2017 STIR Program: Looking for San Leandro Residents to Test the Tech!

By Office of Innovation
In Uncategorized
Aug 9th, 2017
2 Comments
3648 Views

In March, we announced that the City of San Leandro was once again participating in the Startups in Residence program.  In collaboration with the Cities of San Francisco, Oakland and W. Sacramento, the City of San Leandro issued an RFP that requested applications from tech startups to work with San Leandro on two challenges, listed below.  The City received 12 applications for these two challenges.  Companies applied from as far away as Brazil!

The two selected companies have been working for several months on developing the needed software to address the City’s challenges.  They are ready to test the software, and we are looking for a diverse group of 12-15 San Leandro residents to devote a couple of fun hours on Monday, August 21st from 6-8 p.m. for a test run.   If you own your own smart phone, tablet or laptop and have a Facebook account, you may be who we are looking for!

We’re looking for a wide range of ages (16+) and ethnicities from across the City, so to ensure a diverse resident test group we ask that you complete this short survey TODAY! Click on the link to access the survey. 

The web-based platforms are being developed to address the following City-issued challenges:

  1. IT Dept: RESIDENT PERSONALIZATION FOR CITY WEBSITE
When residents use the City’s various digital services, the experience can be disjointed and frustrating as they end up with multiple accounts (one for each service). They may not even realize the breadth of digital services the City has available. Meanwhile, the City has no way of easily accessing contact information for its 90,000+ residents and many more visitors, nor understanding their specific interests in City services. Individual outreach efforts by City Staff end up being very time consuming. In addition, there is a missed opportunity to foster civic engagement by matching City services (i.e., volunteer opportunities) with residents’ individual interests.
San Leandro IT is interested in creating a personalized digital experience for residents, akin to commercial technology such as Amazon, Netflix, and Google. In this manner, residents would have a way of creating and managing their City profile information, and identifying preferences for City communications such as events, volunteer opportunities, emergency notifications, etc. In addition, the software should be able to make recommendations to residents based on their interests. The second component would be to aggregate these new City profiles with existing City data sources (including: email contact lists, CRMs, web accounts, etc.) to create a “Master” profile record of the Resident. These master profile records would need to be updated monthly, at minimum.
APPLICANT CHOSEN: Oakland-based YoGov!  The YoGov team has prepared an “Amazon-like” feel to accessing information on the City website, creating an interactive experience that is designed to personalize and streamline the user’s access to City information.  Does it work?  You tell us!  Click on this link to reach survey.

2.  SAN LEANDRO LIBRARY: GET TO KNOW SAN LEANDRO 

San Leandro is in the midst of revitalization. While the City is seeing tremendous growth, it is at risk of becoming a commuter city. Creating a mobile opportunity for residents and visitors to engage with San Leandro’s various historic, artistic and natural assets could result in higher civic engagement, pride, better business, and more stewardship. Additionally, it would provide an opportunity to obtain use statistics and feedback for the various sites. There is no mechanism currently in place to collect feedback from the 90,000+ residents and visitors that might visit these areas of interest.
San Leandro is home to a number of historic, artistic, and natural assets many of which are within the downtown area. These sites include: Casa Peralta, San Leandro History Museum, San Leandro Creek, San Leandro History Walk and Truth is Beauty. Unfortunately, many residents and visitors are unaware of their existence. The city is seeking a mobile-driven solution that encourages interaction.
APPLICANT CHOSEN: San Leandro-based company Bexi!   The Bexi team is using Facebook Messenger “bot” technology to develop an interface designed to “learn” your preferences for having fun, going to events, visiting San Leandro’s public art and simply learning about the rich array of things there are to do in San Leandro.  Did Bexi succeed in creating a cool experience?  Click on this link to reach survey.

2 Responses to “2017 STIR Program: Looking for San Leandro Residents to Test the Tech!”

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