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Government Executive Editor in Chief Tom Shoop, along with other editors and staff correspondents, look at the federal bureaucracy from the outside in.

Gearing Up for the Count

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In 1890, the Census Bureau began using tabulating machines to count millions of Americans after it took nearly a decade to complete the constitutionally required counting of U.S. residents 10 years earlier. Former Census employee Herman Hollerith invented the punch-card machines and went on to found what became IBM. In 2010, Pearson Government Solutions of Arlington, Va., will scan paper census forms and process surveys of Americans using the Decennial Response Integration System. According to the company, the contract for the system, which it won as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin, is worth more than $100 million. In 2000, Pearson operated one of three data centers for the census, processing about 46 million census forms in 120 days.--Daniel Pulliam

 

Tom Shoop is vice president and editor in chief at Government Executive Media Group, where he oversees both print and online editorial operations. He started as associate editor of Government Executive magazine in 1989; launched the company’s flagship website, GovExec.com, in 1996; and was named editor in chief in 2007.

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