Special to The Dallas Examiner
The city of Dallas launched a new Amazon Alexa smart skill to provide residents with voice-activated access to Dallas 311. Residents can check the status of service requests, find out approved watering days and even access information about the city’s COVID-19 resources using this new tool.
To use the Dallas 311 feature, just tell any Amazon Alexa enabled device, “Alexa, enable the Dallas 311 skill.” Dallas 311 can also be accessed using the free Amazon Alexa mobile app if residents do not own an Amazon Alexa enabled device. The Amazon Alexa mobile app is available for download on Google Play and the App Store for smartphones.
Alexa skill features may expand over the next few years based on usage and demand.
“Because people tend to deal with municipal governments directly, the need to keep pace with emerging technologies and new modes of communication is critical,” said Chief Innovation Officer Laila Alequresh. “The Dallas 311 Alexa skill is an example of how the Office of Innovation is looking to the future and how to most efficiently connect residents with their city.”
The city’s Office of Innovation and 311 Customer Service partnered with Code for Dallas and TekTeen to help program and test the application.
“We are always looking for ways to make it easier for Dallas residents to connect and learn about available City resources,” said 311 Customer Service Director John Johnson. “We hope to expand the features and functionality of the Alexa skill in the future.”
Code for Dallas is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that assists local government with technological projects. TekTeen is a youth empowerment organization that trains and employs prodigy youth to work on high skilled projects throughout the nation.
“This was a great opportunity for Code for Dallas and TekTeen to make use of their world-class talent in developing the Dallas 311 Alexa Skill,” said Hari Madeti, founder of Code for Dallas. “We would like to continue working with City of Dallas developing great tech projects that will prove helpful to Dallas residents.”