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Australia Conducting Electronic Census

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the please-list-ammunition-separately dept.

ajdlinux writes "On 8th August 2006, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will be conducting the 2006 Census of Population and Housing. The big difference this year is that you will now be able to fill out your census online. The technology, developed by IBM, cost AU$9 million and is designed to be accessible to screen readers, and, unlike similar efforts in Canada, does not require any special software. However, there is concern that the 2011 eCensus could be integrated with the proposed Human Services Access Card. Will this turn the Census from an anonymous snapshot into one connected with name-identified information?"

14 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Special software for Canada? by Zab+UvWxy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Funny, I filled in my household's data the week the census was opened for submissions, and I sure don't recall having to install any special software. Maybe it was a Java applet, but it sure as hell wasn't anything that I had to take action on.

    Fellow Canuckleheads, did you have to install anything?

    --
    "I don't get it." -- ObviousGuy
    1. Re:Special software for Canada? by Reed+Solomon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I Already had Java installed. How hard is it to install Java and a web browser? Worked fine. The only sickening thing about the Canadian census was it was being handled by an american firm. Like I want my information sifted through by the american government just because it goes through an american proxy and is subject to american laws? Screw that.

  2. NZ did it first :-) by roca · · Score: 4, Informative

    The NZ census held earlier this year supported Web-based online filing. It was a very clean UI (some touches of DHTML to streamline the interface), worked in IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera, and overall seemed to work very well indeed.

    1. Re:NZ did it first :-) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
      It was a very clean UI (some touches of DHTML to streamline the interface), worked in IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera,
      Thanks :) Although it was Asp.Net we ended up using standards-compliant validators and it worked well. Our performance testing meant that it didn't come down during peak times too.

      IBM have a poor performance record in Australia, anyone remember their Olympics site which was an accessibility nightmare and how they lied to say it would cost 50M to support WAI Level 1?

    2. Re:NZ did it first :-) by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Insightful
      who gives a shit what the hell NZ does.

      You should. NZ is often well ahead of the pack when it comes to political freedoms. Universal suffrage, indigenous rights, social services and even the McGillicuddy Serious Party were established there well in advance of most of the world.
      I'm an Aussie, so I should be taking the piss out of them, but the Kiwis benefit strongly from having a compact country, well educated population and a history of pragmatic politics.

      PS, I'm a little ashamed of saying nice things about UnZudders, so if uny uv ewes read thus, please take the puss ut uv yersulves. Thunks.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  3. I'd like to see the hardware. by Frogbert · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd like to see the hardware they have to handle the web traffic. There will be litterally millions of people trying to access the webpage on the day. I'd really like to submit my information electronically but I'm not going to wait around for ages to do it if the system dies in the arse.

    I'd rather fill out the form if its going to take me just as much time to submit it online.

    Assuming the system stands up to the traffic I'm all for it. I can type my details much faster then write them and I don't have to talk to the census collector when they come to get it.

    Also:
    Jedi as your religion FTW!

  4. What special software? by Minwee · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Canadian online census form required a web browser and Java. While that's a step up from being a plain HTML form, I think calling it "special software" is a bit of an exaggeration.

  5. Don't Fear the Census by Umbral+Blot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is silly to worry about the cenusus being used to collect your personal information. The government already does that much more frequently and accurately through taxes.

    --

    Philosophy.
  6. This Census is a Wasted Opportunity by sasha328 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The census comes around every 5 years. The questions are so bland, and demographic as to really make this census, not useless, but a wasted opportunity.
    It would have been so easy to include some extra questions (not political ones, because no government would agree in mid-term), but rather social questions. Like some national survey instead of a selective one (like a poll of a 1000 people).
    I can think of one question that would be highly applicable to all Australians:
    Would you support recycled sewerage being pumped back to the potable water supply?
    Or
    Rate your preference for a solution to the water shortage problems: 1) Desalination, 2) recycling, 3) more dams, 4) long distance canals, 5) relocate the towns/cities, etc...

    But, all the questions are related to how do you get to work, how much do you earn and where do you study...
    Sad. Same questions as last census.
    Hopefully in the future this will change.

    1. Re:This Census is a Wasted Opportunity by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Informative
      I can think of one question that would be highly applicable to all Australians: Would you support recycled sewerage being pumped back to the potable water supply?

      How about "Have you stopped beating your wife?".

      All water is "recycled sewage". Every drop you drink has been pissed out of billions of creatures. Back to the question: You have to give alternatives, obviously no one will choose to drink "recycled sewage" whewn you ask that question. What is the alternative "fresh, clean, distilled water at zero cost"? (I think not.) Paying more for desalinated water? Paying more to pipe it in from thousands of miles away? Singapore has been drinking "recycled sewage" for decades, and a more antiseptic place you've never seen.

  7. Screwing up methodology? by NewsWatcher · · Score: 3, Interesting
    "Will this turn the Census from an anonymous snapshot into one connected with name-identified information?"

    I would think another problem is that it will mean the census is no longer a snapshot of a single day in Australia.

    Check out this article.

    --
    If the pattern goes 9am, 10am, 11am, why isn't noon 12am?
  8. Anonymous snapshot? by Swift(void) · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Will this turn the Census from an anonymous snapshot into one connected with name-identified information?"
    Errr, the first 2 questions of the census is "Whats your address" and "Whats the name of everybody at this address on census night". They dont need some card to tie the data to particular people. They can already do that if they want, and have been able to for many many years. I am sure it would not take too much effort for them to find out how much money i was earning 4 years ago, whether i have moved house, and what phoney religion i put in last time.
    1. Re:Anonymous snapshot? by Elvis77 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Commonwealth Government already know all about you if you:
      1. Pay taxes
      2. Get allowances for your children or
      3. Have a child born.

      When our 4th child was born I earned too much money to be able to claim the $15.00 per fortnight allowance so we didn't fill in the forms in the hospital ($15.00 I don't have to earn is better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick right?). Three years later when Ethan was going to day care they (the Commonwealth Public Servants) had kittens

      "When did you adopt Ethan?", "Are you his natural mother?" "When did you get possession of Ethan?" His birth certificate sorted it out in the end.

      For the non Aussies out there the State Government registers births and issues birth certificates but the Commonwealth Government pays the $15.00 per fortnight and childcare allowance.

      --

      The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed (SK)
  9. Please, spare us by violet16 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Christ, the last thing you want is to start putting questions like that on a census.

    Almost all social research can deliver highly accurate findings using a relatively small sample. Interviewing one thousand people will give you extremely high levels of confidence in the results, providing of course you don't fuck up the methodology. After that, you're mostly wasting everybody's time.

    Australians are required to complete the census by law. Even if you make the questions optional, adding a bunch of "nice-to-know"s is a big misuse of national manpower. And just imagine the kind of push-polling you'd get if you opened the floodgates and let government departments throw in social-research questions. ("Do you support the government protecting the lives of unborn babies by banning stem cell research?")

    There's a need for social research, and governments already do enormous amounts of it. But you don't need to interview 20 million people to find out that most people don't like the idea of drinking recylcled sewerage.

    --
    I should buy some cement.