Statistics Using MIDAS: Data Analysis Over the Internet

The SBIR project will fully develop and implement a Multivariate Intractive Data Analysis System (MIDAS) to provide broad access to interactive data analysis, via the Internet, of 145 premier health and social science database containing over 150,000 variables from seven of Sociometrics' national data achieve (http://www.socio.com). MIDAS will include search and retrieval programming and highly organized variable-level and study-level links to several thousand pages of supporting documentation, e.g., original instruments, codebooks, User's Guides, and methodology reports. An integrated javascript interface will allow users to quickly, easily, and inexpensively interact with the system through Java-enabled Internet browsers. Online data analytic procedures will include weighted and unweighted frequencies, percentiles, and measures of dispersion and central tendency, as well as two-way and n-way tables with measures of association, comparison of means (2-group and ANOVA) and correlations, and the calculation of complex variance estimations. Users will be able to define case subsets, recodes, of aggregations for analysis, and them produce output which can be downloaded or printed. Custom dataset download will also be available. MIDAS will include a fast statistical engine, state-of-the-art interface, and "portable document format" files to ensure data analytic speed and comprehensive usability. MIDAS will be integrated with many Socionet features, e.g., Verity search and secure commercial transactions. Beta test panels will be used to assess and improve all features. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The commercial viability of the Multivariate Interactive Data Analysis System is based on evidence of: [1] current demand for Sociometrics' data and instrument archive products; [2] increased interest in online data analysis, [3] low levels of current competition, and [4] the size of institutional target markets, such as health and social science-oriented academic departments, libraries, and research organizations, which total several hundred thousand researchers, teachers, students, reference staff, and others interested in easy-to-use, customizable, online queries of national health and social science statistical resources.