1. We propose the creation of an online artificial intelligence simulation of the Miami-Dade County government and community, which models Miami-Dade neighborhood life, as well as County agencies and services. By participating anonymously in this virtual world, users can obtain real/true useful information on how to utilize County services, communicate with other members of the community and provide feedback and voice opinions. This platform, similar to Second Life or the Sims, would be used for virtual town hall meetings, educational campaigns and news distribution on government services, laws and policies, and also for indirectly gathering insight into resident attitudes, feedback and preferences.
2. We propose the creation of intelligent personalized software agents, which learn user goals and preferences and are “sent” on information retrieval missions where they “negotiate” with other “niched” software agents that specialize in a particular domain (e.g. art and culture) and filter out the “good,” timely information. Over time, the personalized agent will remember all the information their “master” was interested in, all the information that they ranked of high quality and factor that into subsequent searches. The agents are “personal wizard” programs which can help users achieve more complex tasks -- for example, a user may ask his agent about the procedures for installing a fence in the County. The software agent would already know which area of the County the user lives in, that their preferred language is Spanish, and that they are elderly, and fetch an information flyer in Spanish about necessary permits within the user’s municipality. The agent would also find an available program that assists seniors with home construction.