(Meta)Data and Remote Computing at IdZA: Experiences from IZA

The IdZA at IZA is a Data Service Center with its own Data Enclave and related technology, whose primary focus is (meta)data relevant for labor economics. The Enclave supports all known approaches to making data available (Ultra-thin Computing Environment, Remote Computing) and some developed in-house (JoSuA). The DSC is making metadata about German data available to a large international Fellow network and beyond, using DDI and other standards for its documentation. One of the major undertakings of the DSC is to provide DDI based English translations of German (meta)data on a large array of datasets relevant to labor economics. The talk will go over the experiences gathered the last 3 or so years, the shortcomings of DDI 2.*, the ways in which these were mended and what we hope for in DDI3.* Some of the newer ambitions and undertakings of IdZA and the context in which (meta)data and remote computing are seen as complementary will also be mentioned.