Why are we stuck on Census 1.0?
Summary: Millions of Australians sat down this week to give the government a snapshot of what the country looks like and what its citizens are up to, but I don't think the census went far enough with its line of questioning.
Loading... Please wait.Millions of Australians sat down this week to give the government a snapshot of what the country looks like and what its citizens are up to, but I don't think the census went far enough with its line of questioning.
The census had the opportunity to shine a light on so much more than just the age, ancestry and job status of almost 22 million Australians. The online version of the census presented a great opportunity to add extra questions about technology.
There was only one technology question in the census, and it was about whether I had access to the internet at my house. Shame, Australian Bureau of Statistics, shame.
Your census could have shone a light on how many Aussies prefer Mac and how many prefer PC, or it could have asked how many of us actually want the National Broadband Network.
Such questions would have done Australians a service too, because then we'd be able to have concrete statistics to fall back on when spats erupt between technology companies.
Apple and Android, for example, are constantly at war over their activation figures around the world. With a tech census, we could have cleared such problems right up. It's tech stat reliability that we need.
Without it, a technology company could just as easily get 10 people together, ask them a question and use that as their primary statistic for the next major advertising campaign.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) had the opportunity to clear up these foggy tech statistics for us, to give us an accurate representation of how people use what technology. But they didn't. And I'm disappointed.
Next time, ABS. Next time.
Watch the video to see the results of Nerdcam's very first census.
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Talkback
- how much internet bandwidth was used (across all devices) last month
- how many internet-connected devices the dwelling has
- actual use of the 'bedrooms', instead of just how many (as two of our three are actually used as offices).
These are some of the things that could have gone into this snapshot to help future planning, including what builders really need to fit out new buildings. New buildings could really do with Gigabit ethernet (and even more power points) to every room with the switch next to the security box.
A hugely lost opportunity considering the massive cost of running the census.
Re the other more important things, some users (probably noone reading this site) have troubles differentiating wifi (e.g. ADSL+wifi router) from 3G connections, let alone being able to report speed or Gigabyte usage. "A giga-what?". Pop census isn't the way to get even these 'important' questions. Going straight to the ISPs would be much better. Population censuses aren't the way to get this info.
I agree though that the census could have asked more questions, especially those about lifestyle. For example the only health questions related to those who require carers etc however why not have things like; do you smoke and do you use illegal drugs. If so which ones and how much a week/day/month.
Definitely the questions relating to a NBN would have been good however I would imagine that the ABS makes significant efforts to appear apolitical. The phrasing of such a question would have been battled between the marketing/colour departments of the LIBS & ALP and neither party would have been satisfied. This would have made the ABS some powerful enemies, and open to the accusation that its biased.
1) How many computers or other Internet-capable devices are in the home?
2) On average, how often would you spend time on the Internet per week?
3) How would you say the majority of your time is used on the Internet? (Now, although it may be true for some, let's not all answer "Porn" on this one)
4) What is your Internet connection speed at home?
You have the basic technology. YOU do it.
Create a website. Run weekly surveys.