ICCM 2013: Leith Baker, mFieldwork: Transition to digital data capture & the power of Medium Data
Channel: CrisisMappersNet
Date: 2014-02-18

Leith Baker from mFieldwork in Nairobi discusses the BIG transition to digital data capture in humanitarian programming and the power of Medium Data. Mobile workforces around the world use digital gadgets to collect their data.  Humanitarian programs collect mountains of structured data in order to implement their programs and report to their donors.  However, despite a variety of solutions and numerous pilots, humanitarians have not adopted this technology at scale.  Humanitarian program data is largely captured on paper and managed in excel.  This talk will explore why this transition hasn't happened yet, what we can do to accelerate the transition, and the opportunities (medium data analytics) and risks (privacy and inter-agency dynamics) of digitizing this trove of humanitarian program data. The talk will draw on mFieldwork's experience deploying digital data capture tools in remote locations in Somalia. @mFieldwork