Data scientist Jakub Waller makes Telegram bots as a hobby and has been channeling this skill into helping people. We all know how challenging it has become to secure appointments with public offices due to the COVID-19 crisis, and Jakub decided to offer a bot to make it a little easier.
Remember back when we were scrambling to find COVID-19 vaccination appointments? That's when Jakub made his first public service bot, to scout out vaccination slots available in Stuttgart, Dresden, and Leipzig. Once that rush had settled down, Jakub - who had moved from West Germany to Leipzig - turned to the Leipzig city offices. He noticed that Stadt Leipzig was publishing appointments at most once a day; to be able to snap up an available slot to register with the city, you had to hurry up, cross your fingers, and keep refreshing the web page.
A bot for city office appointments in Leipzig
Jakub's newest bot checks the city website once a minute for any appointments that become available for you to register or update your address with Stadt Leipzig. We're all required to do that within 30 days of moving anywhere in the city.
The bot shows you the earliest available appointments published for the different Leipzig city office locations. This means that you don't have to keep refreshing the official web page to see if anyone canceled and that slot you'd been waiting for suddenly appeared, or if new slots have magically been released. All you have to do is to follow these steps (and keep an eye on your Telegram):
Install the Telegram app
Subscribe to Jakub's Telegram bot to get instant notifications on available city office appointments
Get ahead of the crowd and secure the appointment on the city web page through this shortcut
If you need an interpreter to accompany you to the appointment, we at Over the Ofek are here to help. Just let us know.
While you're at it, you can help make sure Jakub and his bot remain caffeinated and motivated by contributing with a few euros on his donation page. You can also keep up with Jakub's bot development and thoughts on his Twitter page.