$10k project idea #7 - Build an Alexa Skill for a FAQ

[mgifford]

There is a lot of interest in voice controls from Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa & Google. The most likely integration point with most government sites is with a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Build on the existing Drupal Alexa module to integrate these two modules:

https://www.drupal.org/project/alexa
https://www.drupal.org/project/faqfield

Ideally that skill could be transported to other platforms.

[MaryBethBaker]

From Medium post: https://medium.com/@mgifford/i-would-definitely-update-it-with-or-without-covid-19-e326e1882603

Update on issue from May 2020

#7 — Alexa Skill for a FAQ, I’m not sure what the status of this is, but I do think it might make more sense to simply review what has been implemented. There should be enough information out there now to allow governments to have a better sense of what is likely to provide value.

[mgifford]

There have to be other examples out there, but this was one of the first:

https://digitalservices.georgia.gov/blog-post/2017-10-24/write-alexa-even-if-you-just-have-website
https://digitalservices.georgia.gov/blog-post/2017-10-12/state-georgia-launches-its-first-alexa-skill-ask-georgiagov

Google provides others obviously:
https://www.govtech.com/civic/7-State-or-Local-Governments-Using-Amazon-Alexa.html
https://voicebot.ai/tag/government-alexa-skill/
https://voicebot.ai/2019/04/23/u-k-residents-can-ask-about-more-than-12000-pieces-of-government-information-with-alexa-and-google-assistant/
https://www.amazon.ca/Cognyapps-Ottawa-city/dp/B07D22MPPX

The challenge is to dig beyond the hype and figure out what is actually being used by citizens. If 120 people are using a skill per year, is worth the investment? Might depend on the skill. We need to see the numbers and we should have some transparency.