Off The Beat: Want Hawaii Census Data? Ask FedEx
When the U.S. Census Bureau Tuesday morning that it had shipped local data to Hawaii, it really meant “ship.”
Yes, it’s 2011 and e-mail has long since overtaken snail mail as the preferred method of distribution.
But according to the Census Bureau, “ship” means burning the data to a compact disc and then sending it via Federal Express. For most states, that means the data will arrive the next day. In Hawaii, it could conceivably take until Thursday.
It’s not as if the Bureau doesn’t have the data in electronic form. As soon as Hawaii’s power brokers — Gov. Neil Abercrombie and majority and minority leaders in the Hawaii Legislature — confirm the FedEx guy or gal has come and gone, someone in Washington, D.C. will hit the publish button and make the data available via and the nifty . We were told that might happen at 10 a.m. Hawaii time Wednesday, but now 10 a.m. Thursday is looking more likely.
Sure, we’ve already waited a decade for these Census numbers, so what’s another day? But in this era of instant Internet gratification, it’s hard to imagine waiting for a delivery man.
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