Meet "Alex" - the Gilbert, AZ Open Data Avatar
Gilbert, AZ is making open data accessible and engaging through an interactive avatar.
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Gilbert Digital Newsroom | Town of Gilbert, Arizona
Gilbert Digital Newsroom | Town of Gilbert, Arizona
Gilbert, AZ to Unveil Open Data Portal: Alex | by Gilbert, Arizona | Government Gone Digital | Medium
Five years ago, I began my work in Gilbert, Arizona as the first Chief Digital Officer. Gilbert had grown so quickly and had new management and not only did they want to put an emphasis on…
Gilbert, AZ to Unveil Open Data Portal: Alex | by Gilbert, Arizona | Government Gone Digital | Medium
What’s New in Civic Tech: Gilbert, Ariz., Launches Open Data Portal with Guiding Avatar
Plus, Philadelphia’s fire department looks to hire a senior lead GIS analyst to create an analytics team; Facebook civic hackathon participants share winning ideas with Seattle; Platteville, Colo., adopts use of nonprofit’s video archive software; and Minnesota IT launches new employee intranet.
What’s New in Civic Tech: Gilbert, Ariz., Launches Open Data Portal with Guiding Avatar
Highlights
Aiming to boost community engagement with city data, Gilbert launched an interactive avatar, Alex, to help users of its open data portal.
Alex helps citizens “connect the dots” between datasets through visualizations and stories.
Within just six months of launching Alex, there were 4,500 dataset views and 3,500 story visits – representing a massive boost in citizen engagement.
Summary
As part of its involvement with the $ Bloomberg's What Works Cities$ initiative, Gilbert, AZ launched its open data portal in 2017. Open data portals are far from a new development, but Gilbert has adopted a unique approach by focusing on engagement rather than just transparency.
Gilbert’s goal was to make city information accessible and interesting for all citizens, with the portal providing a personalized data discovery experience. To make that vision a reality, the city decided to humanize its open data portal with an interactive avatar: Alex.
With the avatar in place, citizens can simply “Ask Alex” whenever they are looking for data. The portal’s sophisticated search functionality helps users find the information they need, and Alex guides them through the datasets. Alex shows citizens how to create data visualizations for easier understanding, and highlights stories that demonstrate how city staff are leveraging that data to improve the lives of residents.
Alex currently offers statistics on community safety, growth and development, recreation and culture, finance and operations, and transportation and facilities.
Within six months of launching the avatar, there were 4,500 dataset views as well as 3,500 visits to the stories shared by Alex. These figures represent a massive increase in engagement with city data – prior to the project, only 200 residents had actively viewed the Gilbert’s open data.
Moving forwards, Gilbert plans to integrate Alex with mobile devices, Facebook Messenger, and Amazon Echo using the Sonar chat bot from Esri. Phase 2 of Gilbert’s open data strategy will also include using the portal to improve interdepartmental collaboration.