The Good, the Bad, and the Bot
What does it look like when twitter bots work towards improving our world?
Bots have a rightly deserved rap for being used nefariously, but much less attention is paid to when they’re used in ways that enhance the world. And you may have students for whom the exercise of writing a bot can unleash their specific creativity and introduce them to the idea that writing code can be used to effect positive change.
Let’s take a look at four functions for twitter bots that can actually improve the world.
Wait, slow down. What’s a bot?
Great question. A bot is an account you create on twitter that tweets automatically. You can set it to tweet when:
- a specific set of conditions are met;
- or when the value of a variable changes;
- or to just tweet out a specific string of text at intervals.
Bots exist on other social media platforms, like Facebook, but today we’re going to be looking at the ones on twitter.
But aren’t bots a bad thing?
Like almost everything else online, they sure can be. A few years ago, social media platforms including twitter had much more relaxed rules about bots, which led to some people creating many bots that were designed to impersonate real people, with the aim of influencing political elections. There’s evidence this may be ongoing.
At 2 in the morning, hundreds of Ted Cruz supporters all woke up to issue the same exact statement on Twitter. Nothing suspicious about this. Nope. These are all just proud, patriotic American citizens, all deep in the heart of Texas. pic.twitter.com/Sp4qWELhT5
— Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) September 13, 2018
But this form of coding — creating a small tool that can do repetitive action indefinitely or quickly parse large data sets — shows no sign of going away. It’s a coding exercise that shows no sign of wanting to return to Pandora’s Box, so it’s up to us squishy, breakable humans to figure out how to use it to make things better.
1. twitter bots performing radical self-care
One of the most pernicious aspects of social media is how it can be a massive time-suck. This can be good (waiting at the doctor’s office) and bad (um, any other time). Sometimes you just need a responsible bot to step in and remind you of the world outside your screen.
No matter how hard it gets, we can make it better together.
— Yayfrens Bot (@yayfrens) October 29, 2018
The two bots have a very simple, paradoxical purpose: to make twitter a more human place.
Additionally, most of their tweets encourage the user to work towards a healthy online-offline balance; that’s right, they exist online to help users remember to get offline.
Self-care bots you and your students could build:
- A basic compliments bot;
- A specifically class- or school-based compliments bot.
But what about a twitter bot that fights bullying? You can build a bot that’s set to search for certain terms and take actions based on them. So, for example, a bot keyed to search for the term “meanie”, could simply respond to each instance with “Hey, that’s not okay. We’re all here trying to be nice.”
Can someone build this for us, like, yesterday? Tia, you beautiful people, you.
2. twitter bots supporting civic engagement
One of the things twitter bots are best at is monitoring a data set and taking action when it changes. How does this make them good at civic engagement?
Angelina Bethoney wrote the twitter bot @LawsMass, which monitors which legislation is currently being worked on in Massachusetts. She made the code open-source, and encourages other people to write legislative bots for their own states. A good and easy way to keep paying attention to what’s going on in government.
Vermont does not currently have an Open States twitter bot. Hint, hint.
Another type of civic engagement bot is the popular “_edits” bot. Popularized by @NYPDedits and @congressedits, these bots simply make note of when the encyclopedic powerhouse wikipedia is edited. And by whom. As wikipedia continues to allow anonymous edits, bots like these that track edits to a range of IP addresses (such as those assigned to the NYPD, or Congress) provide valuable information.
What kinds of civic engagement bots could your students create?
- How about partnering with your local school board in creating a bot that tweets out meeting agendas, guests and changes?
3. twitter bots creating art
Even though everything’s terrible, it’s still okay to make tiny, beautiful things. Maybe even because everything’s terrible. And you can make twitter bots that create and share tiny arts.
@BowieLyricsBot does what it says on the tin: shares a lyric from a random David Bowie song at one-hour intervals.
(Synchronicity: when two bot tweets appearing together in the timeline add up to a larger whole. Now all we need is a Police lyrics bot.)
@grow_slow, on the other hand, shares a daily photo of one plant, growing slowly.
@MuseumBot is a bot that tweets a photo of one item from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection each day, along with accompanying details.
— Museum Bot (@MuseumBot) July 31, 2017
They’re small, powerful acts of tiny art that interrupt the unending flow of misery current news cycle on a user’s feed with the reminder that things can still be beautiful.
What kind of tiny art could your students share with the world?
- A photo of a classroom bulletin board each morning;
- A collection of student art that’s added to at regular intervals;
- A photo of a random place around the school paired with a motivational quote.
- In partnership with a local museum or historical society, artifacts from their collections.
Bots like these are relatively simple: they pull one piece of data from a larger data set and send it out into the world at regular intervals. The biggest challenge with these will be with assembling a data set in a uniform format to pull from.
4. twitter bots monitoring remotely
Need to know when a specific condition changes? Think of a door being opened, then closed. A light turning on and off. A cat going in and out. Wait, wha–
Pépito is back home (18:53:13) pic.twitter.com/rbGdKnJjbr
— Pépito (@PepitoTheCat) October 29, 2018
@PepitoTheCat is a bot whose sole purpose is to record when Pépito, who is a cat, goes out at night, and when he comes back home. That’s it. It’s brilliantly simple and powerful. It performs two valuable operations. One, it records data based on these conditional events. And two, it’s creating a new record with all this data that can be examined later.
Think about how your students could implement something like this as part of a science experiment:
- How often does the temperature drop below a given value in the turtle tank?
- How often does the heat lamp turn on or off in the chicken coop?
- Overnight, how fast does water evaporate?
- How much snow did we get today?
These are super fun. They work by connecting with tiny science-y (yes it’s a word) sensors and recording data from them. So, in Pépito’s case, there’s a sensor on the door flap that registers every time the door is opened. This, in turn, triggers a camera to take a photo. The photo is then tweeted out with its timestamp.
Folks who are looking for next stage arduino projects, projects that actually do something? Right over here.
But remember, these type of bots are also collecting data while they tweet. They’re doing the work of building a data set for your students to later analyze. Remember @grow_slow?
My little bot @grow_slow has been taking a photo of my fiddle-leaf fig plant every morning at 10:17 am for over two years. I finally put all the photos together, so here's what 2 years of growth and movement look like!!! pic.twitter.com/58q4RvAMGg
— Nicole He (@nicolehe) June 17, 2018
Wait, this is starting to sound complicated.
A twitter bot like Pépito’s certainly needs some additional parts and a little more thought than one that simply cranks out quotes from your favorite Agatha Christie novels.
What kind of bot could your students create? What problems do they want to use it to solve?
Goodnight, Twitter! Time to wind down and let the day go.
— Yayfrens Bot (@yayfrens) October 29, 2018
Nzuri, Mbaya, na Bot Inaonekanaje wakati roboti za Twitter zinafanya kazi ili kuboresha ulimwengu wetu? Bots wana rap haki inayostahili kwa kuwa kutumika nephariously, lakini tahadhari kidogo ni kulipwa kwa wakati wao ni kutumika katika njia ambayo kuboresha dunia. Na unaweza kuwa na wanafunzi ambao mazoezi ya kuandika bot inaweza kuanzisha ubunifu wao maalum na kuwajulisha wazo kwamba kuandika kanuni inaweza kutumika kusababisha mabadiliko mazuri. Hebu tuangalie kazi nne kwa ajili ya twitter bots kwamba inaweza kweli kuboresha dunia. Kusubiri, polepole. Bot ni nini? Swali zuri. Bot ni akaunti ya Twitter ambayo hutuma tweets moja kwa moja. Unaweza kuweka tweet wakati: - seti maalum ya masharti ni kukutana; - au wakati thamani ya kutofautiana mabadiliko; - au tu tweet nje ya safu maalum ya maandishi katika vipindi. Bots zipo kwenye majukwaa mengine ya vyombo vya habari vya kijamii, kama Facebook, lakini leo tutakuwa kuangalia wale juu ya Twitter. Lakini je, roboti si jambo baya? Kama ilivyo na kila kitu kingine mtandaoni, ni wazi kwamba wanaweza kuwa. Miaka michache iliyopita, mitandao ya kijamii, ikiwa ni pamoja na Twitter, ilikuwa na sheria za kupumzika zaidi kuhusu bots, ambayo ilisababisha watu wengi kuunda bots nyingi ambazo zilitengenezwa kuiga watu halisi, kwa lengo la kuathiri uchaguzi wa kisiasa. Kuna uthibitisho kwamba huenda jambo hilo likaendelea. "Kama ilivyoelezwa, ""Katika saa 2 asubuhi, mamia ya wafuasi wa Ted Cruz wote waliamka kutoa taarifa sawa kwenye Twitter." Hakuna kitu cha kutilika shaka kuhusu hili. La hasha. Hizi ni nchi za Marekani zenye kiburi na zenye kupenda nchi yao, na zote ziko katika moyo wa Texas. "Lamar White Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) Septemba 13, 2018 ""Lakini aina hii ya coding - kuunda chombo kidogo ambacho kinaweza kufanya hatua ya kurudia kwa muda usiojulikana au haraka kuchanganua seti kubwa za data - haionyeshi ishara ya kuondoka." Ni zoezi la programu ambayo haionyeshi ishara ya kutaka kurudi kwenye Sanduku la Pandora, kwa hivyo ni juu yetu wanadamu wenye nguvu, wenye kuharibika kujua jinsi ya kuitumia kufanya mambo kuwa bora. Twitter bots kufanya radical kujitegemea huduma moja ya mambo ya hatari zaidi ya mitandao ya kijamii ni jinsi inaweza kuwa kubwa muda-suck. Hii inaweza kuwa nzuri (kusubiri katika ofisi ya daktari) na mbaya (um, wakati mwingine wowote). Wakati mwingine unahitaji tu bot kuwajibika kwa hatua katika na kukumbusha ya dunia nje ya skrini yako. Haijalishi ni ngumu kadiri gani, tunaweza kuifanya iwe bora pamoja. "Yayfrens Bot (@yayfrens) Oktoba 29, 2018 ""Bots mbili zina kusudi rahisi sana, la kushangaza: kufanya Twitter kuwa mahali pa binadamu zaidi." Kwa kuongezea, twiti zao nyingi zinamtia moyo mtumiaji kufanya kazi kuelekea usawa mzuri wa mtandaoni na nje ya mtandao; hiyo ni kweli, zipo mtandaoni kusaidia watumiaji kukumbuka kwenda nje ya mtandao. Self-matibabu bots wewe na wanafunzi wako inaweza kujenga: - Basic compliments bot; - maalum darasa au shule-msingi compliments bot. Lakini vipi kuhusu bot ya Twitter inayopigana na unyanyasaji? Unaweza kujenga bot ambayo ni kuweka kutafuta maneno fulani na kuchukua hatua kulingana nao. Hivyo, kwa mfano, bot keyed kutafuta kwa neno <unk>meanie<unk>, inaweza tu kujibu kwa kila mfano na <unk>Hey, hiyo si sawa.<unk> Sisi sote tuko hapa tukijaribu kuwa wazuri. Je, mtu anaweza kutujengea hii, kama, jana? Tia, wewe ni mtu mzuri sana. Twitter bots ni moja ya mambo ambayo bots za Twitter ni bora katika ni ufuatiliaji wa seti ya data na kuchukua hatua wakati inabadilika. Hii inawafanyaje wawe wazuri katika ushiriki wa kiraia? Angelina Bethany aliandika bot ya Twitter @LawsMass, ambayo inawakilisha sheria ambazo zinafanywa katika jimbo la Massachusetts. Yeye alifanya code wazi-chanzo, na kuhamasisha watu wengine kuandika bots sheria kwa ajili ya majimbo yao wenyewe. Njia nzuri na rahisi ya kuweka makini na nini kinaendelea katika serikali. Vermont kwa sasa haina Open States twitter bot. Dhibitisho, daktari. Aina nyingine ya ushiriki wa kiraia bot ni maarufu <unk>_edits<unk> bot. Kwa kuwa ni maarufu kwa @NYPDedits na @congressedits, roboti hizi huandika tu wakati encyclopedic powerhouse wikipedia inahaririwa. Na ni nani aliyefanya hivyo? Wikipedia inaendelea kuruhusu uhariri usiojulikana, na bots kama hizi ambazo hufuatilia uhariri kwa anuwai ya anwani za IP (kama zile zilizowekwa kwa NYPD au Congress) hutoa habari muhimu. Ni aina gani ya bots ya ushiriki wa kiraia wanafunzi wako wanaweza kuunda? - Vipi kuhusu kushirikiana na bodi yako ya shule ya mitaa katika kujenga bot kwamba tweets nje mkutano ajenda, wageni na mabadiliko? 3. twitter bots kujenga sanaa Hata ingawa kila kitu ni mbaya, bado ni sawa kufanya vitu vidogo, nzuri. Labda hata kwa sababu kila kitu ni mbaya. Unaweza pia kutumia Twitter na Twitterbots, ambayo hutengeneza picha na picha ndogo. @BowieLyricsBot hufanya kile kinachosema kwenye bati: inashiriki maneno kutoka kwa wimbo wa David Bowie kwa vipindi vya saa moja. "Synchronicity: ""Bot tweets mbili zinazoonekana pamoja katika mstari wa wakati zinaongeza hadi jumla kubwa.""" Sasa tunachohitaji ni bot ya maneno ya polisi.) @grow_slow, kwa upande mwingine, anashiriki picha ya kila siku ya mmea mmoja, ukikua polepole. @MuseumBot ni bot ambayo tweets picha ya kitu kimoja kutoka Metropolitan Museum of Art's mkusanyiko kila siku, pamoja na maelezo ya kuandamana. "MuseumBot (@MuseumBot) Julai 31, 2017 ""Ni vitendo vidogo, vyenye nguvu vya sanaa ndogo ambazo huvunja mtiririko usio na mwisho wa mzunguko wa habari za sasa za huzuni kwenye chakula cha mtumiaji na kukumbusha kwamba vitu bado vinaweza kuwa nzuri.""" Ni aina gani ya sanaa ndogo ambayo wanafunzi wako wanaweza kushiriki na ulimwengu? - Picha ya bodi ya matangazo ya darasa kila asubuhi; - Mkusanyiko wa sanaa ya mwanafunzi ambayo ni aliongeza kwa vipindi vya kawaida; - Picha ya mahali random kuzunguka shule paired na nukuu ya kuhamasisha. - Kwa kushirikiana na makumbusho ya mahali hapo au jamii ya kihistoria, vitu vya kale kutoka kwa makusanyo yao. Bots kama hizi ni rahisi: wao kuvuta kipande kimoja cha data kutoka seti kubwa ya data na kutuma nje katika dunia kwa vipindi vya kawaida. Changamoto kubwa na hizi itakuwa na kukusanya seti ya data katika muundo wa kawaida wa kuvuta kutoka. Twitter bots: Ufuatiliaji wa mbali wa Twitter: Unahitaji kujua wakati hali maalum inabadilika? Fikiria mlango unaofunguliwa na kufungwa. Nuru inayoangaza na kuzimwa. Paka anayeingia na kutoka. Pépito ni mbwa mwenye asili ya Marekani, na ni mtumiaji wa mtandao wa kijamii wa Twitter, ambao ni wa kwanza kurekodi wakati Pépito anapotoka nyumbani usiku na kurudi nyumbani. Hiyo ni hivyo. Ni rahisi sana na yenye nguvu. Inafanya kazi mbili zenye thamani. Kwanza, ni rekodi data kulingana na matukio haya masharti. Na mbili, ni kujenga rekodi mpya na data hii yote ambayo inaweza kuchunguzwa baadaye. Fikiria jinsi wanafunzi wako wanaweza kutekeleza kitu kama hiki kama sehemu ya majaribio ya sayansi: - Ni mara ngapi joto hupungua chini ya thamani fulani katika tangi la kasa? - Ni mara ngapi taa ya joto huwaka au kuzimwa katika kibanda cha kuku? - Kwa usiku mmoja, maji huyeyuka haraka kadiri gani? - Tulipata theluji ngapi leo? Hizi ni super furaha. Wao kazi kwa kuunganisha na ndogo sayansi-y (ndiyo ni neno) sensorer na kurekodi data kutoka kwao. Kwa hiyo, katika kesi ya Pépito, kuna sensor kwenye flap ya mlango ambayo inarekodi kila wakati mlango unafunguliwa. Hilo, kwa upande wake, huchochea kamera kupiga picha. Picha hiyo kisha hutumwa kwenye Twitter pamoja na muhuri wake wa wakati. Kwa wale ambao wanataka kuunda Arduino, hii ni moja ya miradi ya kwanza ambayo inapaswa kufanywa. Hapa ndipo panapofaa. Lakini kumbuka, aina hii ya bots pia ni kukusanya data wakati wao tweet. Wao ni kufanya kazi ya kujenga seti ya data kwa wanafunzi wako baadaye kuchambua. Kumbuka @grow_slow? Bot yangu ndogo ya @growslow imekuwa ikipiga picha ya mmea wangu wa tini kila asubuhi saa 10:17 asubuhi kwa zaidi ya miaka miwili. Mwishowe, picha zote zilikuwa zimeunganishwa, na hii ndiyo miaka miwili ya ukuaji na harakati! "Picture: @nickolehm @nickolehm June 17, 2018 ""Ninajua, lakini hii inaanza kuonekana ngumu." Bot ya twitter kama Pépito's hakika inahitaji sehemu za ziada na mawazo kidogo zaidi kuliko moja ambayo tu cranks nje nukuu kutoka riwaya yako favorite Agatha Christie. Wanafunzi wako wangeweza kutengeneza roboti ya aina gani? Wanataka kutumia programu hiyo kutatua matatizo gani? Usiku mwema, Twitter! Ni wakati wa kupumzika na kuruhusu siku iendelee. "Yayfrens Bot (@yayfrens) Oktoba 29, 2018"