Talking Open Data
This work addresses the problem of low user engagement with Open Data portals, particularly for non-technical citizens, though it is incremental as it applies existing chatbot technology to a new domain.
The authors tackled the challenge of making Open Data more accessible by developing a chatbot interface that allows users to search for datasets using natural language on platforms like Facebook and Skype, resulting in a functional prototype available for public use.
Enticing users into exploring Open Data remains an important challenge for the whole Open Data paradigm. Standard stock interfaces often used by Open Data portals are anything but inspiring even for tech-savvy users, let alone those without an articulated interest in data science. To address a broader range of citizens, we designed an open data search interface supporting natural language interactions via popular platforms like Facebook and Skype. Our data-aware chatbot answers search requests and suggests relevant open datasets, bringing fun factor and a potential of viral dissemination into Open Data exploration. The current system prototype is available for Facebook (https://m.me/OpenDataAssistant) and Skype (https://join.skype.com/bot/6db830ca-b365-44c4-9f4d-d423f728e741) users.