tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28837843.post6603944647825990817..comments2024-03-11T09:29:31.793-07:00Comments on Quark Soup by David Appell: Statistical Abstract is No MoreDavid Appellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03318269033139447591noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28837843.post-39770813619643801012012-03-12T14:57:32.876-07:002012-03-12T14:57:32.876-07:00While I agree that government agencies are doing b...While I agree that government agencies are doing better at providing data, I'd caution against the assumption that all data in the Statistical Abstract was governmental in origin, or that it will all still be findable on the web.<br /><br />The preface to the last print edition of the Statistical Abstract said that both government and private sources contributed to its mix of data. I checked on what that would mean if we lost the publication, and found out that about 100 of those private sources, which contributed to 179 tables in the book, required copyright permission, meaning that almost 13 percent of the tables in the book were copyrighted. All but a few of those tables were approved for the online version.<br /><br />That large chunk of copyrighted data will no longer be publicly accessible by any means, short of separately negotiated agreements with those approximately 100 private sources. So Statistical Abstract really is irreplaceable, because no one outside the Census Bureau’s Statistical Compendia Branch is capable of collecting it all without re-establishing all those copyright arrangements — that is, without doing what the Statistical Compendia Branch already did, and did so much better, more efficiently, and more economically than anyone else could.<br /><br />All this is to say nothing of the hours wasted from this point forward looking in hundreds of places for basic statistical information instead of one place. <br /><br />Statistical Abstract was a bargain at $3 million a year, and it paid us back on that comparatively miniscule investment many times over.Kevin McClurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00996557681281843486noreply@blogger.com