By embracing the web, the US Census Bureau hopes to achieve cost savings and improved response rates. On the first count, it might succeed -- eventually. As for the second, keep your fingers crossed.
Beginning in 2014, the US Census Bureau will permit limited opportunities to respond to questions online.
The impetus for seeking savings is clear. The gargantuan paper chase cost an astonishing $42 per capita in 2010, a total of $13 billion. Finland, abandoning the door-to-door method of counting heads, has seen savings of 90 percent.
The digital dabbling will begin with an experimental sample, namely the 3.5 million households randomly selected to take part in the American Community Survey. While it's a good idea to test a system like this in a limited field trial before adopting it for the main census, the experiment is a tentative one.
While completing the survey is mandatory for the households selected, not everyone will push it to the top of their to-do list. Since the Bureau intends to send out paper surveys to any households that do not respond online within two weeks, many respondents may end up filling in a paper form anyway.
The hope that going digital will increase the appeal of the ACS, or the main survey, to groups that respond poorly is surely much less firmly grounded than the expectation of cost savings. Many households attempt to evade the census, not because it's "old media," but because they are concerned about revealing personal information, or they can't be bothered.
The last thing likely to appeal to those who prefer to stay in the shadows is the digitalization of their information. Although legal restrictions prohibit the Bureau from sharing information, the self-selected sub-group of census evaders may be the most likely to fear data-sharing with the INS, IRS, or other authorities.
As for those who simply find the census a bore, putting it online to compete with Angry Birds, Facebook, and "Gangnam Style" may not be enough. Maybe it needs to be gamified, or be teamed with special offers.
Still, we shouldn't be too cynically dismissive of what seems to be a step in the right -- anti-bureaucratic -- direction.
No nimantha.de, you have to be responsible for what you do. If not how to work. responsibility is not a thing that you should show but a thing that is required essentially for a job.
Taking responsibility is another question. It has to be taken by someone and appointing it has to be done internally. What we are referring here is a matter which is common to everyone.
"I feel that we can study well and identify the possibilities rather than waiting for something to happen and then go for the kill"
@ anthony: Im not saying what I said was the only possibility plus the point you have bought in is very good indeed but how practically possible is it ? We need to be practical not theorotical
I cant agree on it nimantha.de. I feel that we can study well and identify the possibilities rather than waiting for something to happen and then go for the kill. We should be smarter
Not really. We also have to be awae of what ae the issues that might pop-up and what kind of threats are there in the industry. Taking pre-cautions will come into place only when we have an idea of the risks and issues.
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The US boasts a commitment to "Internet freedom," but in practice that commitment falls short. What Internet freedom really means is freedom of the mind.
Our online communications and privacy are being threatened by governments and corporations. Eben Moglen believes it's time for a People's Internet, made possible by "Freedom Boxes."
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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