DataWinners

Launched in January 2012, DataWinners is an online, do-it-yourself mobile data collection service for organisations in the developing world, designed by Human Network International (HNI). Using the service, organisations transform paper forms into digital questionnaires, and staff then submit data in seconds using any combination of short message service (SMS), smartphone, and Web with the equipment they already have.

Those who sign up for DataWinners receive: access to the DataWinners website, a local telephone number in their project country, and a bulk SMS package. From the DataWinners website, they: design and build data collection questionnaires (forms) for their project, create training materials that teach staff how to format SMS responses to their questionnaires, register data senders and subjects, and create automatic reminders that send SMS messages reminding staff to send in data. In the field, their staff then collects answers to questionnaires and text the answers to the local number provided by DataWinners. The service works with any phone that can send SMS. Back at the DataWinners website, they have access to view, analyse, and download the data in real time. They can share the data by setting account and user permissions, enabling others in their organisation to have immediate access to critical project information.

More than 1,500 humanitarian, development, and relief organisations in over 110 countries use DataWinners to shorten the time between data collection and decision making. Sectors include public health, education, water and sanitation, early warning systems, food security, conservation, and agriculture. Click here for a few examples of how partners are using DataWinners.

An international partnership of private sector companies, academic institutions, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are working collaboratively to create and manage DataWinners.com as an open-source project. The team publishes updates to the software every 4-6 weeks to add new features and fix bugs based on partner feedback. Their goal is to create a global community, working together to make mobile data collection better. They encourage partners to contribute code and ideas so that DataWinners will continue to innovate.