Information and Communication Technologies for Development

We discussed earlier our solution for helping CRS India with their data collection needs during disasters and during other times. We decided upon two main interfaces for the system: a web interface which could be used to enter form data and view submitted data, and a mobile interface. For our initial prototypes, we've been focusing on entering, not viewing, data on the mobile platform.

I'm responsible for the system's web interface and back-end. Students as we are, both Saajan and I have mostly had experience with open-source development tools, since they are free. In our initial discussions, we assumed we'd be developing the back-end in PHP and MySQL.
More after the jump (including a flashy diagram!).

However, after talking with CRS India, we learned that they were a 100% Microsoft shop. In order for us to create a sustainable solution for them, we would have to develop our back-end around the Microsoft SQL Server database engine and Microsoft's ASP.NET web service platform.

I've been trying to learn .NET recently, but I have not been able to learn enough to get to the point at which I develop productively in .NET. The deadline for prototypes is approaching (as Saajan is leaving for India soon), and I don't have much code in .NET. So, for this week's presentation and Saajan's trip to India, I'm going to whip up a prototype in PHP. When time is less important, we can move the code over to ASP.NET.
Stay tuned for some screenshots!