"The latest problem is the Census Bureau’s failure— after nearly four years and almost $600 million — to develop a reliable hand-held computer system for counting millions of Americans who are not counted by mail. Census takers will now have to use far less accurate paper and pencil. At a hearing last week Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told lawmakers that the agency would need up to an additional $232 million this year to ramp up systems to accommodate the paper count, including new forms, instructions and training materials and redesigned management and logistical support." "The White House insists on cutting other Commerce Department programs to come up with new money for the census. Most of the targeted cuts are from programs the White House tried to kill or reduce in 2008, but were rescued by Congress: such as spending for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, marine sanctuaries, pollution control, Chesapeake Bay restoration and economic development grants for Appalachia. It is petty for the White House to use the census as a way to challenge the outcome of a lost budget battle." I can't believe that after all of that money no one could some up with a hand held device for the census. That the White House is going to use it to get their way on undermining environmental battles they've lost is just so true to form. If Congress had any balls, they'd vote this down and attach the Census budget to the War in Iraq. It's like....one day's worth.
Yes, that's almost impossible to fathom. Every large survey these days uses laptops where face-to-face interviews are required. Nobody does interviews with paper forms if they can help it. The term of art is CAPI (computer-assisted personal interview). Census is a large effort, but the Census Bureau has always struck me as being pretty competent, at least when I've had to deal with them in the past. Looking a little deeper, that was $600M for roughly 600,000 custom secure handheld devices. Including, apparently, a GPS link to validate the address or some such. Oh, yeah, and with wireless real-time transmission back to the Bureau of the Census. We all know how important that feature is (not) when the bulk of the data arrive over a course of months via US mail. So, it looks like a classic case of scope creep. What they need is what everybody else in the industry uses -- laptops with passwords and encryption. Instead, they're going to default to paper forms. I'd like to think somebody will lose their job over this, but I doubt it.
