I get depressed by the soul-crushing bureaucracy of the Census, but I think you're misreading these articles regarding address collection. The PDAs *are* going to be used for that, but *only* that. The part that will now involve paper is the follow-up collection for people that don't return their census forms.
Another shocking number from the FCW article: help desk costs to support the PDA was increased from $35 million to $220 million. (even though it's going to be used less?) Regarding TIGER accuracy, well, it's a lot better than 2000, but... As the 2006 GAO report points out one problem with using the PDAs is that the GPS'd locations may be more accurate absolutely, but may be inaccurate relative to the less accurate TIGER streets. Thanks for all the links! Brad > > Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:05:30 -0500 > From: sophia parafina <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Geowanking] 2010 census > To: Ian White <[email protected]> > Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > Harris Census effort == FAIL > > http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=660 > http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/0509/052009mm.htm > > Ethan Zuckerman's description of the device: > > http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/27/if-us-government-contractors-had-designed-the-iphone/ > > My understanding is that they are going to use paper maps, mark them up, > scan and georeference them back in, then heads-up digitize the changes. ( > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/world/americas/03iht-3census.11652877.html > ) > > This is the part that irks me the most (from > http://fcw.com/Articles/2008/04/07/Census-counts-on-paper-for-2010.aspx?Page=1 > ) > > "Despite the problems, Census awarded Harris two bonus fees under the > cost-plus contract. The company now stands to make $1.3 billion on the > deal. > Gutierrez said that if Census officials had not decided to revert to paper > forms, Harris would have made $1.9 billion." > > So yeah, Census, after giving Harris $1.3 billion, is implementing what > essentially amounts to http://walking-papers.org/ > > sophia > > On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 2:38 PM, Ian White <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Ok, I know this is an unnaturally practical topic, but I?ve been >> thinking >> about Census? 2010 project relative to address verification/TIGER data. >> For >> those who don?t know, Harris Corp, Census? long time contractor for >> census, >> is going high tech?Sprint is OEMing gear to Harris to enable remote >> address >> verification and (I think) collection of other spatial data. There are a >> few >> GAO and other reports (eg, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06272.pdf and >> http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080409144834.pdf) that are >> critical >> of Harris? approach/capabilities. >> >> >> >> Something I couldn?t resist: check out this HOT HOT HOT phone-type thing >> that will be used for geocoding in the field: >> http://www.harris.com/images/fdca.jpg. Apparently planning was begun in >> 2004 so there was no iPhone on the scene. What a drag as I?m sure the >> app >> could have been developed for less than the $600m contract (which is for >> the >> entire census, not the brick alone). >> >> >> >> Who has details about TIGER for 2010? >> >> >> >> >> >> Ian White :: Urban Mapping Inc >> >> 690 Fifth Street Suite 200 :: San Francisco CA 94107 >> >> T.415.946.8170 x800 :: F.866.385.8266 :: urbanmapping.com/blog >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Geowanking mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org >> >> > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > <http://geowanking.org/pipermail/geowanking_geowanking.org/attachments/20090820/81129c85/attachment-0001.html> > _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
