• Database of vintage of estimates
• Reliability of the estimates
• Interactive county maps
• ???

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Publishing Online--Summary

• Keep the initial project simple and small
• Take advantage of skills of resources in your
  organization
• Dont rely entirely on one person
• Build on what works
• Stick to software that is well known

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