Open data kit

TLDR

The paper introduces Open Data Kit (ODK), an open‑source suite of tools for building information services in developing regions, and showcases four deployments illustrating its push‑and‑pull capabilities. ODK comprises four interoperable tools—Collect (mobile data capture), Aggregate (cloud or local server storage), Voice (phone‑prompt data entry), and Build (application designer)—built on open standards and supported by an active open‑source community.

Abstract

This paper presents Open Data Kit (ODK), an extensible, open-source suite of tools designed to build information services for developing regions. ODK currently provides four tools to this end: Collect, Aggregate, Voice, and Build. Collect is a mobile platform that renders application logic and supports the manipulation of data. Aggregate provides a "click-to-deploy" server that supports data storage and transfer in the "cloud" or on local servers. Voice renders application logic using phone prompts that users respond to with keypad presses. Finally, Build is a application designer that generates the logic used by the tools. Designed to be used together or independently, ODK core tools build on existing open standards and are supported by an open-source community that has contributed additional tools. We describe four deployments that demonstrate how the decisions made in the system architecture of ODK enable services that can both push and pull information in developing regions.