The Australian Census: will it crash the internet and can we trust the data?
If the internet crashes when one million people hit a site like Click Frenzy on sale day, how does the Federal Government expect its site to hold up with 15 million of us due to fill out the Census tonight, asks Alice Almeida?
It was November, 2012. I was at home on the couch in my pj’s, laptop ready and active, credit card details memorized, action purchase plan plotted out, I had told mum not to call – I was ready to bag a bargain!
Click Frenzy was launching in Australia that night and the promised deals were incredible! Nothing was going to stop me from buying designer goods for 20% of the normal price. And then…. The internet broke.
We have all experienced it at some point. Whether it’s online sales, buying concert or airline tickets – it seems the internet breaking is not a rarity. Think Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian nude (not together, god help us if that ever happens!) and how the internet practically melted.
A better comparison would possibly be the ATO website last year. They pushed hard to have everyone lodge their tax online and those who got in early were rewarded with hours of error screens from overloaded servers.
As expected u cannot login and u cannot make contact on the phone. What a joke
It’s 8.15pm and the census is overloaded and crashed. Perhaps the tech behind it is from the same company that did the Olympics App which was also bloody hopeless. Do they honestly expect people to trust the security of information given when they can’t build an infrastructure that copes with the expected and known demand. Just another form of tech that over promises and under delivers. Yawn!
How can a government organise an online survey that’s bound to crash and threaten fines if not completed?
The crash of the network last night was the kiss of death for Australia ever having an online election. Or of students ever completing the HSC online.