PROBE: Proactive Public Access to Government
Decision-making tailored to both humans and machines.
In the PROBE project, we explore how artificial intelligence can improve the accessibility of information from official decisions.
Are you struggling to navigate the maze of decisions? Wondering which environmental permits have been applied for? Is your street going to be redeveloped? What is the city's stance on drones? There's a wealth of information available, but finding exactly what you need can be challenging.
When we talk about decisions, we mean the resolutions passed by bodies such as the city council or the board of mayor and aldermen. These decisions cover a wide range of topics, including permits, subsidies, policy plans, and much more—essentially everything the City is involved in.
PROBE, which stands for Proactive Public Access to Government, aims to make a difference for both internal services and citizens by exploring new technological possibilities. The project is subsidized by the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
What is PROBE researching?
We are making a vast amount of information more accessible, with minimal data entry required from staff. Using artificial intelligence, such as natural language processing (NLP), we link decisions to keywords and locations. This allows citizens to easily find the decisions that are relevant to them.
What is the current status?
The PROBE project will conclude in the summer of 2024. Below you will find all the information. Currently, we are testing the results, and afterwards, we will gradually make them available through the website and as Open Data.
programme
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How are we conducting this research?
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What do citizens want? And what is the ideal solution?
We asked the people of Ghent and explored the technical possibilities. As the icing on the cake, we present the optimal solution.
Environmental Analysis
In our environmental analysis, we explored what is possible and identified some organizational and technical challenges:
- We use a lot of infrastructure and applications during decision-making, the organization of the city council, committees, and the board of mayor and aldermen, as well as for their reporting.
- In recent years, several data standards related to the goals of PROBE have emerged.
Analysis of needs
We surveyed the target audience to understand their current use of Ghent’s decisions, their expectations, and points of interest.
These three interest points emerged as the most important:
- I want to extract more information from the decisions, for my work or personal interests.
What is happening in my neighborhood or around my points of interest? Where can I ask questions or give feedback?
- I want to be able to search easily, focusing on themes and locations.
A major obstacle is having to search through all the information. The greatest interest lies in one's own neighborhood and the themes they want to follow.
- Keep me updated on the themes or dossiers I want to follow
Decisions are addressed across different bodies and topics. Currently, if you want to stay informed, you need to periodically check the consultation environment. This can be improved.
Maximum possibilities
Based on the environmental and needs analysis, we developed the maximum solution. This consists of an extensive consultation environment with numerous filters and maximum linking between decisions and other relevant information.
This solution exceeds the possibilities of PROBE. Moreover, the analysis of the data and IT challenges showed that adjustments are needed elsewhere to realize this vision.
Nevertheless, we share this maximum solution with all interested parties. Within the program 'Municipality Without Town Hall', the project 'Smart Consultation Environment in the Citizen's Pocket' will further develop these results, in collaboration with the City of Ghent.
You can read more detailed information in the following (Dutch) reports, at the bottom of this page:
- Environmental Analysis
- Needs Analysis
- Analysis of Possible Solutions
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What solutions is PROBE implementing? And how can this work be continued?
Ghent and Flanders are developing several components and will be working with them. We focus on overviews by theme and location.
Enrichment through AI
Ghent is developing BeATs for themes. BeAT, which stands for Decision Annotation Tool, is an AI solution that imports decisions as Linked Open Data, links them to one or more themes, and republishes everything as Open Data. The Belgian Agency for Home Affairs (ABB) plans to do the same for locations. The implementation of this BeAT for locations is scheduled for the end of 2024.
Decentralized data publication and processing
We opt for tools that work on Open Data and generate Open Data, and for a solution that can be applied anywhere in the ecosystem. We use a containerized solution that works in Ghent, Flanders, other administrations, and suppliers. This aligns with the European vision of data spaces.
PROBE and ABB jointly developed the technical vision for combining Local Decisions as Linked Open Data and AI components. This allows others to build on this vision and the developed components.
We are working on Open Data and data widgets
How do we get the data to you? If you want to work with the data technically, you can query it via Linked Open Data. You will find all the data, including data for which BeAT for Themes is not yet fully optimized. A number of example lists can (soon) be found via the Open Data portal.
Depending on the needs, you will (soon) find some decisions and regulations on the city’s website. For this, we are building widgets that allow selections from the Linked Open Data to be displayed directly.
More information can be found in the (Dutch) report ‘Analysis of Possible Solutions’, in the file at the bottom of this page.
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How can you use the data?
You can easily get started with the data through lists on the Open Data Platform (and soon on this website). For more advanced users, Linked Open Data is also available.
You can work with the data. Whether you're technically advanced and want to use Linked Open Data, or prefer lists on the Open Data Platform and soon on this website.
More information will be available soon.
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Where can I read more?
Want to delve further into the project? Good news! You can read the full report and partial analyses below. You can also find the presentation of the closing event here.
- Read the final report and analyses (in Dutch) PDF (15.94 MB)
- Watch the presentation of the closing event (in Dutch) PDF (7.14 MB)
This project is a collaboration between the City of Ghent and District09, with the support of the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
