As a simplified illustration, the name of an organization can be defined as the same concept regardless of whether the information is recorded in a database, in a spread sheet, in a Comma Separated Value(s) (CSV) file, in an Extended mark-up language (XML) file or handwritten on a piece of paper.

62. Two new ways of collecting data are being implemented: the e-questionnaire, which allows countries to enter data online through the Internet, and the use of electronic data interchange based on the SDMX standard, in order to allow the countries to send the information in XML files automatically downloaded from their own databases or to interact with the system through web services for data uploading.