Since the start of the pilot program and the integration of the Open Data Editor (ODE) in our open data analysis process, it has proved to be a timely & incredibly useful tool that has enabled us to simplify our tasks & save on time.
Our Work
My organization’s work primarily involves advancing atmospheric (air) & freshwater rights & justice in climate-vulnerable & disenfranchised communities across Kenya through grassroots engagement, citizen science & field research.
Additionally, we seek to promote positive urban habitability/livability in Kenya’s major towns & cities by using citizen-generated data to highlight the adverse health effects of excessive noise exposure on passengers/commuters of the country’s notorious & loosely regulated public service vehicles (matatus).
How ODE has Helped Our Work
Prior to participating in the ODE pilot program, my team has faced challenges that greatly hampered our capacity to meet our mission. These have ranged from limited data science experience, a small volunteer team and ageing devices computers/laptops.
In the past three months, ODE has complemented our task flow process and has especially proved instrumental in simplifying two of our open data programmes – Bungeni (electoral & parliamentary monitoring data) and Infrastracker (environmental data on air quality & noise pollution) by placing it at the centre of these respective processes.
Through the Bungeni programme, we have amassed Kenya’s largest electoral dataset dating back to the first election in 1924. This has been in the form of printed archival government data from various institutions and little effort has been made to digitize these important records on Kenya’s democratic development journey. We have spent 650 work hours scanning bulky data and converting it into tabular data format but due to technological limitations, numerous errors have been carried over into the scanned Excel files that raise questions on the fidelity of the data. ODE has been instrumental in identifying these type errors and helped clean up ahead of publication.
Through the Infrastracker programme, we have generated large useful datasets & multimedia content generated by our sets of action cameras, smartphones & portable air quality monitors, portable noise/ sound pressure level (SPL) meters. These tabular datasets include geolocation data, readings from the various instruments & video footage need extensive compilation to give a road user’s point of view (POV) regarding exposure to environmental variables. The multimedia & open data outputs are referred to as street-by-street air quality (SSAQ) assessments published on various video sharing platforms including our organization’s YouTube channel. We have used ODE to assess the integrity & validity of the compiled datasets to ensure consistency in our temporal data. Merging these different data types into one worksheet with timestamps being the reference point is challenging and results in numerous errors that compromise the sequence of data readings hence the need for ODE to identify cell gaps, numerical and type errors
How Could ODE Be Better
Retrospectively, I initially viewed ODE as a data modification tool – a digital correction fluid for spreadsheet datasets, whose main function was to identify errors and gaps in my work. However, after interacting with it and streamlining our internal processes over the last three months, my team and myself have truly appreciated its potential and would propose the following:
- Search/Find & Replace feature: I observed that working with OCR compatible Excel files in ODE can result in the occasional false identification as type errors or inaccurate special character identification (symbols and
- Wider selection of font types and size/ zooming capability of ODE: Visually impaired users including myself, have difficulty adjusting to the default font and zoom setting which can affect legibility and user-friendliness. An accessibility-friendly ODE will be a win for all users.
- Freeze Top Row feature: This will help easily navigate the data without losing track of the header row and make the file easier to organize & read.
- Better export functionality: While the Publish function works for sharing the file on GitHub, there exists a little difficulty for new users to find their file in the Windows system.
- Reintroduce the pagination feature: This, as a user option, will help reduce visual strain and ease navigation of files with a large number of rows.
The incorporation of in future iterations of ODE could improve the overall user experience without necessarily being a direct replacement or competitor, but as a reliable complementary tool to Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheets.
More than helping us develop our internal data analysis skills, ODE greatest feature has been its ability to rekindle the spark that inspires why we do our work and boosted my team’s collegiality.
Read more
Open Data Editor in Action: A giant spreadsheet of environmental data now accurate for analysis
The Demography Project was able to streamline its work with air quality data in Kenya, significantly reduce the time needed to identify and correct errors, and train the team to work with open data.
About the Open Data Editor
The Open Data Editor (ODE) is Open Knowledge’s new open source desktop application for nonprofits, data journalists, activists, and public servants, aiming at helping them detect errors in their datasets. It’s a free, open-source tool designed for people working with tabular data (Excel, Google Sheets, CSV) who don’t know how to code or don’t have the programming skills to automatise the data exploration process.
Simple, lightweight, privacy-friendly, and built for real-world challenges like offline work and low-resource settings, ODE is part of Open Knowledge’s initiative The Tech We Want — our ambitious effort to reimagine how technology is built and used.
And there’s more! ODE comes with a free online course that can help you improve the quality of your datasets, therefore making your life/work easier.
↪ Take the course: Learn how to use ODE
All of Open Knowledge’s work with the Open Data Editor is made possible thanks to a charitable grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. Learn more about its funding programmes here.
