Data collection in a degraded network
Azanzi Jiomekong, Laurent Broto, Daniel Hagimont, Suzy Temate, Maurice Tchuenté · 2012
An essential component in public administration (health systems management, municipality management, environmental protection, agriculture etc.) is the data collection service. Data collected concerns key information that can improve the living conditions of populations (epidemiological data, environmental data, weather data etc.). This collection is difficult in developing countries or in situations of crisis (notably natural disasters). Current solutions are inadequate, for they assume the availability of client terminals, the presence of outstanding (Internet) communication networks, or they provide a service based on a primitive communication via SMS and data furnishing through mobile phones which are prone to data entry errors. In this paper, we propose a compromise between these approaches. A dedicated language allows the definition of input masks with which are generated (i) HTML forms enabling a reliable entering of data from a computer (ii) in which formats of SMS messages have to be exchanged between the input terminal and the data processing server. The implementation of this approach is based on a Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) technology, and it has been applied to Health Information Systems (HIS).