Nokia Data Gathering is a new software solution to help organizations quickly and accurately collect field data on mobile devices. The concept enables any organization to avoid the expense and delay of manual data collection, which frequently involves duplication of data entry, errors in transcription and tons of paper.
The Amazonas State Health Department in Brazil was the first to use the solution as part of its fight against dengue fever in the city of Manaus in Northern Brazil. It is now used also in Liberia for registering births and deaths, Indonesia for child sponsorship and in the Philippines for monitoring agricultural production. Companies can also save significant sums in carrying out market research.
Now that the platform is open source, the software is available free of charge. It can be used “˜as is’ or tailored to the more specific needs of an organization. In everyday use, it enables the creation of tailored questionnaires, which can be distributed to mobile phones using a normal mobile network. Field personnel can quickly complete the questionnaires and immediately transmit their findings to a central database. The system also enables geo-tag data with GPS location information to build a more detailed picture of local conditions.
Nokia Data Gathering helps organizations to collect data using mobile phones instead of paper forms, PDAs or laptops. Since mobile phones can send data from even remote locations, data can be transferred for analysis in close to real time. This makes the Nokia Data Gathering solution a very attractive option for many institutions or enterprises, be they in the field of health, emergency services, environment, agriculture, population statistics, conservation, or indeed almost any venture imaginable.
The code, software packages, user manuals and guides can be downloaded from the Nokia Data gathering online community at Forum Nokia, and a discussion forum for questions and comments can also be found there. In addition, Nokia hosts a server where potential users and developers can test the solution without having to install their own servers.
More information can be found by visiting www.nokia.com/datagathering.