DG Update: October 2005

National Institute of Statistical Sciences

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Digital Government:

Project Update - October 2005

1. PUBLICATIONS

Appeared in print:

A. F. Karr, J. Feng, X. Lin, J. P. Reiter, A. P. Sanil and S. S. Young (2005). Secure analysis of distributed chemical databases without data integration. Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design, November 2005 1-9. Available on-line at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10822-005-9011-5.

Accepted for publication:

Stephen E. Fienberg and Alessandro Rinaldo (2006). "Three centuries of categorical data analysis: Log-linear models and maximum likelihood estimation." Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, Special Issue on Occasion of S. N. Roy Centennial.
A. F. Karr, C. N. Kohnen, A. Oganian, J. P. Reiter, A. P. Sanil (2005). A framework for evaluating the utility of data altered to protect confidentiality (2005). To appear in The American Statistician.

Completed recently:

Stephen E. Fienberg "Data mining and the hunt for terrorists" To appear in Focus, Fall, 2005. (Focus is a Carnegie Mellon University publication for faculty and staff)
Mario Trottini "Statistical Confidentiality in Longitudinal Linked Data: Objectives and Attributes." For presentation at UNECE/Eurostat Work Session on Statistical Data Confidentiality, Geneva, Switzerland, November 9-11, 2005.

2. PRESENTATIONS

OMB Interagency Confidentiality and Data Access Committee (CDAC) meeting, Washington, October 18, 2005

Alan F. Karr: NISS Microdata Toolkit--Prospectus

Delivered before House Select Committee on Information Security, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, October 6, 2005

Stephen E. Fienberg: Testimony on privacy and confidentiality

National Assessment of Educational Progress Data Advisory Committee meeting, Washington, October 21, 2005

Stephen E. Fienberg: "How to Release Useful Data Without Violating Promises of Confidentiality"

University of Iowa, Department of Biostatistics, November 14, 2005

Michael Larsen: Seminar presentation

University of Missouri, Department of Statistics, September 28, 2005

Michael Larsen: Seminar presentation

3. MICRODATA TOOLKIT. The prospectus for a NISS Microdata Toolkit (MDTK), which is mentioned in item 2 above, is available on the "Presentations" page of the project web site: http://www.niss.org/dgii/presentations.html. Given the generally positive response at the October 18 CDAC meeting, this effort is likely to proceed. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

4. SURVEY COST WORKSHOP. NISS will hold a "Workshop on Survey Costs" on April 18-19, 2006 at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington. Using survey costs as a concrete way to achieve focus, the goal of the workshop is to shape a research agenda for methodology and modeling (both a priori and in process) of surveys, including, for example,

Cost and quality considerations
Calculation of uncertainties associated with costs and other factors
Prediction (for instance, of the effects of interventions and of the costs of surveys)

One product of such research might be a broadly applicable software tool (or a set of software tools) to model surveys from design through execution.

Details regarding the workshop will be available on the NISS web site in due course.

5. SAMSI DC WORKING GROUP. The data confidentiality working group of the SAMSI 2005 program on national defense and homeland security maintains public a web page at http://www.samsi.info/200506/ndhs/workinggroup/dc/, at which its activities can be followed.

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This page updated on November 9, 2005 1:38 PM