Posted on February 5, 2020 by Joeri Minnen -
The framework
In September 2002, the Directors General of the National Statistical Institutes (NSI) decided that more synergies were needed for the statistical data collection within the European Member States.
In order to achieve this, the ESSnet was established. ESS stands for the European Statistical System. The expertise within the various European NSIs is brought together and specific projects and action points are launched.
The ESSnet is a network of several ESS organisations aimed at providing results that will be beneficial to the whole ESS.
TUS and HBS as a basis
The new ESSnet project aims to develop a reference architecture at European level. The starting point of the new project is the end point of a previous funding framework around ‘Innovative tools and sources for diary-based surveys’.
The Time Use Survey and the Household Budget Survey are two ESS research methods that are carried out by the NSIs on a regular basis and provide insights into how people and families spend their time and money.
MOTUS as a TUS tool
MOTUS was evaluated as a software platform within the Eurostat-funded SOURCE TM project, in collaboration with Statbel (Belgium) and Destatis (Germany).
In a first phase within the ESSnet project, more European countries have the opportunity to get to know MOTUS. This applies to both the web and mobile application (front-office), as well as to the management tool behind MOTUS (back office). The MOTUS back office makes it possible to set up the research design and to carry out and coordinate the fieldwork.
MOTUS goes SMART
MOTUS also makes it possible to receive data from other sources. This is done by so-called Microservices or Plugins.
In this project a geolocation plugin will be tested that extracts information from the sensors in a Smartphone.
Respondents no longer have to fill in all the information themselves via the MOTUS app, but part of the information is already processed in the respondent’s timeline beforehand.
The respondent can then accept or modify this information.
The timeline
The project runs from the beginning of January 2020 until the end of December 2021. In the first period until September 2020, the MOTUS tool will be tested by the countries and adjustments will be applied.
From 2020 onwards, pilot projects will be carried out in various countries in order to gather input about the user experiences from a larger group of people. These user experiences will then be re-analysed and processed in a new version of the application.
Posted on August 31, 2018 by Joeri Minnen -
The motivation
In 2017 EUROSTAT started a project to modernise the collection of Social Statistics (ESS – European Social Statistics). By doing so, EUROSTAT builds on the Wiesbaden Memorandum from 2011 that strives for better information about patterns of time-use and consumption of households. More specifically, it involves the time-use survey (TUS) and household budget survey (HBS).
The project
Against this backdrop the SOURCE TM project emerged. SOURCE TM stands for Software OUtreach and Redefinition to Collect E-data Through MOTUS. The central aim of this project is to collect time-use data in Europe in a comparable way. Apart from the Research Group TOR, both STATBEL (the statistical office of Belgium) and DESTATIS (the statistical office of Germany) are involved. Within this project they will expand their knowledge about the MOTUS software platform, focusing on the way data is collected through a MOTUS application that runs both online and offline.
The challenges
The major challenge for the European modernisation project regarding the collection of Social Statistics is striving for comparability while at the same time leaving room for country specific interests (f.e. in terms of questions or activities) and wishes or concerns (f.e. in terms of the influx of respondents or the length of the survey). The MOTUS software platform accepts this challenge, because:
- MOTUS is developed to design all survey components (questionnaires, diaries, context) as well as all communication with respondents within a single program (i.e. comparability); and
- MOTUS is capable of adding unique contextual elements to this program at the same time (i.e. country-specific interests/wishes).
The quest for a proper configuration of MOTUS entails two phases of testing:
- Developing a prototype of an e-TUS (online time-use survey) that will be evaluated by a large groep of scientists and representative that form the Workgroup TUS of EUROSTAT.
- Having a non-representative sample registering their time-use for two days (one weekday and on weekend day).
“Comparability and customisation are two important conditions for the European modernisation project of collecting Social Statistics to be successful. Both elements are at the base of MOTUS.”
Both TUS and HSB are based on registrations in a diary: TUS for time-use and HBS for household consumption. Logically, both STATBEL and DESTATIS posed the question what it would take to use MOTUS for HBS purposes as well. Since the programming of MOTUS allows for such adaptations, this question has been included as an additional line of research in the project.
The aim
If successful, the aim of the project, which runs from January 2019 till February 2020, is to include MOTUS as a method for online time-use surveys (e-TUS) and online household budget surveys (e-HBS) in the CSPA catago. CSPA stand for Common Statistical Production Architecture. It describes that standards and principles for the production of national statistics and is aimed at improving the comparability of results.
Posted on August 31, 2018 by Joeri Minnen -
The motivation
In 2017, EUROSTAT instructed consultancy bureau SOGETI to investigate the availability of different tools used for the collecting of data on time-use and consumption patterns. The investigation also includes source that contain partial information (e.g. administrative databases, Apps, sensors, wearables, etc.) and that can be linked to other databases.
The project
This project exists of four stages:
- An inquiry among EU-memberstates and other international institutes about their expertise in collecting data on time-use and consumption patterns;
- Create an overview of (administrative) databases, Apps, sensors, wearables, etc., that contain information about time-use and consumption patterns;
- Draw up an inventory about these tools according to the CSPA guidelines; and
- Propose several prototypes.
The consortium
The project is led by Hubertus Cloodt (EUROSTAT), Maria Miceli (SOGETI) and Eniel Ninka (SOGETI). The academic partners include Uku Varblane and Siim Espenberg of the University of Tartu (Estland) and Joeri Minnen of thee Vrije Universiteit Brussel and hbits.
“Joeri Minnen (VUB-TOR, hbits) acts as an expert on tools and techniques for time registration.”
The project runs until the end of 2019.
