Open Data Kit and Other Technologies

Use of Java in the Third World

Steven M. Lewis PhD

smlewis@lordjoe.com

Computation and the Third World

Information technology has changed our lives

That technology has not penetrated the third world to the extent that if penetrates out lives

The constraints of developing for the third world are different

Challenges for the Third World

Connectivity cannot be assumed.

Power cannot be assumed

Services cannot be assumed

Money is a huge issue

Literacy cannot be assumed

Connectivity cannot be assumed

Many Villages are not wired

Wireless may be the only communications

Even this may be unreliable

Power cannot be assumed

Power may not be available

Even when available it may not be reliable

Services Cannot Be Assumed

Systems placed in villages will not be maintained

Parts will not be available

The knowledge to repair any issues cannot be assumed

Money is a huge issue

The cost of a laptop is more than the average yearly income in many countries

In India a cell phone can be bought for $12

A village might have a single cell phone

Literacy Cannot be assumed

What Device is going to have Impact in the third world?

???

Cell Phone Advantages

Very Portable

Cheap and getting cheaper

Solves problems with intermittent and rarely available power

Automatically solve the problem of connectivity

Is sealed, self contained, rugged and very reliable

Moral -

Today we talk about mobile devices as the wave of the future.

In the third world they are the only widely available computing platform

Effective solutions today need to consider the cell phone as the primary platform.

Problem – Matching Fish to Markets on the India Coast

Problem – Fishermen in India can deliver their fish to one of several markets

If a market has more fisherman than buyers, the price for fish will be very low

If there are few fisherman and many then the price will be high

Spread of Cell Phones

Effect of Cell Phones on Fish Prices

Moving Away from Paper

Community Health Workers17 Must bring health care to people

First line of defense

Routine, regular home visits

Know their community

Eyes and ears for local health

Provide education for best practices 

Current methods18

Little, if any, supervision

Paper-based forms – ad hoc design

Long time-lag to usable data

No historical data 

Our Goals19 Standardization of data

Rapid data aggregation and

analysis

Supervision of CHWs

Connection to health records (OpenMRS)

CHW + phone => Flexible, efficient platform for:Better home care (checklists, protocols, etc)

New outreach programs

Outbreak detection

Improved disease surveillance

Open Data Kit

Open-source data collection tool kit Collaboration between Google & UWashingtonForms + GPS + Picture + Barcode + Audio + Video …

Initially targeted at public health applicationsCurrent deployments in Uganda and Kenya http://code.google.com/p/open-data-kit

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Open Data Kit Toolset

Collect – Android client for data entry

Aggregate – App Engine server for data collection

Submit – multi-transport layer async data transfer

Manage – remote management tools for config

Tasks – assignment of tasks to specific workers

DB – connect forms to existing DBs for browse/update

Viz – visualization of data on graphs/maps

Super – supervisory dashboard for mobile supervisors

Planner – day planning tools for workers

SMS – communication/notification with community

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Open Standards –in JavaXforms – W3C

Same data collection forms can run on any platform

Standard HTTP client/server APIs

Allows for different server implementations

Android

Open source platform with multiple implementations by different vendors (HTC, Samsung, …)

Example: DataDyne/Episurveyor & Open Data Kit

Same forms (but different capabilities)

Data can be submitted to either server

Allows deployments to use mix of platforms

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ODK Collect

A tool build on top of XForms

Using JavaRosa (XForms for Mobile Devices) for data collection and submission on the Android

What is XForms

XForms is an XML standard developed by W3C for specifying Forms in XML

Example

Oberon forms

JavaRosa: XForms on Mobile Devices

JavaRosa

Supports a supports a subset of the xform standard

Questions are asked one per screen

Supports many phones

Written in Java ME

Open Data Kit- ODK Collect

Android library written to support JavaRosa Forms.

Supports Standard Types – text, number date, select, multiselect

Supports Bar Code, Picture, GPS inputs

Supports upload to a server running ODK Aggregate

A Little About The Android

Android should be on Java Developer's Radar

Its native language is Java

It supports full JDK 1.6

The platform is open source

Well known tools such as Eclipse and IntelliJ have Android plug-ins

Application distribution is much less controlled

Build it and they will come!

ODK Form demonstration

Form Elements

Language SectionDefine Keys for all Supported Languages

Instance SectionDefine Structure of the data

Binding SectionAnnotate requirements

Define Conditions

Input SectionDefine Controls

Language Section <itext>

<translation lang="english" >

<text id="Male" ><value>Male</value></text>

<text id="Female" ><value>Female</value></text>

<text id="Sex" ><value>Sex</value></text>

</translation>

<translation lang="german" >

<text id="Male" ><value>M&#xfffd;nnlich</value></text>

<text id="Female" ><value>Weiblich</value></text>

<text id="Sex" ><value>Sex</value></text>

</translation>

</itext>

An Aside on Translation

Google has a very nice API for translation

Machine translation is good for a first cut

Is also good for field use where a translation is needed and not translator is available

Automatic tools to add needed entries to multiple language bundles are easy and worthwhile.

My tools build the language section from language bundles

Translate Code

import com.google.api.translate.Translate;

import com.google.api.translate.Language;

public static final String WEB_SITE = "http://code.google.com/p/i18n-translator/";

public String[] translate(String[] input, Language from, Language to) throws Exception

{

Translate.setHttpReferrer(WEB_SITE );

System.setProperty("http.proxyHost", "proxy");

System.setProperty("http.proxyPort", "8080");

return Translate.execute(input, from, to);

}

Instance Section <instance>

<Student2_Registration><Name/><Sex/>

<FemaleQuestions> <StartedMenstruating/> <Pregnant/> <StartMensesAge/> <Child jr:template=""> <Name/> <Sex/> <Age/> </Child> </FemaleQuestions> <MaleQuestions> <Circumcised/> <MasterbationRate/> </MaleQuestions>

...

Binding Section

<bind nodeset="/Student2_Registration/Name" type="string" required="true()" />

<bind nodeset="/Student2_Registration/Sex" type="select1" required="true()" />

<bind nodeset="/Student2_Registration/FemaleQuestions" relevant="selected(/Student2_Registration/Sex, 'Female')" />

<bind nodeset="/Student2_Registration/MaleQuestions" relevant="selected(/Student2_Registration/Sex, 'Male')" />

<bind nodeset="/Student2_Registration/Birthday" type="date" required="true()" />

Input Section <input ref="/Student2_Registration/Name" >

<label ref="jr:itext('What_isYourName')" />

</input>

<select1 ref="/Student2_Registration/Sex" >

<label ref="jr:itext('What_isYourSex')" />

<item>

<value>Male</value>

<label ref="jr:itext('Male')" />

</item>

<item>

<value>Female</value>

<label ref="jr:itext('Female')" />

</item>

</select1>

...

Tools

PurcForms a GWT based tool for editing XForms

ODK Forms Designer a GWT tool specifically targetted to ODK

Annotation Based Generator

ODK Aggregate

Infrastructure for Storing results

Build on top of Google App Engine

Demo http://lordjoedev.appspot.com/

Deployments44 Kenya

HIV,300

CHWs

Tanzania e-IMCI, 5 clinicians

Sample Applications

Sample Applications

Sample Applications

Crisis Management - Haiti

Person Finder Demo

http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/

Person Finder Results

Other Applications

Open MRS

Patient Search

Open MRS

Demo

I-TechI-Tech (International Training and Education Center for Health

Health Workforce Development

Operations Research and Evaluation

Prevention, Care, and Treatment of Infectious Diseases

Health Systems Strengthening

http://www.go2itech.org/what-we-do

Where is the Java?

MRS and LIMS

“In every country where I-TECH works, health needs and program goals are best met when local laboratories and services are reliable, consistent, and readily available.”

Electronic Medical Record Systems (MRS)

Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)

[ http://www.go2itech.org/what-we-do/heath-systems-strengthening/laboratory-systems-strengthening/laboratory-systems-strengthening ]

Summary

In the first world the cell phone is the wave of the future

In the third world the cell phone is currently the main line computing device.

Cell phones can make a huge difference in the absence of viable alternatives.

The University of Washington has a very active program in this area

Getting Involved

Work with the CHANGE group at the University of Washington

Subscribe to the developers mailing lists for ODK and JavaRosa

Contribute time and code.

Project Links

Open Data Kit

Open MRS

University of Washington Change Center

Crisis Mappers

ODK Use

Demo

http://demo.openmrs.org/