Open Data Hackabot 2018: Public administration, private enterprises and citizens in a dialogue through chatbots .
On 2-3 March 2018 in Trento, more than 50 young students passionate about technology participated in a 48 hours hackathon aimed at developing and testing solutions to facilitate dialogue between public administration, private enterprises and citizens through chatbots, using open data.
The event organized by the Autonomous Province of Trento – Open Data Trentino Project was addressed to the stakeholders of the territory: companies, research institutions and public administration, within the frame of the OSIRIS project, with the aim of boosting a data driven economy in Trentino and creating opportunities for companies and public administration with the use of open data.
The “clients” that launched the 6 challenges to the groups of students and researchers selected to work on chatbot concepts were: the Emergency Service Station, the Association of Local Authorities, MUSE (Science Museum), the Provincial Public Health Center, the Agency for Water Storage and Energy and the Autonomous Province of Trento.
Tutors and experts involved in developing the methodology of this event guided the students throughout the 48 hours marathon and in the end validated the solutions proposed by the three teams that won the contest.
“Working with young students definitely brings us great value, most of all because they have a way of solving problems that often we, in the business sector, do not have. They have a completely different perspective on how to solve challenges. The fact that the public administration is enabling the contact between new generations and the business sector is definitely an added value that we can bring home after this initiative”, said Daniele Delledonne from Dimension Company.
The event proved to be an important opportunity to bring closer together the needs of the business sector and the public administration and what it has to offer in terms of effective open data. It was a learning experience for all parties involved in this process of experimenting with young students as it enabled the creation of new synergies among various competitors on our territory, creating a space for cooperation and innovation.
Francesca Gleria (The Autonomous Province of Trento – Open Data Trentino Project) declared:
“We bring home an enriching experience. Company representatives and clients really accepted our invitation to enter into this dialogue and give their time to help these fantastic young students to use open data provided by the public administration to create chatbots. For us it was a very useful process because we had the chance to see how they work, what kind of data is needed and finally, realize the vast amount of competencies available on our territory”.
The participatory approach is a crucial factor that enables innovation and thanks to the Osiris project, we pursued this model and we can now look at our territory from the perspective of other territories as well.
Watch a video from the event here:
