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December 12, 2007

VIDEO: Preston Jay Waite Talks of IT in the U.S. Census

A national population census might not sound like riveting stuff—until you talk to Preston Jay Waite. The deputy director of the U.S. Census Bureau, he was part of the team that counted America in 2000 and will be overseeing the count again in 2010.

As he reels off some of the facts around the project, you start to realize that this is a really serious undertaking. It is the nation’s largest peacetime mobilization, with more than 500,000 temporary workers and a budget in excess of USD$11 billion. The aim of the exercise is to count everyone once, and in the right place. That is a task in itself, and as he points out, not everyone wants to be counted, which makes it all a lot more difficult.

This time, though, the Census is counting on technology to make a big difference, cutting costs and improving efficiency across the board. As a plenary speaker at this year’s Cisco Public Services Summit, he shared his thoughts and plans with us in this video.