Census Abandons Handhelds
community, spatial data April 4th, 2008
The U.S. Census Bureau will scrap plans to use handheld computers to collect information from the millions of Americans that don’t return census forms, instead returning to paper and pencil. The change adds $3 Billion worth of manual labor costs, for an overall cost of $14 Billion, making it the most expensive count in history.
After spending $600 Million (roughly $1,200 per device) on the computer system with contractor Harris Corp., it was determined that the handheld devices were too complicated for census workers to use and that the machines weren’t powerful enough to handle the amount of data required.
Much of the blame is being leveled on the Census Bureau for mismanagement of the contract, however lawmakers have vowed to dig into the mess and to evaluate Harris Corp’s role in the problem.
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