Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow linked to a blog post about Ethan Zuckerman’s encounter in Western Massachusetts with an enumerator doing address canvassing for the 2010 United States census. Zuckerman interviewed the census worker about the Harris HTC, the handheld device used to confirm addresses and map locations in preparation for the 2010 census.
I’m doing that exact same job (for another week and a half, anyway) with the exact same machine! Check me out, I have a direct connection to something written about someone on a blog that was linked by Boing Boing. That’s no less than one level teaspoon of sweet sweet Internet cred added to my gallon jug of super-stardom — make no mistake, people!
Cheerful sarcasm aside, check out the post for a review of the Harris HTC and a little background on just how such a device ended up in the hands of half a million temporary government employees.
Minor quibble with Zuckerman’s post: the device only requires a finger swipe, tapping to agree to the user agreement, and answering one security question, not three, every time you turn it on…
Fun side note: the enumerator interviewed did a big no-no: we’re not supposed to show anyone the screens of our HTCs unless they too are employees of the Census sworn to uphold Title 13.
Possibly related posts:
WHAT THE HELL?!? Ethan Zuckerman has been a feature in my life since I was 16!!! I cannot escape him!!! And the most bizarre part of this is that I don’t think I’ve ever actually met the man in person. He just happens to be known by a lot of people I know, from about six different social networks. I hear or read about him every six months or so.
(Ethan actually seems like a really nice guy. It’s just surreal that he keeps popping up like this! I still remember his old campaign slogan: “What the fuck. Vote for Zuck.”)
I, on the other hand, hadn’t heard of him until this morning.
Aren’t you going to congratulate me for working the same job and using the same device as the person who was interviewed on the blog that was mentioned in Boing Boing? What are you, jealous???
For all info about the 2010 U.S. Census, please check out http://www.MyTwoCensus.com, the non-partisan watchdog blog of the 2010 Census.
I’ve seen your site, Stephen. I have to say I’m disappointed at how often it gets the facts wrong or depends on individual, unnamed and unverified sources that are often wrong.
On the site, it says it’s run by “two professional political journalists,” but I couldn’t find any professional journalism credits for you or Evan Goldin in the first few pages of a Google search. I’m also curious about the site’s “non-profit” status — if I donate to the site, is my donation tax deductible? I couldn’t find any information about that on the site. Is MyTwoCensus actually a non-profit? If not, where does you AdSense revenue go?
Best of luck with the site.