CityBot

New Brunswick Office of Innovation Challenge Develop a chat bot that municipalities can easily install to allow constituents:

1. public access to municipal services 2. public engagement in public meetings 3. reporting of issues

Engage constituents where they are:

1. 60% of Americans are on Facebook Messenger in 2015* 2. Messaging apps occupy 91% of all time spent on mobile phones in 2015**

* http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/4/9264069/facebook-messenger-google-youtube-apps ** https://qz.com/596981/whatsapp-is-finally-making-a-key-move-that-will-change-how-we-use-chat/

Facebook Messenger bots can give answers to someone asking…

1. … when public meetings are 2. … about city services 3. … what facilities they can contact

Copy the Project Launch the Bot! Connect to Facebook

Short-term Impact Handle repetitive requests and give constituents instant answers!

Medium-term Impact Develop lists of constituents that engage with the bot

Long-term Impact Lead a new era of engagement that the private sector hasn’t event touched

Does any local gov have a bot? Nope, it’s very new.

Always learning!

Always learning!

Possible next steps:

1. Handle new interfaces (Alexa) 2. Notifications (Slack) 3. Follow up/multi-part questions 4. Pass on pictures/location

It’s live!

Github Repo: https://github.com/UnitedWorks/CityBot

Natural Language Processing Model (must login): https://wit.ai/youmustfight/citybot

Send CityBot a message on FB Messenger! https://www.messenger.com/t/978048128997086