[ Submitter's Name ] Jo Pugh
[ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] University of York / The National Archives
[ Submitter's Twitter ] @mentionthewar
[ Space ] digital
[ Format ] learning-lab
Description
We will be making simple Twitter bots using GitHub, PythonAnywhere and the Twitter API (no coding experience necessary). To celebrate the bicentenary of the Brontë sisters these simple bots will tweet in the words of Charlotte, Emily or Anne.
We will also imagine the perfect culture bot, brainstorming ideas for more sophisticated creations based on a brief consideration of existing culturebots on twitter. What attracts us most? Computational creativity or computational banality?
Agenda
A brief introduction to the diverse range of cultural twitter bots and the ideas behind them will be followed by the group getting their hands dirty: first generating the relevant keys to a Twitter account, then editing some pre-written Python code and linking the two together to bring their bot to life.
Once the group see how easy this is, they should be full of ideas about more sophisticated applications which we will discuss and capture. (This is likely a post-its and pen and paper activity).
Participants
This workshop scales reasonably well. I have a how-to sheet which helps beginners work independently. The tricky bit will be accommodating a wide skills mix.
Here I would split the group into two, getting more advanced botmakers into an impromptu hacking session, with the aim of demonstrating their work to the other half of the group before they come together again.
However, non Python coders sometimes appreciate the simplicity of the setup and just like seeing how much can be done with a few lines of code. The important thing is making sure the level of challenge is right for everyone.
Outcome
Bots offer really exciting opportunities for cultural organisations which I hope participants will be keen to explore further.
But also, once people have seen how easy it is to run server side applications, I hope the process will be thoroughly de-mystified for them. It's really exciting to see code you have written running live on another platform. This is the easiest route into this kind of programming I know.
ArtsAward
commented
8 years ago
[ ID ] 36d15372-98ac-4482-a902-fe0254febf7d
[ Submitter's Name ] Jo Pugh [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] University of York / The National Archives [ Submitter's Twitter ] @mentionthewar
[ Space ] digital
[ Format ] learning-lab
Description
We will be making simple Twitter bots using GitHub, PythonAnywhere and the Twitter API (no coding experience necessary). To celebrate the bicentenary of the Brontë sisters these simple bots will tweet in the words of Charlotte, Emily or Anne.
We will also imagine the perfect culture bot, brainstorming ideas for more sophisticated creations based on a brief consideration of existing culturebots on twitter. What attracts us most? Computational creativity or computational banality?
Agenda
A brief introduction to the diverse range of cultural twitter bots and the ideas behind them will be followed by the group getting their hands dirty: first generating the relevant keys to a Twitter account, then editing some pre-written Python code and linking the two together to bring their bot to life.
Once the group see how easy this is, they should be full of ideas about more sophisticated applications which we will discuss and capture. (This is likely a post-its and pen and paper activity).
Participants
This workshop scales reasonably well. I have a how-to sheet which helps beginners work independently. The tricky bit will be accommodating a wide skills mix.
Here I would split the group into two, getting more advanced botmakers into an impromptu hacking session, with the aim of demonstrating their work to the other half of the group before they come together again.
However, non Python coders sometimes appreciate the simplicity of the setup and just like seeing how much can be done with a few lines of code. The important thing is making sure the level of challenge is right for everyone.
Outcome
Bots offer really exciting opportunities for cultural organisations which I hope participants will be keen to explore further.
But also, once people have seen how easy it is to run server side applications, I hope the process will be thoroughly de-mystified for them. It's really exciting to see code you have written running live on another platform. This is the easiest route into this kind of programming I know.