Abstract
Electronic data and information exchange is a major issue in Statistic Norway's strategic plan for the next few years. The purpose of electronic data collection is to minimise the response burden and to improve the quality of data and the efficiency of data collection in the institution. Statistics Norway is already involved in several large projects in this field. Data from all municipalities and counties are reported electronically from this year, and work is underway to establish an infrastructure that will enable us to offer all companies the possibility of reporting by Internet. During the last years Internet has become the main channel for disseminating statistics, and since data providers also are users of statistics, communication and feedback have come in focus. A relative large part of the statistics in the Nordic countries is based on administrative registers, and the work on developing electronic data collection also includes direct transfer from the data systems of data pr oviders (such as accounting systems and technical systems). Other important issues in our work are how data suppliers perceive electronic questionnaires, the handling of metadata in data collection, data security and organisational aspects of data collection (for example how to treat data collected in different ways effectively).
Large businesses have a great impact on the statistics. For these businesses we think it is necessary to work with individual solutions. Finally the paper tries to address Statistics Norway within a broader context of governmental policy such as e-government and 24-hours access to public offices.