The City of Bloomington is pleased to announce the Animal Shelter’s Twitter feed (twitter.com/adopttodaybtown) will now receive regular updates about the animals that are up for adoption. This feature -- a “Twitter bot” which automatically tweets animal profiles from the Animal Shelter’s database -- was implemented by the Bloomington Civic Code group, BMG Hack (bmghack.github.io/civic-hacking/). The group is a member of the Code for America Brigade network (brigade.codeforamerica.org/) and is a project of the local non-profit Humanetrix Foundation, along with the Combine, Ignite Bloomington, Sigma Play and more.



The inspiration for the project came from a civic coding brigade in Philadelphia that implemented a similar solution for their city. Given the animal-loving nature of Bloomington and the high traffic on the City’s Animal Shelter webpage for adoptable animals, the BMG Hack group adapted it for use here (bloomington.in.gov/animal-shelter/animals).



Mayor John Hamilton stated, “This is a great example of easy-to-implement innovation that can have a direct and immediate impact for the betterment of our community. The sooner the public knows a particular pet is available for adoption, the faster and healthier it will likely leave the shelter, bound for its forever home. Combining this information tool with the continuing renovations at the shelter will provide a better future for the animals in our care.”



BMG Hack worked with City of Bloomington Information and Technology Services (ITS) Department staff to implement this project. ITS Director Rick Dietz stated, “We couldn’t be more pleased to publicly launch our first collaboration with our friends at BMG Hack. This tool helps the City get the word out about adoptable animals as quickly as possible.”



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