Thanks Nikhil, had explored ODK1 and finally didn't go ahead with it for the reasons you mentioned. Had heard that Google was working on fixing some of those issues, good to see this is now rolled out. Will check.
The other alternatives we have used for diff projects are Mapunity Groups and Jotform (the advantage for one off collection that it can be done thru the browser) Regds, Meera (opencity.in) On Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 10:59:05 AM UTC+5:30, Nikhil VJ wrote: > > Hi Friends, > > TL;DR : Wanna survey without paperwork headache? Check out ODK > <http://opendatakit.org/> and Ona.io when you get the time. > > > A] ODK-1 > > ODK or Open Data Kit <http://opendatakit.org> has been an important tool > that made mobile-based survey data collection with complicated forms etc > possible. Their XLSForm structure where the form is created in excel (!) is > arguably more feature-packed than most online survey tools, and comes > somewhere between coding and non-coding. It has companion websites like > Ona.io that take care of server-side things and enable folks to get > started with on-field data collection with *zero* overhead costs. Being > open-source and entrepreneur-friendly, a lot of enterprise services in this > sector are actually running on the ODK base and have customized it to suit > specific needs. > > My experience with ODK: > 1. I have guided a team member each about this in two NGOs in Pune: CEE > <http://www.ceeindia.org> and Grammangal <http://grammangal.org/>, with > just the setup and getting started, a couple of years back, and I have seen > them deploy and take this forward far beyond my expectations. I would > recommend other NGOs who want to do this to consult them for a peer-to-peer > exchange : they'll speak in your language! (Marathi? Even more so!) > 2. I have also briefly taught about it to some interns from a social > sciences college (major CV value-add bro!), > 3. and in a crash course workshop for some governance Fellows on practical > mapping/survey techniques. > 4, But as of now I haven't myself participated in a complete survey > exercise using ODK. > > ODK community has a cool discussion forum <https://forum.opendatakit.org>, > where people can post queries. The majority or users and consequently > deployers of ODK are more from social sciences background than coding > background, so the forum is quite helpful and newbie-friendly. > > > B] Feedback > > One regular feedback coming with the ODK tool has been about the one-way > nature: If you have one project with 12 people on-field sending in data, > it's a hub-spoke model and the 12 people can't easily check what the others > have posted. They can't even retain on phone the data they themselves > collected once they have submitted it to "HQ", and so it's difficult for > team members to keep track of things and stay in the loop, especially if > they're in remote areas or on the move and can't get online on a laptop to > inspect the collected data, or cases where the field agent is comfortable > operating the phone app (multilingual btw) but not the laptop. (did I > mention, you can operate ODK in zero network coverage and sync things with > HQ at the end of the day / outing when you get back in range or climb up > the roof or tie your phone to your pet eagle or something?). > > > C] ODK-2 > > The community of developers has responded and now launched ODK-2. The > original ODK is still operational as ODK-1, and ODK-2 brings in a lot more > ways to achieve synchronisations and customizations and all. I haven't gone > though the whole thing yet, but it seems they've resolved the feedback I > mentioned earlier. > Take a look at the tour here: > https://docs.opendatakit.org/odk2/getting-started-2-user/#tour-of-the-simple-demo-application > > So it seems to me like this platform is going to enable setting up survey > exercises where the hierarchy is considerably flattened, and all the > on-field folks can see what their colleagues are collecting and co-ordinate > better. It seems like a good platform to run something like a citizens tree > mapping or large area survey exercise on. > > Screenshot: > > > > Happy exploring :) > > Disclaimer : I'm only rapid-sharing what I just stumbled upon, so will not > be able to answer detailed queries right now. For that, check out the > forum <https://forum.opendatakit.org> (and it's good to . And see here > the newsletter > <https://forum.opendatakit.org/t/community-update-2018-07-17/14072/2> > that sparked this email. > > PS: Does your org use ODK? Then get yourselves listed on the users map > <https://forum.opendatakit.org/u/user-map>, scroll to bottom of that > newsletter to know how. There's gotta be more than 2 others from India, > yaar! > > -- > Cheers, > Nikhil VJ > +91-966-583-1250 > Pune, India > Website <http://nikhilvj.co.in> > DataMeet Pune chapter <https://datameet-pune.github.io/> > Self-designed learner at Swaraj University < > http://www.swarajuniversity.org> > Payment / Contribute <https://nikhilvj.benow.in/pay> > > -- Datameet is a community of Data Science enthusiasts in India. Know more about us by visiting http://datameet.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "datameet" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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