Open Data Kit

The University of Washington's "Change" project has just announced a collection of tools to simplify the development of data-collection applications. Called the "Open Data Kit", the primary client target is the Android operating system (no surprise, since Google was heavily involved).

Anyway, Change hopes to help out the third world with these tools, as cellular connectivity is often the only connectivity. That's a noble cause, but it is sure to have less-altruistic uses, as well. All open-source, under the Apache license.

Here's their rundown of the goodies:

ODK Collect is powerful phone based replacement for your paper forms. Collect is built on the Android platform and can collect a variety of form data types: text, location, photos, video, audio, and barcodes.

ODK Aggregate provides a ready to deploy online repository to store, view and export collected data. Aggregate is currently implemented on Google App Engine and enables free hosting of data on Google's reliable infrastructure.

ODK Manage maintains a database of all phones in a deployment to enable remote device management. By sending an SMS to a deployed phone, Manage can trigger the transfers of forms, data, and applications.

ODK Validate ensures that you have a OpenRosa complaint form -- one that will also work with all the ODK tools.

ODK Voice facilities mapping XForms to sound snippets that can be played over a "robo" call to any phone. Responses are collected using the phone's keypad (DTMF) and are automatically aggregated.