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BotSpot® Bi-Weekly Newsletter January 3, 2001 Welcome to the 21st Century! Welcome to the 21st Century! I can say that now because for the true geeks among us, 2001 marks the true beginning of the new millennium. There are no flying cars outside my window (which I am still rather bitter about, actually), and the only food pills I have seen are the ones I feed my cat. But the future is here anyway, so we need to figure out what to do with it. Robby the Robot may not be a household object-yet-but bots certainly are. Certainly the last couple of years have demonstrated that there are as many uses for bots on the consumer level as there are on the academic level. And like the Internet before, the path to bot proliferation may be blazed with commercial success. The Internet as an entity was around for nearly 30 years before the National Science Foundation began to allow commercial access to the primarily academic and military network. Once the NSF opened this gate, the 'Net exploded with new sites and new users. A similar path may be in store for bots. Though the creation of bots just for their own sake is a very worthy cause, the furtherance of bot technology may lie in the commercial success of a select few bots. This commercialization won't make everyone happy. Many is the lament from BotSpot readers who would like to see less shopping bots and more progress in pure AI. But as the public gets more exposure to bot technology, regardless of the form, their interest and acceptance (and hopefully their financial input) will only increase. Having a commercial outlet for bots will provide impetus for developers to start working in this field as well. Last week, I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman who wanted to learn everything he could get his hands on about bots. I won't share the idea he was hoping to develop, but it sounded like it would not only be an interesting commercial venture, but would be a leap forward in human-bot interaction. Is commercialization a sell-out for bots? There may be some bumps in the road because of it, but I think in the long term, the influx of capital to the bot community will be a positive thing. Every year, I try to make some New Year's resolutions, which I
promptly break, particularly when they involve food. Since this
is my first year on BotSpot, I thought I would share my resolutions
for BotSpot with you.
Whoops. If I haven't broken this already, I will when I get back
from BOT2001 at the end of the month.
This one I will do, if only to appease the neat-freak in me.
So far, so good. I got a little behind over the holiday, but everybody's got a response from me thus far. Of course, these responses may have not made a lot of sense…
Hey, I've got a whole year, who knows? May all of your resolutions for this new millennium come true! BotSpot Forum Launched The start of a new year brings a great new feature to BotSpot: the BotSpot Forum! The BotSpot Forum is a Web-based message center designed to allow ongoing conversations and messages to be posted for all to share. This service will add a wonderful level of depth to the site, since various topics and ideas can be shared with people already interested in Bot and AI technology! I hope you visit the new Forum page to learn, inform, or even rant about what's knew in the world of Bots! BOT2001 Coming Soon! Is it January already? It seems like only yesterday we were stocking up on kerosene heaters and gallons of water, preparing for the End of the World. No such event happened, though we were inflicted with Eminem, which was nearly the same thing. Now we can move on to happier events, like BOT2001 at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco on January 25, 2001! BotSpot, along with BotTechnology.com, is pleased to be hosting BOT2001, a one-day seminar crammed with information on bots. Presented by BotSpot Creator and Founder Marcus P. Zillman, BOT2001 will be the event of the year for bot developers and implementors, new or experienced. At BOT2001, SearchBots, ChatterBots and KnowledgeBots will be discussed in specific defined presentations from the leaders in the field. Case studies and implementation strategies will take you deeply into the bot arena to take back specific recommendations for both marketing and research. Conference proceedings will cover all aspects of bots and intelligent agents allowing the most inexperienced observer to the seasoned professional to have a better understanding of this field. Experts will diffuse the latest hype and give you specific information on how to implement bots and intelligent agents into your marketing or research plans. News Highlights WebQL Clickthebutton Paula ALife-BotMail BOTizen Archie
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