A Community-Driven Future for Open Data Kit (ODK)
Open Data Kit (ODK) replaces paper surveys with smartphones. ODK tools are open-source and are primarily used by social good organizations to collect data quickly, accurately, offline, and at scale. ODK has been used to collect billions of data points around the world. Projects include:
* The Carter Center uses ODK to get the real-time data needed to assess elections. Over the last six years, ODK has been used to monitor elections in Liberia, Egypt, Libya, Kenya, Nepal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Tunisia. Video: https://goo.gl/FVg4Ru
* Hutan Aceh in Indonesia is home to tigers, elephants, orangutans and rhinos. EIA International and local activists protect Hutan Aceh by documenting forest crimes with ODK. The geo-tagged forms, rich with photos, provide the evidence needed to save habitat. Video: https://goo.gl/eIMzRM
* For governments working to end polio, access to accurate and timely information makes a world of difference. ODK is used in Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and South Sudan as a key tool in mass polio vaccination campaign quality control. Video: https://goo.gl/AisNUh
ODK was designed for novice users in challenging environments (e.g., offline villages in Kenya or under heavy canopy in the Amazon) and its robustness in these environments has driven the platform’s adoption and evolution. Additionally, the choice to build an open source community around ODK has allowed it to benefit from volunteer and paid contributions from users, implementers, and developers.
In this talk, Yaw Anokwa and Hélène Martin, two of the leaders of the ODK community discuss the problems that inspired ODK’s design, demonstrate the impact the tools are having, and describe how the IFD&TC community can contribute to an open-source, community-driven future for mobile data collection tools.
Nafundi creates technologies that improve the lives of the underserved. Our current focus is designing, building, deploying, and supporting mobile data collection systems that work well in challenging environments. Yaw Anokwa, Nafundi’s CEO, co-founded and co-leads the ODK project with the University of Washington. Hélène Martin, Nafundi’s CTO, leads much of the technical work on the popular ODK 1.0 tools. Find out more at https://nafundi.com.