SDMX (Statistical data and metadata exchange) is a widely accepted standard for communicating data  in the realm of official statistics.

‘SDMX is an initiative to foster standards for the exchange of statistical information. Sponsored by BIS – ECB – EUROSTAT – IMF – OECD – UN – World Bank.’

More and more applications accept and use this standard for data input as well as for data output: So for instance the ECB Inflation dashboard or EUROSTATS plans to offer sdmxed data out of its database or the activities in PC-Axis tabulation software.

But official statistics are not the only ones who discuss and conceptualise statistical data exchange.  scovo (‘The Statistical Core Vocabulary’) is another attempt, it ‘ specifies an [RDF-Schema] vocabulary for representing statistical data on the Web’.

Behind this we find – among others – the people who launched RIESE (RDFizing and Interlinking the EuroStat Data Set Effort).

SDMX and RDF are beginning to approach each other.  And this may lead to a new kind of open data: Already open statis