HOPS is a three-year project selected to be funded under the Sixth Framework Programme's ‘Networked businesses and governments ’ thematic priority and 'Semantic-enabled systems and services' thematic priority. The project focuses on the dynamics of the deployment of advanced ICT enabled “voice-front-end public platforms” in Europe opening access to European citizens to their nearest Public Administration. It is a collaborative effort of: Municipality of Barcelona, Spain; Municipality of Torino, Italy; London Borough of Camdem, UK; and other industrial partners. The project emphasizes the aspects related to the most bidirectional and interactive relationships with the citizens, which has almost been supported by phone operators or through permanent offices up to now. The aim is to enhance these particular functionalities, defining a kind of advanced front-end (hub) by the operational integration of innovative technologies and reconsideration of the current systems architecture and related organisational processes. The objective is to achieve the availability of a multi-channel, multi-modal and multi-device advanced communications hub able to be integrated with the supporting systems and applications so enabling the opening of advanced and fully interactive mass-scale Online Public Services.

Policy Context

The use of voice based technologies allows to have a bigger number of users respect the number that can be reachable with web based technologies. In fact, there is a number of citizens that still don't have familiarity with the web technologies. eServices provided by voice technologies help the inclusion of a big number of citizens not yet included in the eGovernemnt services.

Description of target users and groups

HOPS addresses two users groups: - Individuals (residents, city workers, visitors) - City administrations and providers of public services (planners, decision-makers, managers, public service employees)

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The project is based on previous experiences and partial implementations as executed by the partners involved, and intends to cross-fertilise this wealth of experience using mechanisms to for sharing knowledge and best practice on strategic, technical and organisational issues related to the deployment of advanced online voice-based public services.

Technology solution

The project is based on the integration of voice technologies (VoiceXML - ASR, Automatic Speech Recognition – TTS, Text to Speech) with Natural Language Processing technologies, complemented by a Public Administration sector-specific implementation of Semantic Web Technologies. The overall approach follows a systemic structure, aimed to produce fully functional prototypes, which will be tested and validated by the three Local Authorities involved in the project. As a natural extension, the overall architecture will also be able to support additional non-voice channels, having access to the Natural Language Processing and Semantic Web dimensions. Technology choice: Proprietary technology, Standards-based technology, Mainly (or only) open standards

Main results, benefits and impacts

The projects has the followings objectives: -To address the mass-scale deployment of new online public services supported and accessible voice channels (basically phone, both fixed and mobile), the most accessible and easiest communication means used by all European Citizens. -Creation of an open, scalable, innovative an advanced system architecture enabling the Public Administrations to incorporate more new online public services in a mass deployment under economically feasible and quality-ensured schemes. -Generate an strong incidence on the possibility of opening new automated services based initially on voice (the most simply and accessible channel available to the European Citizens) that can be integrated with current state-of-the-art technologies and products, but suitable to be extended to additional channels. -The convergence among different technologies and the efforts to make them work together would allow the partners participating in this project to validate the assumption that a systemic integration of a voice portal, natural language processing and semantic web technologies can facilitate Public Administrations to obtain automated, high-quality and fully flexible ways of deploying new public services. -The evaluation and practical demonstration of specific collaborative implementations of the overall approach by the European Municipalities involved in the project.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

HOPS has been shared and disseminated trough various entities. -Municipal partners have been contacted trough the city networks and associations of local public administrations (Telecities, Eurocities). -Academic partners have disseminated the research achievements obtained within the project in the scientific community. A channel for these has been the publication of results within scientific journals and presentations in international conferences. -Industrial partners have been apporached at fairs and conferences.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - The project demonstrates that it is possible to create more advanced voice portals by exploiting the synergies between voice recognition, natural language process and semantic web. Lesson 2 - There is a demand of the market for user-driven voice portals. Lesson 3 - Semantic web has proved to be a powerful technology that can make a quantum leap on the advanced eService provision, but needs more applied research to be better exploited on real environments. Scope: Local (city or municipality)