This richly illustrated book provides an easy-to-read introduction to the challenges of organizing and integrating modern data worlds, explaining the contribution of public statistics and the ISO standard SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange). As such, it is a must for data experts as well those aspiring to become one.

Today, exponentially growing data worlds are increasingly determining our professional and private lives. The rapid increase in the amount of globally available data, fueled by search engines and social networks but also by new technical possibilities such as Big Data, offers great opportunities. But whatever the undertaking – driving the block chain revolution or making smart phones even smarter – success will be determined by how well it is possible to integrate, i.e. to collect, link and evaluate, the required data. One crucial factor in this is the introduction of a cross-domain order system in combination with a standardization of the data structure.

Using everyday examples, the authors show how the concepts of statistics provide the basis for the universal and standardized presentation of any kind of information. They also introduce the international statistics standard SDMX, describing the profound changes it has made possible and the related order system for the international statistics community.