Messy data

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The data we get from the BeID applet is messy and unparsable.  For gender and 
birthDate this has 
been addressed by the applet, but for things like nationality this is not 
handled.

Result?  We're stuck testing whether the nationality is Belg, Belgier or Belge 
to see if the user is 
Belgian.  Worse, with the introduction of the Alien eID card, we're completely 
lost for a decent 
solution.

This is absolutely nuts and begs to question the competence of those that 
designed the way data 
was to be stored on the eID card.  The purpose of making the card Electronic is 
so that it is 
*machine parsable*.  If we wanted to rely on humans to tell us where the user's 
from, why put it 
on a chip in the first place?  To make the eID card what it SHOULD have been, 
Gender must 
become a standard and well-documented enumeration (eg. a digit or a character 
which is 
LOCALE INDEPENDANT), the date string must become an ISO standardized date which 
is LOCALE 
INDEPENDANT), and the nationality must become an ISO standardized country code 
which is 
LOCALE INDEPENDANT.

Of course, we're dealing with the government here, so I don't have any hopes 
that a DECENT 
solution will come out of this before my hair turns gray, so in the mean while, 
we should have a 
FEDICT applet which normalizes all this mess into sane parsable data as the 
BeID was supposed to 
provide.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by lhunath on 17 May 2010 at 3:15

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Also; can FEDICT quickly provide a standard or document which at least details 
what the possible output of the 
nationality field can be?

Belg, Belgier, Belge, Belgierin, Belgische?  What percent of our civilians have 
I covered so far?  Do Englishmen have 
"English", "Englishman", "Engelsman" or something else as their nationality?  
Or any of the above plus some?

Original comment by lhunath on 17 May 2010 at 3:19

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[deleted comment]

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Thanks for the information and document.  And thanks for the provisions that 
are already in place to normalize 
some of the messy data on the card.

What would be the appropriate portal to the National Registry where I might 
raise this discussion?

Also, do I understand correctly that this basically means the Nationality field 
is now utterly useless to anyone 
other than perhaps with the intention of showing the string to a user?  That 
would be very disappointing, and 
certainly something that needs fixing.

Original comment by lhunath on 18 May 2010 at 6:35

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Also, is there a way the public will be able to review and comment on the 
proposition for an updated eID file 
format?  I'm thinking along the lines of an RFC.

Original comment by lhunath on 18 May 2010 at 7:28

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Hi lhunath,

phone: +32 2 518 21 16
Fax: +32 2 518 26 16

mail to: helpdesk.belpic@rrn.fgov.be

Be patient :)

Original comment by BeylB...@gmail.com on 18 May 2010 at 8:58

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Original comment by frank.co...@gmail.com on 14 Jun 2010 at 12:05

• Changed state: WontFix