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Line 95: − + − == Micro-Mission Experience at TBS == − What went well − * This was my first micro-mission ever (4-week assignment) and it was a great learning experience. − − * The TBS team was very welcoming, friendly and had good communication − − * TBS location made it ideal for me to try a different restaurant every day while working downtown Ottawa − * I was able to learn about TBS, Alexa Skills, and other departments needs − * I was able to share my knowledge and Alexa Skills experience with other participants and provide them technical support − * I was glad to have had two weeks to ramp up on Alexa prior to hosting the 4 departments − * I was happy to meet very motivated developers from 3 out of 4 departments on the 3rd week − * GitHub was a nice platform to share code and host a wiki for developers and designers − * The OpenGov WiFi was instrumental for the development and testing of Alexa Skills on the Amazon Echo device that was assigned to me (no proxy settings nor firewall issues) − * It was the first time that I worked in the open (publicly-faced GitHub repositories). This was a great way to share our experience of Alexa Skills with everyone in the world. − * I really like the fact that TBS sent out Tweets to tell the world about our event. − * The meeting rooms used when hosting the event are well suited for a collaborative effort with the big TV screens and open WiFi. − What could have gone better − * It would have been great to have a developer from the 4th department on the 3rd week − * It would have been great to start our 2-week collaboration with all 4 departments in mid-July. But since it started later, I will probably miss the ending. − ** The original plan was to start on the 2nd week of July. It got postponed to the 4th week. − ** The good news is that we got to meet the developers on the 3rd week − *** Got to see their dataset, think about their use cases and provide a day-long Alexa Skills training − * Alexa Skills has a lot of training material, code samples and tutorials scattered all over the web. I would have liked to see a well defined and structured course to cover all the key concepts for developing a voice assistant skill. There's an AWS Certification. But, there doesn't seem to be an Alexa Skills Certification from Amazon. − * The furniture in the open space area is definitely not adequate for long periods of software development. The table and chair height were not adjustable and it caused shoulder and forearm pain. − * For a good live debugging experience, 3rd party developer tools are needed for a good end-to-end software development experience. It would be great for Amazon to list these tools in their documentation and provide guidance for end-to-end software development and testing. − * I would have like to download an Alexa desktop application directly from Amazon instead of relying on a 3rd party application. − What to do next time − * Consider inviting local businesses, companies, provincial governments (e.g. Ontario), crown corporations (e.g. CBC) or departments to share their Alexa Skills experience with the participants. − * Consider inviting or hiring consultants or companies to provide a structured training to participants. − * Consider getting firm commitments from the supplier (e.g. Amazon) several weeks in advance. − * Consider getting the developers from the different departments on a 4-week micro-mission with the goal of releasing an official Alexa Skills for their respective department. − What needs to be fixed to make it better − * Book meeting rooms well ahead of the event − * Have ergonomic furniture in open spaces − * Consider inviting or hiring companies that can provide training. − * Consider inviting or hiring companies that can help departments continue the development of their Alexa Skills well after the 2-week hackathon. − * It would be awesome to have at least one developed Alexa Skills go through the submission process and become available for all Canadians using Amazon Echo devices or the Alexa app on their smartphone. − − == To do == − * [https://developer.amazon.com/docs/alexa-for-business/create-and-publish-private-skills-devconsole.html Share dev skills] − − == Template == − * What went well − * What could have gone better − * What to do next time − * What needs to be fixed to make it better
Lessons learned - OneGC Alexa Proof-of-Concept (view source)
Revision as of 13:07, 22 August 2018
, 13:07, 22 August 2018Clean up / focusing on proof-of-concept
** There are significant benefits to setting up multiple accounts under an organisation to manage permissions and billing.
** There are significant benefits to setting up multiple accounts under an organisation to manage permissions and billing.
** Billing alerts and reports are 24 hours in arrears, so by the time an alert is triggered it's already 24 hours too late.
** Billing alerts and reports are 24 hours in arrears, so by the time an alert is triggered it's already 24 hours too late.
* You can share the dev Skill (without publishing) by [https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/post/Tx2EN8P2AHAHO6Y/How-to-Add-Beta-Testers-to-Your-Skills-Before-You-Publish adding beta testers]
== Structuring data==
== Structuring data==
* Works better with well-formed, well-described data
* Works better with well-formed, well-described data
* The data set should not contain HTML tags or any other artifacts
* The data set should consistently label data used for set purposes (e.g. description field should hold a description)
* Fields with similar names need to be renamed (e.g. type1, type2, type3 => adultRate, childRate, seniorRate)
* RSS feeds used in Flash Breifings need to comply with Alexa's minimum requirements
* Descriptive data sets such as food and car recalls need to be summariezed in plain English with simple words.
* Descriptive data sets such as food and car recalls need to follow the 1 breath design guidance. If it takes more than 1 breath to read the sentence, it means that the sentence need to be further broken down.
* A natural conversation flow need to happen between Alexa and the user. One need to design the dialog in a way that lets the user drive the conversation by letting him/her know that they can say "tell me more" or followup with a question such as "what are the side-effects?".
* The Alexa service share only 1 information about the user with the developed Alexa Skills. And that is the User ID, a unique identifier. It is up to the developer/designer of the Alexa Skill to ask the user the right question at the right time such as "What is your name?", "What food allergies do you have?", "What is your car make, model and year?" and to store this information in DynamoDB for future use such as "Hello John!", "There are 5 food products that have been recalled.", "There is a new recall concerning your vehicle."
* Alexa Skills can store information anywhere. Most sample codes use DynamoDB to store and retrieve user data. But data can be stored in a relational database, S3 storage or sent to any other web service. DynamoDB was recommended by AWS and Alexa presenters for its superfast read speed, data redundancy, low cost and simplicity (1 line of code to read or write data).
== Hello, world Skill ==
== Hello, world Skill ==
* Easy to start
* Easy to start
** Helpful resource: [https://developer.amazon.com/docs/flashbriefing/steps-to-create-a-flash-briefing-skill.html Steps to Create a Flash Briefing Skill]
** Helpful resource: [https://developer.amazon.com/docs/flashbriefing/steps-to-create-a-flash-briefing-skill.html Steps to Create a Flash Briefing Skill]
* Flash briefing template does not support ATOM feeds
* Flash briefing template [https://alexa.uservoice.com/forums/906892-alexa-skills-developer-voice-and-vote/suggestions/34940041-support-for-atom-feeds-in-flash-briefing-skill does not support ATOM feeds]
* Flash briefing template only supports HTTPS
* Flash briefing template only supports HTTPS
* Alexa voice flash briefings are better if source material is voice (e.g. podcast)
* Alexa voice flash briefings are better if source material is voice (e.g. podcast)
[[Category:OneGC Alexa Proof-of-Concept]]
[[Category:OneGC Alexa Proof-of-Concept]]
