DDI 3.0
Welcome to the site for Version 3.0 of the Data
Documentation Initiative (DDI). The DDI is an XML specification for
social science metadata that is being developed by an international
group called the DDI Alliance.
DDI 3.0 represents a major advancement for DDI by fully incorporating XML Schemas and moving to a data life cycle approach. Element content for DDI 3.0 has been developed by several Working Groups with the technical specification itself created by the Technical Implementation Committee (TIC).
The Bylaws of the Alliance mandate an open Public Review period during which the community may comment on a
major release like Version 3.0. This review period occurred in Spring 2007, with Version 3.0 then issued as a Candidate Release, following
approval by the DDI Alliance in May 2007 at its
annual meeting.
On April 8, 2008, the Version 3.0 Candidate Release was made available in final form. After a short review period the DDI Alliance voted to publish the specification officially. The final published package was made available on April 28.
- Field-Level Documentation Generated from the XML Schemas
- Schema Descriptions (PDF 55K) -- Textual descriptions of the schemas
- Supplementary documentation
- XML Schema Tutorial -- A WC3 resource for learning about schemas
- UML Tutorial (MSWord) -- A short guide to Universal Moduling Language using the SDMX information model
The XML Schema files of DDI 3.0 are also available for online usage.
The DDI Alliance Bylaws require a demonstration of Proof of Concept before official publication of any change to the DDI specification. We provide this information in a table, distinguishing between use cases and
implementations.
DDI 3.0 XML Schema is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
DDI 3.0 XML Schema is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. See also the GNU General Public License Web site.
Other DDI documents are distributed under Creative Commons licenses.
The development of DDI 3.0 draws on earlier DDI versions and work of the
committees and individuals who developed them as well as the collective
ideas, needs, and work of the Expert Committee of the DDI Alliance. Major contributions to DDI 3.0 were made by
many individuals and organizations.
Conversion Utilities
Full DDI2 to DD3 xslt:
