Re: Code on Access to Information request on 1823

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Evelyn 

              I understand that the questions we raised would take substantial amount of tim to process and would like to propose an alternative way to deal with this Code on Access to Information request. On 31 Oct my students and I had a meeting with Mr Joe Hsie an engineer on smart mobility in Department of Transport. Instead of submitting a formal Code on Access to Information request to the department, we met with him to discuss questions and got answers verbally. We then wrote a summary for him to confirm and use the summary as evidence to support the claims we are going to make in South China Morning Post letter to the editor.

              We probably need to meet with an officer in your office familiar with the matters and I believe that having a meeting would be more efficient than writing letters back and forth that may lead to misunderstanding and complaints. With interest in your 1823 project I wrote on the app in SCMP before

https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2185689/hong-kong-government-complaints-app-easy-use-so-why-are-so-few-using

 and believe that our meeting could be mutually beneficial. Please kindly pass my request to your colleagues for consideration.

Cheers

Simon

On Thu, 5 Nov 2020 at 17:38, Evelyn WW CHAN <eww...@effo.gov.hk> wrote:

Dear Mr WANG,

Further to our preceding email, please be informed that we are unable to provide you with a substantive reply at the moment as more time is required to process your request.

Thank you for your attention.
 
Best regards,
Evelyn CHAN
EO(Projects)
1823, Efficiency Office
T: 3142 2025

----- Forwarded by Evelyn WW CHAN/EFFO/HKSARG on 05/11/2020 14:56 -----


From:        Evelyn WW CHAN/EFFO/HKSARG
To:        simo...@hkbu.edu.hk
Date:        29/10/2020 11:44
Subject:        Code on Access to Information request on 1823

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Dear Mr WANG,

Thank you for your email dated 19 October 2020.

 

Your request is under processing and we will revert to you as soon as possible.

 

Best regards,
Evelyn CHAN
EO(Projects)
1823, Efficiency Office
T: 3142 2025

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From:        Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
To:        enq...@effo.gov.hk, itb...@itb.gov.hk,
Cc:        lojyu...@life.hkbu.edu.hk, Poi...@life.hkbu.edu.hk, 1925...@life.hkbu.edu.hk, 1925...@life.hkbu.edu.hk
Date:        19/10/2020 12:11 AM
Subject:        Code on Access to Information request on 1823

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Dear Sir/Madam 
          On behalf of my students taking a General Education course at Baptist University (Yuanhang Luo, Jing Yan, Yiwen Wang, Min Rui) in the email loop, I am writing to request information about the following questions/issues under the Code on Access to Information.  

1. What evidence does the office have about how the 1823 system improved the efficiency for handling enquiries and complaints?  Please refer us to documents and reports on this issue. 

2. How many man-hour does it take on average to handle different types of enquiries or complaints (calls, no voice ...)?  

3. What percentages of enquiries have been handled by the 1823 team without referring to the relevant departments?  Please provide the figures for 2019 for calls, emails, apps-inbound and web-inbound?   

4. For June 2019, among the enquiries received (call and non-voice ), please provide the breakdown by departments and the total no. that are handled without referrals and those that have been referred.   

5. Please provide the breakdown of the numbers of enquiries received by individual departments for March, June, September and December 2019.

6. In what ways does the 1823 team manage the knowledge about different departments/bureaus for answering enquiries? For example, how does the office prepare metadata for various data and information generated from the 1823 system.   

7. What is the operating cost of the 1823 team for 2018-19 fiscal year? Please provide the no. of staff and the total salary as well as other cost items. 

8. What plans does the office have to upgrade the technologies of the 1823 system, e.g. introduce the use of chatbot or develop a knowledge-based system to handle enquiries automatically?

9. The overwhelming majority of enquiries are made via telephone. How does the office plan to promote the 1823 app? Please refer to this letter to editor I wrote in 2019 when answering this question (if relevant) https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2185689/hong-kong-government-complaints-app-easy-use-so-why-are-so-few-using
  
Since we plan to forward the answers to the ATI requests to the Legislative Council and the answers might be posted on the Legco website, please kindly furnish a reply using the department letterhead in PDF format by email.  

The course I am teaching is an experiential learning course that encourages students to seek opportunities to engage the community. Therefore, I hope we could have the opportunity to meet with a government official to discuss these matters in person. Please let us know if this is possible.  Please also provide an official's name and contact no. in case we have follow-up questions.  

Yours sincerely
Simon Wang, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Language Centre 
Hong Kong Baptist University 
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 
http://lc.hkbu.edu.hk/staff_simon.php  

Writing for the Public Project 
https://sites.google.com/a/hkbu.edu.hk/write4public/home

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--

Simon Wang, Ph.D.

Lecturer

Language Centre 

Hong Kong Baptist University 

Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 

http://lc.hkbu.edu.hk/staff_simon.php  

Writing for the Public Project 

https://sites.google.com/a/hkbu.edu.hk/write4public/home

---

Disclaimer

This message (including any attachments) may contain confidential information intended for a specific individual and/or purpose. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message and notify the sender and the University immediately. Any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is prohibited as it may be unlawful.

In addition, the University specifically denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through University E-mail Facilities. Any views and opinions expressed in the email(s) are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the University. The University accepts no liability whatsoever for any losses or damages that may be incurred or caused to any party as a result of the use of such information.

[Simon H WANG]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>

Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 8:00 AM
Subject: Re: Code on Access to Information request on 1823
To: Evelyn WW CHAN <eww...@effo.gov.hk>
Cc: <clar...@1823.gov.hk>, <nicol...@1823.gov.hk>, <henry...@1823.gov.hk>, <itb...@itb.gov.hk>

Dear Sir/Madam 

          It is regrettable that your office has not responded to my email dated 5 Nov.  Please reply as soon as possible. 

Yours sincerely

Simon Wang 

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Ms Chan

I expect some answers by the end of this week and a clear timeline to answer the rest of the questions. Also our request for a meeting should be addressed with a reason and the name of the officer who made the decision released. This case will be referred to senior officers at ITC and the Ombudsman next week if no progress is made.

Yours sincerely 

Simon Wang

On Mon, 16 Nov 2020 at 16:28, Evelyn WW CHAN <eww...@effo.gov.hk> wrote:

Dear Mr WANG,

Thank you for your email today.

We are preparing the reply and will respond to you as soon as possible.

Best regards,
Evelyn CHAN
EO(Projects)
1823, Efficiency Office
T: 3142 2025

----- Forwarded by Evelyn WW CHAN/EFFO/HKSARG on 16/11/2020 16:23 -----

[Simon H WANG]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Evelyn WW CHAN <eww...@effo.gov.hk>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2020 at 19:02
Subject: Code on Access to Information request on 1823

To: Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>

Dear Mr WANG,

Our reply regarding your Code on Access to Information request is as attached, please.

Best regards,
Evelyn CHAN
EO(Projects)
1823, Efficiency Office
T: 3142 2025

----- Forwarded by Evelyn WW CHAN/EFFO/HKSARG on 19/11/2020 18:55 -----

eww...@effo.gov.hk> wrote:
Dear Mr WANG,

 
Best regards,
Evelyn CHAN
EO(Projects)
1823, Efficiency Office
T: 3142 2025

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Ms Chan, 

      Here are a few follow-up questions. Thanks.

Yours sincerely

Simon Wang 

1. It seems that the 1823 team has developed an efficient mechanism to capture the knowledge about various departments and bureaux for the human staff to use when dealing with the enquiries. In what ways is this data stored in computers? Specifically, in what data structure and file formats? Does the system also store the records of how staff answered the enquiries? To what extent can this information system be utilized for machine learning?  

2. How many times was the chatbot used since it was launched? Please provide the latest figures available. To what extent did the chatbot effectively handle the enquiries? Please provide assessment reports based on the internally used metics. 

3. What percentage of the users participated in the rating and survey at the end?  Could you provide us the results of the rating and the survey https://www.idea.gov.hk/effo/1823-chatbot-survey/tc/start/section1? 

4. What algorithms have been used to implement the chatbot? Was the chatbot trained using machine learning? Please provide information about the technology used in the chatbot.  

5. What features will the next generation chabot have? When will the new chatbot be available? Will the chatbot be integrated into the new 1823 app in 2021?   

[Simon H WANG]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Evelyn WW CHAN <eww...@effo.gov.hk>
Date: Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 2:57 PM
Subject: Code on Access to Information request on 1823
To: <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>

Dear Mr WANG,

Our reply regarding your Code on Access to Information request is as below, please:

1. Information from our 23 participating departments is being kept in the internal system mainly in Microsoft Word format, grouped by service categories similar to the Frequently Asked Questions currently listed in 1823 Online website.  Calls handled by staff are recorded for quality control purposes.  The voice recordings serve as reference when materials are prepared for training the chatbot.

2. Up to 30 Nov 2020, about 29 000 enquiries have been received by chatbot, with a resolution rate of 90%.  The resolution rate is calculated as the number of enquiries resolved over the total number of enquiries received by the chatbot.  

3. Up to 30 Nov 2020, about 2 900 sessions were rated.  The average overall rating is 3.2 (scale from 1 to 5, with 5 the most satisfied).

4. 1823 chatbot adopts artificial intelligence technology developed by the chatbot system contractor.  Relevant materials have to be prepared for training the Natural Language Processing engine.

5. We do not have any plan for a next generation chatbot.  Upon revamp of Tell me@1823 mobile app, chatbot will be integrated into the app.

Best regards,
Evelyn CHAN
EO(Projects)
1823, Efficiency Office
T: 3142 2025

----- Forwarded by Evelyn WW CHAN/EFFO/HKSARG on 08/12/2020 09:00 -----

From:        Evelyn WW CHAN/EFFO/HKSARG
To:        Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
Date:        07/12/2020 16:48
Subject:        Code on Access to Information request on 1823

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Dear Mr WANG,

I refer to your email dated 6 December 2020.  A reply will be given to you in due course.

Best regards,
Evelyn CHAN
EO(Projects)
1823, Efficiency Office
T: 3142 2025