Name
Dickson Samwel (@dicksonsamwel)
Photo
Location: Where do you live? Where do you work?
I live in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I am working as an Informatician in Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) where I am sustaining different projects in my department requiring electronic data capture.
Tell us a fun fact or story about yourself!
I spend a lot of my time in front of my laptop, at different times it can be programming or working on data.
How did you first find out about ODK?
I became aware of this nice tool when I started working at IHI. At our institute, the tool is being used in several studies where it has established to be very useful.
What are you using ODK for?
At IHI we use ODK in the health-related project as a data collection tool. We host the data locally which makes it be a convenient solution for different projects.
What’s your favorite ODK feature?
There are many features which like, mainly the ability to collect data offline. This feature really makes it possible to do data collection even in remote areas.
How did you get so involved in the community? What keeps you coming back & staying involved?
I was not aware of the community at first since I am always working on ODK, I came across it while googling. Since I came across it, and notice how I could be of help to others, I decided to keep providing support. The more people become skilled in this, the more popular it becomes.
What has been the greatest challenge for you in learning about ODK? (Either the software, the community, or both!)
I was able to get started on ODK just by reading online. No greatest challenge I have struggled so far.
Let’s talk about goals: Do you have any ODK-related goals for yourself, your organization, or the overall ODK community?
Since I joined the community, I see it as a place where people can easily get support hence growing more users and by this ODK popularity increases. My goal is to continue to provide support in the community or at my institute so that to increase its popularity.
What advice would you give someone who’s just learned about ODK and is considering getting involved?
My advice to them is to continue learning about the tool from the available resources. Work on different forms to see how everything works. Then provide support to the forum as a way of getting involved more.
Twitter ID: dixonmsaki