Dimagi

Staff Blog

Our partners, field work, technology, and everything else.

Open Data Kit

by Dan Myung on 19 March 2010

Dimagi provides support for core and custom development on the Open Data Kit platform. We work closely with the University of Washington development team that founded the open source community.

ODK streamlines data collection in the field by replacing traditional paper survey, camera, audio recorder, and GPS unit with a mobile phone and a web based server. ODK Collect is the phone application component of the ODK suite. It leverages Google’s open source Android platform to allow a single device to capture and store a diverse array of reporting data such as text, video, audio, images, barcodes, and GPS coordinates.

ODK tools provide:

  • Modulare and customizable design so tools can be composed into appropriate arrangements for each deployment
  • Open interfaces and standards to prevent “siloed” solutions
  • Data Collection tools which evolve easily with technology
  • An open source community to guide the project

ODK is a part of the OpenMobile Consortium and the OpenRosa Consortium. ODK leverages the core XForm engine from the Open Source JavaRosa project, which Dimagi engineers contributed significantly to.

For more information on the ODK project, please visit their project page on Google Code.

Yo Uganda Limited

by Justin Sitter on 3 March 2010

Project Summary

Yo! was contracted by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), with support from Dimagi, Inc. to provide an outbound IVR service in Uganda. The goal of this service is to automate the periodic gathering of research information from local participants, many of who live in remote areas. By implementing the service in a local dialect, MGH intends to maximize responses obtained per call, and the accuracy of the responses. Yo! activated this service on YBS, our advanced call routing and telephony billing system, and INTELLIVR, our highly flexible and configurable IVR platform, both of which are live and already interconnected with the largest landline provider in Uganda.

Yo! was contracted by Dimagi, Inc. to provide a two-way, redundant SMS gateway service in Uganda. Yo! has provided Dimagi with SMS-accessibility to mobile subscribers regardless of the mobile (GSM) network they are subscribed to. The purpose of this service is to facilitate Dimagi’s initiatives in Uganda, among which include research by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Yo! activated this gateway service on YBS, our advanced call routing and telephony billing system, which is already interconnected with all GSM network operators in Uganda. Yo!’s SMS gateway service is set up with redundant Internet connectivity, which ensures an always-available service.

Company Summary

Yo Uganda Limited (“Yo!”) is an ICT solutions development company specializing in telecom services, software for telecom services and consultancy. Yo! is a private limited company, incorporated in Uganda and located at 5th Floor Impala House, 13 Kimathi Avenue, Kampala Uganda.

Yo! has the full technical capacity to develop and deploy both simple and advanced software solutions. Yo! develops solutions which are a class apart through the extensive use of Computer – Telephony Integration (CTI) to produce highly interactive and user oriented products. A core design philosophy followed in all Yo!’s software solutions is multi-user capability. Yo! develops software knowing that at some point in time, there shall be need for multiple people to use the software at the same time – manipulating the same data set from possibly different geographical locations. Yo! has deployed critical telecom applications that are in use by thousands of users worldwide.

We have built solid platforms which ensure rapid turn-around time for even the most complex customizations.