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Re: AHS: Report Redesign Opinions Sought

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Comments on future AHS report design, from Paul Burke,
NumbersInstitute@Juno.com :

1. I think you have a good proposal overall. I would suggest:

2. Keep all stubs in chapter 2, including the few that duplicate chapter
1 or are technical, and adding the few that are currently only in
specialized tables. There are 3 reasons: (a) it is important to have
items like units in structure & bedrooms crossed by such occupancy
characteristics as physical problems, or recent movers; (b) seeing
technical items like degree days will remind readers of their importance
in the national housing market (if it's important enough to collect or
put on the tape, it's important enough to publish; and (c) chapter 2 will
then be a full well-organized guide to the data available.

3. You did not mention the ownership items that are only in chapter 3. I
recommend they be printed in chapter 2.

4. Relegate tables 1B through 1D to the web too

5. Avoid any HUD section with comments on state of the market. Whatever
topics are chosen will give the impression of political selection, and
lessen credibility of the simple data.

6. Add a note to the header or footer of every table and every index
page, noting the web address of additional tables, so people remember
they can easily get more detail. Plan not to change that web address for
at least 10-20 years, so people reading this book 15 years later can
still find the web tables. This means registering a specific address for
this purpose, which can point to whatever Census or HUD page in the
future holds the data.

7. Print the index at the back of the book in the same size type as the
tables, and single-spaced, to save a great deal of room

8. Print about 3 pages of the appendix on errors, up through the
paragraph on "Differences". It is important for people to know what the
errors are.

9. For the web I like HTML, but only if you could make them printable,
which as you say is probably not possible. A big issue is what will stay
readable for decades. What does the industry think of the permanent
upward compatibility of pdf & html? I doubt if they will be readable in
20 years.

10. Spreadsheet formats have been very unstable over the last 20 years. I
stongly suggest comma-and-quote-delimited, fixed-format, ascii instead of
xls. The "Picture of Subsidized Households" files were done in this
format so they can be directly read, or imported into most software. That
gives you one fairly permanent format, and you can pick your second
format for readability today. The combination of comma-delimited and
fixed format is accomplished by padding each number with leading zeros,
and omitting commas inside numbers, but putting a comma before each
number. There are two reasons to pad with zeros instead of blanks: (a)
some programs that derive from COBOL and some data base programs do not
accept blanks in numeric fields; and (b) when printing the data, zeros
usually print at the same width as 1 through 9, while blanks print
narrower, so there is more flexibility without blanks in the data.
Comma-delimited files are more widely accepted than tab-delimited files.

11. What is the cost of a few bound paper copies, with all web tables
too, on acid-free paper, to keep at Hud & Census libraries & Library of
Congress, and any research library that pays for them? Not to address
disabilities but for historians.

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003 14:08:39 -0500 AHSlistserv@huduser.gov writes:
> From: American Housing Survey (AHS) ListServ <ahs@huduser.gov>
>
> As I mentioned in my recent update on the state of the AHS, we are
> beginning to work on redesigning the printed report.  Our aim is to
> distribute a lot less paper and put more of the details on the web.
> This
> message summarizes what we're thinking about doing, as of right now.
>  All
> of it is subject to change.  I earnestly entreat you to give us
> your
> comments.
>
> It may be helpful if you read this message with a copy of one of
> our
> current reports handy to look at.
>
> PAPER REPORT:
> My current vision of the new paper report is that it will consist of
> only
> the first two chapters of the current report (all housing units and
> all
> occupied units).  Each table will be only the lefthand-side of the
> current
> two-page spread.  Redundant material in Chapter 2 will be removed,
> leaving
> only those rows that specifically need occupied units to make sense.
>  (For
> example, "units in structure" or "number of bedrooms" will be in
> Chapter 1
> only.)  We may also prune some of the specialized tables and
> rowstubs from
> these chapters (for example, degree days).  The appendicies will be
> reduced
> to just appendix A.  The other appendicies may be one-page
> summaries, with
> URLs directing you to where you can find the full appendicies on the
> web.
> If the Census clearing process will allow it, we may add a short
> introductory essay on the current state of housing, written by HUD
> (we use
> more adjectives than they do).
>
> ON THE WEB:
>
> The more detailed chapters from the current report, plus the
> righthand-side
> columns, would be published on the web.  We are discussing some
> combination
> of HTML tables, PDF files, and spreadsheets.  Right now, it will
> probably
> be two of those, but it might be all three.  One technical point
> which we
> are hoping will help is that the Census Bureau works in SAS now, and
> SAS
> has something called the Output Delivery System (ODS) which will
> output
> tables in each of these formats by just changing a keyword in the
> source
> code.  On the other hand, if you have any experience with that sort
> of
> promise, you know that what you get often needs some manual
> tweaking, and
> that may well nullify the work saved through automation.  We'll have
> to see
> how well ODS can deliver.
>
> An important consideration for any government distribution of
> information
> is that we have to make sure that at least one form is accessible
> to
> persons with disabilities.  This is called "Section 508 compliance."
>  For
> tabular data, we're mainly concerned with being compatible with
> various
> "screen reader" programs that turn tables into sound.  Some of
> these
> presentation formats can embed tags in the documents that help the
> screen
> readers keep their place in complex documents.
>
> HTML:  Similar to what we have now, but designed to make printing
> easier.
> There is an inherent problem with HTML in that what you get depends
> on the
> hardware and software at your end, and so the designer has to make
> some
> assumptions about the minimum requirements.  Importing the numbers
> into
> other software for manipulation or reporting is relatively easy.
> Printing,
> especially for wide tables, can be difficult or impossible.  HTML
> can be
> used with screen readers, if the right codes are embedded.  It's not
> clear
> whether this embedding can be automated.
>
> PDF:  Best for printing.  Most people like to have some tables on
> paper (I
> know I do).  Hardest for exporting the numbers to other software.
> Not as
> good for screen readers, although this is improving.  Larger
> documents can
> be bookmarked, so that subsections can be found with the click of a
> mouse
> (although this is not currently being done with AHS reports).  We
> have to
> give some though about whether we want to publish PDF tables one at
> a time,
> in chapter-size documents, or as one big document (as we do with
> the
> current report).
>
> Spreadsheet:  This probably means Microsoft Excel format, since that
> is the
> most widely used.  Spreadsheets are easiest to manipulate.  Users
> will have
> to purchase their own spreadsheet software.  Screen readers can work
> with
> spreadsheets, although the documents have to be designed with this
> in mind.
> Not as handy for online viewing.  As with the PDFs, we have to think
> about
> how to bundle the tables.
>
> It is possible that we may decide to make the format available in
> all three
> formats.  While this does increase the amount of server space that
> the AHS
> needs, a more important consideration is the burden of maintaining
> three
> sets of files and keeping them synchronized through updates and
> corrections.
>
> We would like to know what you think of these plans.  I'm sure that
> there
> are important factors that just haven't occured to us yet.  Any
> concerns or
> suggestions you have should be mentioned as soon as possible.  By
> all
> means, send your response to the entire listserve, so that others
> can see
> them.  That may inspire other users to suggest things that they
> wouldn't
> have thought of otherwise.  Remember that  if you do want to respond
> to the
> listserve, you must enter the address (AHS@huduser.gov) int the To:
> field
> of your message.  If you just do an ordinary reply, the message will
> go to
> me only.
>
> Dav Vandenbroucke
> Economist
> U.S. Dept. HUD
> david_a._vandenbroucke@hud.gov
> 202-708-1060 ext. 5890
>
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