2010 Census to use Portable Computers and Wireless Data

The Harris Corporation has won a five-year, $600 million contract to update and automate the way the U.S. Census Bureau collects data. It's one of the largest contracts Harris won in recent years -- and the company's largest ever from the Census Bureau. The new contract will help revolutionize how census information is collected.

In the past, census employees -- many of them temporary workers hired specifically for information-gathering -- went door-to-door with paper address lists, maps, questionnaires and notepads. Such a system, Harris officials said, resulted in relatively high labor costs and potential errors because of the sheer magnitude of the job, which can see nearly a half-million workers combing areas to get the needed figures.

For the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau plans to use automated systems to quickly capture information from interviews. That is designed to reduce the need for paper-based processing, improve efficiency and accuracy, and reduce costs.

With the new systems, every enumerator (census-taker) will carry a handheld computer to immediately send the information to central offices, updating statistics in near-real-time, and getting that data integrated from other sources. Previously, the process could take hours or days.

Click for larger image

The handheld computers will be made by smartphone manufacturer HTC, and will run a version of Windows Mobile. That sounds like my new Cingular 8125 smartphone that is also made by HTC and runs Windows Mobile software. A picture of the HTC/Cingular 8125 is shown here. Click on the tiny picture to see a larger image. The new census devices will probably be similar, if not identical.

The equipment is expected to be deployed this year or next, well in advance of the requirement in 2010.

Harris beat out fellow high-tech heavyweights General Dynamics Corporation and Northrop Grumman Corporation in the two-year competition. Originally, eight companies went after the Census contract, which is called the Field Data Collection Automation program.

The $600 million Census Bureau contract is one of Harris Corporation's largest in the past two decades, and its largest ever for census-related work.

The year 2000 census only cost about $300 million, half the anticipated price of the census to be conducted ten years later.

Comments

[David Crowther]

While reading this article I thought how some people are probably already suspicious about census takers. I wonder if seeing a census taker with a handheld computer will make them even more suspicious. I think that even some of those who wouldn't think twice about someone with a paper and pencil might be hesitant to give correct information to someone with a computer. 'What about me are they putting in that thing?'
Otherwise, I'm glad that the Census Bureau is looking to improve how the census is taken and lower costs.

[John Leskovec]

The article implies that they'll be going door to door. With so many dual-income household, who do they expect to find at home?

[Sandra]

The census bureau is doing a "trial run" in the Fayetteville, NC area including 9 counties. These counties are urban and rural, which is why they were selected. Hopefully this "trial run" will help to work out the problems before the 2010 census.