Mobile Crowdsourcing for International Development
Collecting location, video, photo, and form data across any device for international development.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worked with Vizonomy to develop a way to collect local stories on how extreme weather events — such as flooding, extreme heat, and rising sea levels — are affecting developing communities across the world. Volunteers from USAID, the Red Cross, the WWF among others can use the public site and submit their “Stories” via a mobile device (iOS and Android). Once the form is submitted, WWF staff from Washington DC are then able to approve or edit the them prior to public viewing.
All data is stored using open source solutions. All mapping data containing each story’s exact location is stored in CARTO meanwhile all video, photo, and text information is held in a MongoDB database. Users interested in leveraging this data may use the Data Archive to preview individual stories or export them to PDF or CSV as needed. Click here to see the project live.
Empowering Our Clients and New Technologies
Using CARTO for Hosting andVisualizing Spatial Data
Every project is different. At Vizonomy, we use an array of tools, libraries, and platforms to develop customized solutions. One such platform is CARTO, a web-based GIS platform developed by one of our most reliable partners. Their solution allows us to quickly and cost-effectively build business intelligence tools that can enable users to visualize any location-based dataset — from geo-referenced stories and road networks to climate patterns and satellite imagery. Because Carto takes care of any messy maintenance, our clients are assured a reliable technology stack that will always be there.
Using Responsive Design for FormSubmissions and Web Development
Today, web design and development includes satisfying requirements across multiple devices, screen sizes, and varying resolutions. Whether you’re viewing a website in a smartphone, a tablet, or a laptop, one expects to have the same user experience across all devices. Navigating the site should be seamless and intuitive, while all information and functionalities should remain the same. For our project with the World Wildlife Fund, we worked across several prototype designs to ensure that the “Submission Form” remained consistent across screen sizes. The result is a more frictionless site that welcomes user engagement — and in this case, more stories on how extreme climate affects developing communities.
Leveraging MongoDB for Big DataCollection and Analysis
During the ideation phase of this project, our team debated which storage technology to use for archiving all the information collected from users. Finally, MongoDB was chosen due to its ability to process and store unstructured data. The new database allows varying forms of data to be stored — from videos and documents to photographs and location coordinates. As you can see here, each of these elements can be queried, previewed, and downloaded very quickly.
