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April 04, 2008
Back to ... (not the future)
File this under "big black eye" -- Census Back to Pen and Paper - washingtonpost.com:
The government is dropping plans to use handheld computers to count millions of people, citing problems with a contract that was intended to make the 2010 Census the nation's first high-tech head count.
The Census Bureau had planned for its workers to use wireless handheld devices to collect information from people who don't mail in forms, replacing the clipboards, pens and paper that they used in the past. The agency hired Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., under a $600 million contract, to build 500,000 handheld computers and create a system to manage the data, as well as other services.
But problems with the devices and a long list of changes that census officials asked for -- at one point reaching 417 new or clarified technical requirements -- vastly increased costs and made officials question whether the plan was manageable.
Having served as the Senate staffer on one of the oversight committees for the 1990 Census, I know what a massive undertaking this is. So the folks at Census have my sympathy -- but only those who now have to deal with the mess. That the contract was allowed to get to this point is a black eye on the Bureau and needs to be looked into.
This one is right up there with the recent Heathrow fiasco (and no, I was not caught up in the resulting airline delays during my recent travels - but did have to scramble for a hotel room when the hotel I had booked had to accommodate large groups who were delayed) -- see BA sees Heathrow chaos clearing | Business | Reuters.
Just a reminder that Murphy's Law is alive and well in the I-Cubed Economy.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at April 4, 2008 07:17 AM
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