Magpi is helping the environmental organization Groundwork Denver be a little bit greener and a lot more efficient by supporting some 38 environmental education projects in the Denver metro area. Armed with Magpi on Android mobile phones, ‘Green Teams’ of 8-11 members capture real-time –and sometime offline–data from planting trees and cleaning up streams to gardening, building playgrounds, and habitat restoration. More Magpi and less paper use means Groundwork Denver is doing its own part to contribute to a green environment while collecting all the “green data” they need.
Magpi’s mobile technology provides easy data collection, communication, and collaboration in the field – wherever that may be. It lets users create mobile forms and messaging applications, and then send those to any cell phone, smart phone or tablet. For Groundwork Denver’s Green Team – their youth employment and education program – project supervisors can collect real-time data on their cell phones.
For Groundwork farm supervisors for example, that means more precise tracking of 6,000 tomato plants that the team is planting. Magpi makes it easier to plan out on a mobile device, using specific forms, what needs to be accomplished each day of the project without lugging around notebooks and files.
“It’s definitely nice and tangible to see what we’ve done,” says Shane Wright, Youth Program Director for Groundwork Denver. “With Magpi to help us collect data during our projects, we actually know how many tomatoes or trees we planted, and can document the progress and the outcome. It’s really streamlined the process and we’re able to catch a lot of things that were slipping by us before.”
Since Groundwork Denver began using Magpi to support their environmental projects, Wright says they’ve seen significant improvement in the amount and accuracy of information they collect.
“This will be our best year of data collection,” says Wright. “In the past I used a calendar and my ‘chicken scratch’ notes which was less than good data collection; I often had to go back and guesstimate. But with Magpi our outputs are much higher. Now we can code, share our progress, and build surveys based on our reporting requirements. This helps with annual and quarterly reporting because we can say exactly how much we accomplished.”
And no matter what area of the city a project is in, Magpi is reliable. Even in areas where cell phone reception and Internet connectivity can be poor, Magpi is effective.
“We like the fact that our team can collect data whether they have an Internet connection or not,” says Wright. “We’re already helping our fellow Groundwork Trusts grow their capacity to capture and track their outputs and impact using Magpi technology.”
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