NPR’s All Things Considered ran this story about the Census Bureau’s planned use of GPS for the upcoming census. Using 100,000 volunteers armed with GPS devices, the Bureau plans to “capture the latitude and longitude of the front door of every house, apartment and improvised shelter they find.” Wisely, the information will not be made public (though business interests are pushing for changes to this policy).
The story goes on to discuss how one county in Ohio has used Geographic Information Systems to study such local data — and use it for public services like knowing which houses to evacuate when a local reservoir was in danger of overflowing.
posted August 02, 2006 by matt
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