Ten years ago, I started asking questions about the census. Little did I know that I entered a Hotel California-esque vortex. Each question led to another question as I started to discover just how infrastructural the census is. Want to understand American democracy? The census is the key. Curious how to ensure data quality? The census has insights. Invested in responsible AI? The census has lessons. And on and on it went.

Well, today is the official publication day of Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census, which is my attempt to use storytelling to explain the power and beauty of the census. The book is an account of the 2020 census, a love letter to civil servants, and a how-the-sausage-is-made story. Three arguments are woven through the book like red threads:

• Data are made (not found). How they are made really matters. And making data is more than meets the eye.
• “Jenga politics” is configuring our government and world, creating precarities that we must learn to see before it’s too late. Everyone loses when the tower falls, even if only one player gets blamed.
• The key to data’s legitimacy rests in the social fabric that surrounds the data, moreso even than the quality of the data itself. We must invest in social fabrics to ensure that data is robust, trusted, and able to anchor high-stakes decisions.

While census nerds are bound to smile at some parts of the book (and get mad at me for others), this book isn’t just meant for census nerds. It’s meant for anyone who cares about democracy, American politics, and government. And it’s meant for anyone passionate about data, AI, and our sociotechnical world. All too often, we take the systems that undergird our society for granted. We must learn to see the infrastructures of our society to protect them. And democracy’s data is precisely that: data infrastructure.

In the US, we might speak of the importance of the Constitution. The census is at the top: in Article 1, Section 2. Yet many who care about the Constitution or politics know little about how the census works. Our data infrastructure is being politicized and our Census Bureau is being battered. Despite being ordered to oversee a census, Congress has absconded with its responsibilities.

Civil servants work on behalf of the American people. And yet, Democrats have long pushed to outsource government to the private sector, arguing that bureaucrats are too incompetent to do the work. Meanwhile, Republicans have worked to obliterate the administrative state, blaming the so-called “deep state” for spiting them. The public has heard politicians’ messages and often believes that civil servants are malfeasant or stupid, incompetent or useless. Meanwhile, Iceland has a Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat. (Why don’t we?)

I want the American people to understand and appreciate the hard work that civil servants do on our behalf to uphold American democracy. If you’re reading this, please take a moment to reach out to any civil servant you know and thank them for their service. And if you don’t yet know a civil servant, it’s time to adopt one. They need our collective support so that they can work on our collective behalf, regardless of who is in power.

But brace yourself. The battles around the census are about to get much more intense. After all, the key decisions connected to the 2030 census are going to unfold over the next two years. The Congress that is elected this November will make all of the critical decisions. They might choose to abscond with their responsibility and simply not act, but that too is a choice. Even right now, there’s a Federal Register Notice out there that will radically upend how the 2030 census will operate. Learn more at Hands Off Our Census.

Anyhow, I have a lot more to say. Heck, I edited 350K words down to a reasonable sized book in the hopes that you’d come along for the ride. The book is now here. And it’s in English and French, audiobook and ebook. I want it to be easy for anyone to read it. And if purchasing the book isn’t viable for you, ask your library for a copy. Libraries are awesome!

I’m also going to run around the US this fall (and France in January!) talking about this work. So come talk with me. Ask questions. Help me celebrate the important work of civil servants. And help us all work to ensure that the census is able to continue serving as democracy’s data. Details of the book tour will be kept up-to-date on my website.

Finally… If you’ve gotten this far, thank you. Getting a book into people’s hands isn’t easy, especially now. I could use your help. If you can, help spread the word. Let other people who care about democracy and data know about this project. If you read the book, write a review or tell a friend. Word-of-mouth really matters. Thank you.