ODK

ODK's Entities feature lets you collect and use data about people, places, and things over time. This video shows an Entities-powered example of a bed net distribution project where you register households and then return to the households with children to distribute bed nets.

🎅🏾 We’re closing out the year with a not-so-small gift for field teams: built-in Entity mapping. Mapping Entities helps project managers quickly see what’s happening with households, plots, or assets without digging through tables or dealing with exports. With just one click, you can now: ✅ Spot quality issues like suspicious clustering of households. ✅ Learn how field staff are progressing on registering plots. ✅ Use filtering to find which assets need follow-ups. If you’re using ODK Cloud, this update will roll out in the coming days. If you’re not using ODK yet, request a demo at getodk.org to learn more.

The story of Baltipar’s comeback shows what’s possible when communities gain reliable water, solar irrigation and coordinated support across sectors. But none of that progress happens without timely, structured, trustworthy data. Whether your organization works in water, agriculture or health, ODK Cloud takes care of all the hassles of data collection so your team can focus on impact rather than infrastructure. Request a demo at getodk.org to learn more. Full story: villagesquare.in/reviving-balti…

Fantastic ODK Insiders call last week! Highlights: • Langen Mallya (@WWF Tanzania) showed ODK + QGIS for community conservation • We shared our proposal for preventing invalid polygons • New updates in Central, Web Forms, and the Collect beta Watch the full call: youtube.com/watch?v=KD3Eck…

Our latest update adds three major features to help you collect higher quality data. 🗺️ See your data on a map — Visualize submissions with points, lines, and shapes to spot gaps, verify coverage, and understand your data in context. And yes, the map supports clustering! 🧹 Manage Entities in bulk — We’ve heard your feedback and have added time-saving bulk deletion of multiple Entities. More bulk operations are coming soon! 📍 Collect better location data — Participants can now choose places directly from a map in Web Forms! When a place is an Entity, its details appear automatically for added context. If you’re on ODK Cloud, these improvements will roll out automatically. If you self-host, upgrade instructions are in the docs. forum.getodk.org/t/odk-central-…

Our new Web Forms brings the power of ODK to any device and takes it to the next level. Now, when choices are Entities with location data, you’ll see them right on a map, along with any other relevant details.

When lifeguards in southwest France needed faster, smarter ways to prevent drownings, David Carayon built a monitoring system that transformed their operations. Using ODK and Shiny, he created a real-time data pipeline that replaced paper logs with instant analytics, interactive dashboards, and predictive insights that gives lifeguards the information they need, when they need it. After improving efficiency on five beaches in 2023, the system has scaled up and is now reaching 150,000 people and helping save lives on 80 beaches! David's talk on Rescuelog won 1st place at the Shiny in Production conference. Download the slides below to learn more about how the system works and the impact he's having. hal.inrae.fr/hal-05312032v1…

Maps make patterns pop. The next ODK release adds a native map view for submissions and entities, giving project managers the geospatial insight they need to make faster, better decisions.

Missed last week's Insiders call? Here are the highlights... 🔄 Central: Built-in support for mapping submissions and Entities is shipping soon. Also, creating Entities from repeats! 🚀 Collect: Improved barcode scanning, faster performance for forms with thousands of media files, and smarter handling of failed downloads. 📍Web Forms: XForm logic support is complete, “select one from map” is coming soon and Markdown support is also on the way. ⚡️Lightning talk: Joy Bindroo showed how ODK is powering digital disease tracking for India’s black fever elimination program, now scaling nationwide. Thanks to everyone who joined, brought fun hats and mugs, and helped celebrate @yanokwa's birthday in style! youtube.com/watch?v=aCpURz…

At the 2025 ODK Summit, Amour Nyalusi showcased how OMDTZ empowers youth and local communities to use ODK for mapping humanitarian challenges across Tanzania. Through a human-centered design approach, they focus on training, capacity building, and data visualization by creating workflows that are practical, inclusive, and grounded in community needs. youtu.be/cmWCZeeBOTc

At ODK, we actively reach out to folks in the field and ask for their feedback. Their use cases shape what we build and how fast we ship it. Here’s what we’re learning from field teams about Entities. 🔁 Entity creation from repeats would make use cases like household listings much easier. 📸 Attaching photos and other files to Entities would help projects collect higher quality on later visits (e.g., what did this plot look like in 2024?) 🗺️ Task-oriented, map-based experiences are in demand, though some workflows will always resonate better in a form-first approach. We’ve already folded this feedback into the roadmap. If you’ve been using ODK, you know how quickly new functionality has gone from idea to reality. That pace isn’t slowing down... 👉 See the full research summary and roadmap update here: forum.getodk.org/t/help-us-shap…

At the 2025 ODK Summit, José Kalonji shared their impactful work on how SANRU and the Against Malaria Foundation have registered millions of households and distributed over 128 million bed nets since 2019 in Congo, all powered by ODK. His talk highlighted the scale and impact of their work in malaria prevention. youtu.be/jW-K5TGFmZo

ODK Collect v2025.3 is out! Here the biggest improvements: 🤳 Barcode scanning is more accurate, even with distorted codes. 🔄 Form downloads keep running, even if your screen locks. 🚀 Forms with thousands of media files update even faster. We build what you ask for, so here's you chance. What should we build next?

At the 2025 ODK Summit, Cristan Dave Zablan shared how the Philippine Space Agency is using ODK and citizen science to monitor and protect mangrove forests, which is critical to climate resilience, biodiversity, and disaster risk reduction. With over 29,000 hectares lost between 2000 and 2020, the need for satellite data with on-the-ground validation is key to guide conservation efforts. youtu.be/C2Eyj8nEo3s

At the 2025 ODK Summit, Tyler Depke from International Literacy and Development shared how he co-designs ODK forms with non-literate users to support rural farming families in growing nutritious food year-round. He discussed design strategies for low-literacy environments, how they manage usage in remote areas, and how community feedback on the forum helps them iterate and improve. youtu.be/5LziLxkBnAc

We're honored that the @APA_Planning has recommended ODK as the go-to tool for collecting and using structured data for community assessments, building inspections, or other planning projects. We’re proud to be featured alongside: - @knime: build data processing and analysis workflows with ease - @Wix: share findings, dashboards, and project updates with the public - Project Jupyter: blend code, text, and outputs in one environment - MapServer: render and publish interactive spatial data to the web Huge thanks to Cynthia J. Albright, Lian Plass, and the APA team for highlighting tools that strengthen urban data infrastructure. planning.org/planning/2025/…

At the 2025 ODK Summit, Riley Graudin shared how Compassion International supports holistic child development across 29 countries, reaching over 2.3 million children. He walked us through their monitoring and evaluation framework designed to rigorously measure the impact of community-based interventions. youtu.be/6EGmdbouYVE

At the 2025 ODK Summit, Thiago Hernandes Rocha presented WHO PAHO's use of Entities to support household mapping and follow-up visits as part of a population microcensus in Uruguay. He explained how their team estimated populations within vaccination site catchment areas, and how those figures were validated through house-to-house visits across five municipalities. youtu.be/dckRcvMnlC4

At the 2025 ODK Summit, Caitlin Clary shared how Biostat Global is using ODK to find and understand clusters of unvaccinated children. She showed how her team incorporates feedback from caregivers and frontline health workers, and how they iteratively redesign forms to anticipate mistakes, reduce friction, and support more accurate data collection using human-centered design principles. youtu.be/o_BuOROXbcc

The data from all 28,932 participants across 84 clusters in the new landmark malaria study in the New England Journal of Medicine was collected with, you guessed it, ODK! The trial found that monthly doses of ivermectin reduced malaria infections in children by 26% compared to albendazole. No safety concerns were found. Congratulations to Carlos J. Chaccour D., Marta Maia, Mercy Wanjiru Kariuki, Paula Ruiz-Castillo, Caroline Wanjiku, PhD, and the rest of team who made this work possible. Read the study at nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

At the 2025 ODK Summit, Vijay Datadin gave an inside look at how his team uses ODK across departments, from field inspections to asset tracking, as part of a broader digital transformation at Guyana Power and Light, which provides electricity to 90% of Guyana’s population. youtu.be/dUL5bvNq0FY