William (Bill) Lester, NPOKI

It’s an old problem, made worse by the tantalizing potential that technology provides: how do you collect and aggregate quality data when you work in low resource areas?

Imagine this scenario:

You’re an NGO working in an African country to advocate for clean water. You accomplish this by educating the people of that country on all aspects of safe water, and you lead projects that help to improve the quality of the water supply. You are funded to do this by a US foundation. As proof of your success, you need to gather data from each and every encounter you have with your clients and partners and field projects, and use that data to create qualitative and quantitative metrics of success. That means collecting the data at the source, aggregating the data, verifying the data, creating meaningful reports, and analyzing the data for decision-making. You have a great staff, but they are not sophisticated in the use of technology tools. There is no real infrastructure. Telephone, and internet, and electricity, and fuel are spotty. You have paper and pen, but in this harsh environment, even collecting data the old fashioned way can be unreliable. And even when you’re able to get data from your staff, what’s the best way to aggregate that data?

So what do you do? How do you start to tackle this problem?

For the last 15 years or so, there have been many experiments using the tools of technology and new media to improve data collection. These efforts have met with mixed success. They include things like:

• Access/FileMaker databases on desktops or laptops
• PDAs
• Mobile phones
• Tablets/Touchscreen devices
• Scanners
• Wikis/Blogs
• Voice Recorders
• Email
• Floppy disks/CD-ROMs

Sometimes the problem is the technology -- or rather, inappropriate technology. Computers and phones require power, and whether batteries or electricity, if you don’t have it, you can’t work. Wikis and blogs require some writing skills (in addition to power).

Sometimes, the procedures aren’t right. For instance, if you don’t back up your data (seamlessly), you can easily lose all the work you’ve done. 

Sometimes the problem is training. Your staff need to be able to use the tools you give them comfortably.

Sometimes the problem is cultural. People can fear or mistrust or envy someone walking around with a laptop or a PDA.

Sometimes the environment is too harsh or too dangerous. There are bugs. (Literally!)

And sometimes the problem is something you never imagined.

A few things have changed for the better. Infrastructure has improved. The cost of some technology tools and solutions has gone down. More and more people are comfortable using the tools. Those of us who collect data in low resource areas continue to evaluate technology’s role in finding the proper solution(s) for collecting data.

If you look at the path that information must travel, there is a point where the tools that NGOs have used for data collection work well. As information moves up and down the highway, from headquarters to field offices to in-country partner organizations, to consultants, and volunteers, and to the general public or the clients or the project sites, there is a point where the structure breaks down. It’s often referred to as the “last mile”, but the term I prefer is the” Edge of Network”. That’s the point where you are dealing with people and forces outside of your area of comfort – the area that you cannot control.

My friend Damir Simunic of WA Research talks about the "principles of success on the edge”, and while he is addressing the problems of virtual collaboration, these rules apply to those of us who design technology solutions as well.

The first and foremost of these principles is SIMPLICITY.

The tools we use must be simple enough (limited features, limited points of failure, easy recovery) for the task of data collection. A check of a YES or NO box or an ON/OFF voice capture or a tap of a few keys on a keyboard or a finger on a touchscreen and you’re done!

The second of these principles is OWNERSHIP.

The users of the tools must feel as if they own the solution. Often, it’s as simple as branding. Sometimes, it’s having the solution use local languages or other appropriate cultural marks. Pictures or colors that evoke locality and ownership can help. The user must understand the importance of the role that s/he plays.

The third of these principles is BASIC TECHNOLOGY.

You need foolproof solutions that work. For instance, we like email and SMS. These text-based simple communications technologies require such basic resources, that they can be easily maintained. Building solutions upon basic technology improves the likeliness of success.

The last of these principles is TRAINING.

Basic comfort in the use of technology tools in general, and the solution you’re advocating in particular is a necessary part of success at the edge. Peer training is the ideal method, since it engenders trust between equals.

With these principles, you have the start of understanding how to solve the problems of data collection in low resource areas.