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Good practice Imported

DigiTel — Tel Aviv's Personalised Civic Data Platform for Residents

Israel · Tel Aviv · See the Israel profile · See the Tel Aviv profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 17% 81/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Tel Aviv's DigiTel platform personalises municipal services for almost 200,000 residents (60%+ of those eligible) via data fed by 200 staff 'knowledge champions'; the model won the 2014 World Smart City Award and was replicated in Thane, India.

~200,000
Registered users
60+ %
Share of eligible population registered
DigiTel — Tel Aviv's Personalised Civic Data Platform for Residents

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality
Period
2013–present
Keywords
citizen engagement, personalisation, municipal data, civic technology

Context

Piloted by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality in 2013 under chief knowledge officer Zohar Sharon, DigiTel is a resident data platform that delivers individually tailored, location-specific information -- school registrations, road closures, local events, recycling schedules and public surveys -- by email, text and a personal account, rather than a one-size-fits-all city website.

Activities

Around 200 municipal staff, designated 'knowledge champions', feed department-level data into the platform, with dedicated sub-clubs such as Digi-Dog for pet owners and Digi-Tuf for parents of young children.

Results

The system has grown from its 2013 pilot to almost 200,000 registered users -- more than 60% of Tel Aviv's eligible population. The programme won first place in the 2014 World Smart City Awards at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona, and its architecture was directly replicated abroad as 'DigiThane' in Thane, India, with assistance from Tel Aviv's original team.

Conclusions

Independent reporting frames its distinguishing feature as treating resident-supplied local knowledge as an input rather than only broadcasting government data outward.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Cost not disclosed; ongoing municipal platform since 2013.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Piloted 2013; grown to near-200,000 users by time of review.
Staffing & skills
~200 municipal 'knowledge champion' data contributors, chief knowledge officer's platform team

Conditions for success

  • a dedicated cross-department network of data contributors ('knowledge champions')
  • personalisation by location and life stage (sub-clubs like Digi-Dog, Digi-Tuf)
  • documented cross-border replication support (DigiThane, India)

Where it fits

Governance type
municipal government
Scale
city (~200,000 users)
Income level
high income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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Attachments

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