SFPC Generative Twitter Bot Workshop

Details

• April 16, 2016
• 1-4pm
• More info: http://blog.sfpc.io/post/141199320941/generative-twitter-bots-workshop-by-daniel

Before the workshop

• Install node.js
  • video tutorial 1
  • video tutorial 2
• Set up a twitter account to use for your bot.
  • Note that you will need a phone number to get API access. You can get a free one from Google Voice or Twilio. You can also move your actual phone number temporarily to this account and then back to your main account later.
• Get API keys from Twitter.
  • video tutorial
• Read these articles for ideas / inspiration
  • 12 Weird, Excellent Twitter Bots Chosen by Twitter’s Best Bot-Makers
  • Some Strategies of Bot Poetics
  • How to Make a Bot That Isn't Racist
  • Queer Your Bots: The Bot Builder Roundtable
  • Twitter: Automation rules and best practices
• Fill out this survey

Schedule

• 1:00pm: Introductions, look at a selection of creative bots
• 1:15pm: Basics of node
• 1:30pm: Basics of Twitter API in Node (search, post, favorite, retweet)
• 2:00pm: Classic Generative Text Algorithms
  • Grammars using Tracery by GalaxyKate
  • Markov chains via Rita.js
• 2:30pm: Getting Data
  • Local text files
  • Corpora from tinysubversions
• 2:45pm: Generating images with Processing
• 3:15pm: Questions / workshop
• 3:45pm: Any quick demos / discussion

Inspiration

• Some Strategies of Bot Poetics
• A collection of twitter games and chatbots, along with their source files.
• Botwiki
• Move over, chatbots: meet the artbots

Resources:

• Additional Tutorials from A to Z class
  • EC2 Deployment
  • Heroku
• Download node
• Twit
• Twitter API docs
• Twitter Bot with Node video tutorials
• Tracery
  • Tracery Tutorial
  • Visual Tracery Editor
• Rita.js
• Markov chains explained
• Corpora
• Wordnik API

Other ways to make bots

• Cheap Bots Done Quick with Tracery
• Allison Parrish Google Spreadsheet bot