"Innovations in Mobile Data Collection for Social Action," a workshop co-hosted by MobileActive.org and UNICEF in Amman, Jordan, featured Ignite Talks -- five minute presentations by inspiring people who are using mobiles for social action in the Middle East -- and interviews with key participants. Jacob Korenblum describes the work of Souktel in Palestine, and Erica Kochi from UNICEF Innovation, the co-host of the event, illustrates why data collected by mobiles is so important for their work in Iraq.
We will be blogging and twittering this week from a workshop we are co-hosting on Innovations in Mobile Data Collection for Social Action in Amman, Jordan.
Co-hosted by UNICEF’s country office in Iraq, UNICEF Innovation, and MobileActive.org, this three-day gathering is bringing invited experts from around the world together to explore some of the key issues related to using mobiles for data collection and analysis of some of the toughest social issues.
Why are we hosting this event?
With the ubiquity of mobile technology, data collection and monitoring of key indicators from the ground up by affected populations is now possible. Mobile technology in the hands of people can now be more than a person-to-person communication medium but can be used for capturing, classifying and transmitting image, audio, location and other data, interactively or autonomously.
A few weeks ago, the Open Mobile Consortium and MobileActive.org hosted the first Open Mobile Camp. Discussions focused on open source mobile development and how mobile tools can and are being used in humanitarian work. Here are two profiles of interesting projects that were presented at the Camp.
The Humanitarian FOSS Project (H-FOSS) offers summer internships for undergraduate computing students who want to get involved in building free and open source software for humanitarian organizations. As part of H-FOSS, students from Trinity College designed a phone-based tool for search and rescue missions, scientific field-work, and other applications. Called POSIT (Portable Open Search and Information Tool), the application runs on the Android platform. In this video, H-FOSS project director Trishan de Lanerolle and Trinity College students Prasanna Gautam and Christopher Fei present POSIT.
Framework and libraries for building SMS services rapidly
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a server
Is a web-based application/web service
Resides and runs on a computer with tethered modem or mobile phone
Key Features :
Modem drivers for GSM modems and handsets, message parsing libraries, event APIs, and web interface for displaying data, exporting data, and administering system.
Main Services:
Bulk SMS
Voting, Data Collection, Surveys, and Polling
Location-Specific Services and GIS
Mobile Social Network/Peer-to-peer
Display tool in profile:
Yes
Tool Maturity:
Currently deployed
Platforms:
Linux/UNIX
Mac/Apple
Windows
All phones -- SMS
Current Version:
0.1
Program/Code Language:
Javascript
Python
Organizations Using the Tool:
UNICEF, Millennium Villages, Dimagi, Tostan, Appfrica, Berkeley Air/ E+Carbon, University of Cape Town Spatial Data Management research team
Number of Current End Users:
1,000-10,000
Support Forums:
http://groups.google.com/group/rapidsms
irc://freenode.net #rapidsms
Languages supported:
English, French, Puular, Wolof, Joola
Reviews/Evaluations:
MobileActive reviews: http://bit.ly/byF7v http://bit.ly/2beJ90 http://bit.ly/gozE3
SIPA report on Malawi: http://mobileactive.org/evaluation-rapidsms-child-nutrition-surveillance-malawi
Paper based data collection (e.g. surveys, Monitoring & Evaluation data) is very cumbersome. It's time-consuming and prone to problems like data loss. Mobile phones are an ideal tool for data collection: many people have them, they're portable, and users are familiar with them as devices. It's also very cheap to send data wirelessly to a central server.
EMIT is a mobile and web data collection system, allowing you to collect, analyse and report using live data from the field. Features include: online form creation; online or mobile interface for data entry; built-in logic, error checking and decision support; generated reports.
Ways that EMIT can be used include: organisational monitoring & evaluation; on-site decision support; home-based care; field surveys; custom surveys; and subject follow-up.
Organisations in South Africa are currently using EMIT to get trainers to send in M&E data from the field (eg number of people trained), and to record counseling registrations at VCT clinics.
EMIT is as open source application and so is free to download and customise.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a mobile phone
Is a web-based application/web service
Key Features :
online forms creation
online or mobile interface for data entry
built in logic, error checking and decision support
Epidemiologists and ecologists often collect data in the field and, on returning to their laboratory, enter their data into a database for further analysis. The recent introduction of mobile phones that utilise the open source Android operating system, and which include (among other features) both GPS and Google Maps, provide new opportunities for developing mobile phone applications, which in conjunction with web applications, allow two-way communication between field workers and their project databases.
Data collected by multiple field workers can be submitted by phone, together with GPS data, to a common web database and can be displayed and analysed, along with previously collected data, using Google Maps (or Google Earth). Similarly, data from the web database can be requested and displayed on the mobile phone, again using Google Maps.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a server
Key Features :
GPS and Google Maps data plotting
Easy to share data with multiple researchers
Main Services:
Voting, Data Collection, Surveys, and Polling
Tool Maturity:
Currently deployed
Release Date:
2009-09
Platforms:
Android
Current Version:
1
Program/Code Language:
Java/Android
Javascript
PHP
Organizations Using the Tool:
Imperial College London
Languages supported:
English
Handsets/devices supported:
Android devices
Reviews/Evaluations:
TreeHugger.com http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/epicollect-app-for-android-puts-laboratories-on-phones-your-phone.php
EpiCollect Research Paper http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006968
Studies have shown that electronic data collection and reporting reduces errors, improves the completeness and accuracy of the data collected, and reduces the time from data collection to reporting and action. GATHER is sector neutral. It is designed to support structured data collection where there is a need for larger (longer) forms and integrated data analysis and reporting.
GATHER is a platform for mobile data collection, including forms development, deployment, data collection, analysis, alerting, reporting and data transfer. It aims to work on any mobile device.
Tool Category:
Runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
Form development and deployment
Structured data collection and analysis
Reporting data from mobile devices to central database
Sorting of data for outliers, anomalies, or triggers
Main Services:
Voting, Data Collection, Surveys, and Polling
Tool Maturity:
Under development/pre-launch
Platforms:
Java ME
Current Version:
0.99
Program/Code Language:
Java
Organizations Using the Tool:
District Health Office - Homia, Uganda
Number of Current End Users:
Under 100
Number of current beneficiaries:
100-1,000
Languages supported:
English
Handsets/devices supported:
The platform currently creates forms in JavaRosa, so it requires a java-enabled device.
Evaluating the Accuracy of Data Collection on Mobile Phones: A Study of Forms, SMS, and Voice. data sheet 2429 Views
Author:
Somani Patnaik, Emma Brunskill, William Thies
Publication Date:
Jan 2009
Abstract:
While mobile phones have found broad application in reporting health, financial, and environmental data, there has been little study of the possible errors incurred during mobile data collection. This paper provides a quantitative evaluation of data entry accuracy on mobile phones in a resource-poor setting.
Via a study of 13 users in Gujarat, India, the authors evaluated three user interfaces: 1) electronic forms, containing numeric fields and multiple-choice menus, 2) SMS, where users enter delimited text messages according to printed cue cards, and 3) voice, where users call an operator and dictate the data in real-time.
Results indicate error rates (per datum entered) of 4.2% for electronic forms, 4.5% for SMS, and 0.45% for voice. These results caused the authors to migrate our own initiative (a tuberculosis treatment program in rural India) from electronic forms to voice, in order to avoid errors on critical health data. While our study has some limitations, including varied backgrounds and training of participants, it suggests that some care is needed in deploying electronic interfaces in resource-poor settings. Further, it raises the possibility of using voice as a low-tech, high-accuracy, and cost-effective interface for mobile data collection.
UPDATE: In an email conversation with Yaw, he pointed out a few additional noteworthy things about the Open Data Kit.
Here is how our client is different:
As researchers we want to push the boundaries of what organizations can do today to collect their rich data. We want users to own, visualize and share this data without the difficulties of setting up and maintaining servers. We want the tools to be easy to deploy, easy to use, open source and freely available. It is only now that technology (hardware, software and infrastructure) which matches our above ideals have become available.
ODK is more than open source, it is open standards, easy to work with and available today. We use xforms standard for input and output. Organizations can start with low end java phones and run Javarosa. When they are ready to collect data on a more powerful platform, they can move up to the ODK Collect on android phones and all their forms will still work. Results can be sent to any compatible xforms server (in fact, RapidsSMS support is coming soon).
For developers, the code base is easy to use. For example, if you wanted to add barcode reading or submission to Openmrs servers over wifi, it will take very few lines of code. We already have local African developers working on similar functionality.
We've piloted the application and are scaling rapidly. We started with twenty devices in Uganda which were used to collect over 1000 geotagged forms with images. Our upcoming deployment will be a couple of hundred devices collecting millions of forms.
ODK also has a ton of features and we adding more each day. Touchscreen UI with swipe navigation and progress bar, xforms compatible gps and photo support, question grouping, repeats and constraints, answer defaults and constraints, logic and branching in forms, and much more is coming. We put the roadmap at http://code.google.com/p/open-data-kit/wiki/RoadMap
We think we've pushed the state of data collection a bit forward. Certainly, ODK Collect is not for every organization who wants to do data collection, but for our partners who are using it now, it is providing a lot of value.
Open Data Kit (ODK) is a suite of tools aimed at resource-poor organizations to collect, transform and report their data. Developed by Yaw Anokwa and Carl Hartung from the University of Washington, ODK Collect enables mobile data collection on the Android platform. ODK is one of a growing number of mobile data caollection apps, many of which are reviewed here and here on MobileActive. This video gives an overview of the Open Data Kit. You can download the source code here.
We've been talking recently quite a lot about the many mobile apps available for data collection. We reviewed them, we featured them, we write about them. Some of you may be wondering why in the world there is such a relative plethora of tools for surveying and data gathering out there and why we keep writing about them. In short, gathering field data (and being able to analyze them in close-to-real time) allows organizations to respond quickly and accurately to need by constituents to then be able to deliver critical social services.
Here is a very short video, demonstrating Nokia's Data Gathering application, used by Amazonas' State Health Department in Brazil to monitor and treat outbreaks of dengue fever. The video is not specific to Nokia's tool -- the same benefits apply to any of the mobile tools we have reviewed. What the video does show nicely, though, is why mobile data collection matters greatly to the health and well-being of people around the world.
And if you are not convinced, take a look at this very short video about another tool, Episurveyor. It'll give you a glimpse why these tools are so critical.
In 2006 alone, aid organizations such as the Measles Initiative and UNICEF distributed almost 20 million bed nets to prevent Malaria submission in ten African countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria. The distribution and supply management of bed nets, and the follow-up surveys of recipients of bed nets --insecticide-treated nets that can reduce malaria transmission of as much as 90% in areas with high coverage rates--is a daunting logistical challenge.
Aid organizations everywhere are discovering that mobile phones are an essential part in managing supplies and distribution of nets, food, and other aid. Rapid Android is a new tool now being tested in Nigeria by UNICEF for the distribution of bed nets. Rapid Android is a supply chain management and data collection tool built on Android, the open source operating system developed by The Open Handset Alliance and Google.
Our field has discovered that mobile phones are useful tools for collecting data in the field. As a result, there is an abundance of mobile data collection applications and projects.
Unlike bulk messaging and general information services that are targeting the general public as recipients of standardized messaging, mobile data collection applications are often used internally in an organization, customized to fit with existing organizational processes.
This may mean using services or applications that are not part of most people's day-to-day experience of mobile use. Add a liberal sprinkling of jargon (and the mobile world's plague of acronyms) and you have a recipe for much technical confusion.
Yael Schwartzmann is a social entrepreneur, a programmer, and a mobile innovator. She developed a mobile data collection application-- DigitalICS -- to monitor smallholder coffee farmers' compliance with organic, fair trade certifications and quality requirements at a rural coffee cooperative in Oaxaca, Mexico. Yael will feature DigitalICS (pronounced Digitalix) at MobileActive08's SIMPlace. In my interview with her, we discuss why mobile phones are so useful for agricultural data collection on compliance and certification, how the application works, where else it could be used, and why she is passionate about her work.
Here is the audio of my interview with Yael; an edited transcript follows.
