RSSeNEWS to be determined...

The controversy over the abolition of Canada's mandatory long form census has given the media a high-profile angle on which to pin its reporting.

In previous years, the focus of media coverage of the conference may have been limited to stories focusing on data geeks and maths maniacs, such as Invasion of the number junkies, (in the digital edition of The Province) which described attendees as "data dicks, fraction fiends, math maniacs, probability princesses, and regression analysis retentives".

Or the item in on radio news site, News1130, headlined Thousands of statisticians letting loose in Vancouver, which commented "these guys can throw a wild and crazy convention with the best of them".

But the Invasion article included quotes from American Statistical Association (ASA) president Sastry Pantula, who described the census changes as "a mistake" and warned that Canada's development could suffer as a result.

Canada's former chief statistician Munir Sheikh, who resigned over the census changes, is due to participate in a conference panel on 2 August discussing official statistics. The Globe and Mail quoted the US census 2000 chief John Thompson, as saying that "You have to admire the head of Statistics Canada for sticking to his principles … It’s emblematic of how serious many people take their responsibility to be independent and objective.”

The online newspaper predicted that Sheikh will "be glad-handed by his peers for resigning".

• RSS Membership director Nicola Emmerson and Significance editor Julian Champkin are blogging from JSM 2010; read their posts on our homepage