The main users are probably researchers who have collected data in/about Kenya. They may be based outside of Kenya but would like to “repatriate” their data to so that those in Kenya may be able to easily find and re-use it. However, in developing RDS content with other Nairobi-based researchers, I realized that the geographic boundaries of RDS quickly scale out. There are many researchers living and working in Kenya who collect data beyond the Kenyan borders (in East African countries, other African countries, and even beyond, including India, Fiji, and Mexico). For now, I have said that if people are interested in including data collected outside of Kenya that is okay but the primary intent is to share data that relates to Kenya, broadly construed.
Another potential user group are those who have participated in research studies who may be interested in understanding what research data has been captured. In this case, I imagine research participants approached by someone looking to study fintech in Kenya, for example, could direct them to view the transcript of an interview hosted on RDS that the interloctuor may have already been part of previously. “Please review this transcript prior to interviewing me again” is something I could imagine a potential interviewee telling an interviewer prior to meeting them for an interview. Of course this imagines a particular interviewee, but I don’t think, given the heavily saturated research topics and relatively small group of key stakeholder actors working on those topics in Nairobi, for example, that this imaginary use of RDS is a stretch. Most of the key actors working in Nairobi technology continue to be regularly contacted to participate in research and media interviews so I imagine uploaded transcripts to RDS would provide helpful hyperlinks that could be sent to a potential interviewer in advance.