Open source release of critical platform offers network operators, researchers, and aid agencies new collaboration opportunities.
Washington, DC and Southampton, UK (2 November 2018)
Today the Flowminder Foundation and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) announced the release of the initial version of FlowKit, Flowminder's call detail record (CDR) analytics toolset. The software was released today on GitHub, under the free and open source Mozilla Public License.
"This is the start of an exciting journey as we publicly engage with future users," said Nick Thorne, Product Manager at Flowminder. "We are eager to strengthen this toolkit developed through over a decade of academic research by Flowminder and WorldPop at the University of Southampton."
According to Syed Raza, DIAL's Senior Director, Data for Development, this initial public release aims to facilitate engagement and collaboration with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), data scientists and international agencies, to provide faster and better insights that support vulnerable populations in low and middle-income countries.
"This release represents a big milestone as we start to share the knowledge and experience that Flowminder is known for. DIAL is proud to be supporting this work."
More information about the open source project and its community will be released in the coming months, including new opportunities for collaboration and contribution. Interested individuals and organisations can write to flowkit@flowminder.org for additional information.
About Flowminder
Flowminder is an award-winning, non-profit organisation funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID, EU, World Bank, IDB, WFP, UN Foundation and others.
Flowminder’s mission is to improve public health and welfare in low- and middle-income countries using data from mobile operators, satellites and geo-located household surveys. Flowminder has pioneered a number of new approaches and tools to address development and humanitarian challenges, among them the use of mobile operator data. Much of its work is focused on understanding, monitoring and predicting the distributions, characteristics and dynamics of human populations, providing insights, tools and capacity building to governments, international agencies and NGOs. Flowminder works to ensure that everyone, especially the most vulnerable, count.
About DIAL
The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) aims to realise a more inclusive digital society in emerging markets, in which all women, men and children benefit from life-enhancing, mobile-based digital services. A partnership among USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Swedish Government and the United Nations Foundation, DIAL’s efforts help accelerate the collective efforts of government, industry and development organisations to realise this vision.