The Census's Tech Woes

An inadequate and overly-complex gadget sends the bureau's budget skywards and its practices backwards

By Matt Ransford Posted 04.09.2008 at 2:16 pm 1 Comment

Handheld Census Computer After sinking millions into the computer, the government canceled plans to use them during the 2010 census. Harris Corp.

While the private sector is making strides toward a paperless office environment, the government appears to be stumbling backward. Last week, the Department of Commerce canceled plans to use handheld devices for door-to-door canvassing during the 2010 census. The devices failed on a surprising number of counts. They could not properly transmit large data files; they did not meet over 400 technical requirements; and they proved too complex for temporary workers to figure out.

Congressional testimony reveals most of the fault lies with the Census Bureau for inadequately communicating the government's needs, but a failure to translate even the known needs into an intuitive digital tool clearly rests with Harris Corp., the manufacturer. The end result is a budget for the census that has skyrocketed, far surpassing previous estimates, which even then placed it as the most expensive on record.

The gadgets won't be entirely scrapped; they will be used to verify residential address with GPS software. But it is a far cry from their original intent of remotely collecting all the information on a census form and sending that data to a central computer.

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1 Comment

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Dtech

04/10/08 at 10:31 am

Not sure where you are getting your information from because every report I have seen states that it's a Census Bureau mismanagement issue that has caused the problems with the 2010 Census.

Both the GAO and congressional committee members have stated it just wasn't handled properly within the Census Bureau.

"This was a failure of government management not contract performance," said ranking committee member Tom Davis, R-Va., in his opening statement.

The link below is to an article that summarizes some of the issues raised:

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0408/040908n1.htm

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