Census unveils interactive website

The Census Bureau is going interactive, much like the rest of the federal government. It launched an interactive website on Monday that gives people a chance to ask questions. The site includes sound, videos, blogs and even a trivia question.

"There's something on there for everybody," Census spokesman Stephen Buckner told USA Today. "It's the launch of a two-way conversation we hope to encourage."

The site includes a blog by Census Director Robert Groves, and will feature three top questions of the day, from discussions on the site and chatter on the agency's Twitter and YouTube accounts and Facebook page. It hopes to energize the public, especially those who are young and single.

"The under-30 group is almost universally online," said Aaron Smith, research specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit that studies the social role of the Internet.

The rest of the country is going online, too. When the last Census was taken in 2000, half the nation was online. Today it's eight in 10 people. The website has one goal--a campaign to get people to fill out their Census questionnaires this year. The numbers will be used to reapportion seats in Congress and provide funding formulas for $400 billion in federal money to the states.

For more on the interactive Census:
- see this Federal Times article

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