Bot Contest

We'll all be able to enter. We're hoping that since we're all equal members of a committee, it wont seem biased toward any bot in particular. In fact, everything is going to be really well documented so that everyone knows how it's all going to work. Take a look at my design for the Chatterbox Challenge 2003:

http://205.160.205.182/

Sure, lets get together, Jon. Tomorrow at Trackside Trivia might be good, if you're interested. Send me an email. I'm checking out the comics link now.

Gorgeous. It looks very professional that way.

When do bots have to be entered by?

As the Professor has mention the 2003 Chatterbox Challenge is being run by a committee of 7 people who all have bots entered in the contest. The idea is because we all are competitors this provides for a series of checks and balances on fairness. I'm going to skip all the details for now as we are still debating the various issues but let's talk about the good stuff....money and prizes.

This year it will be sponsored by Zabaware and they will be offering money and awards close to $3500. To the overall winners:
1st place - $1,500 and a Gold Medal
2nd place - $1,000 and a Silver Medal
3rd place - $500 and a Bronze Medal

In addition they will be offering Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals in the following 7 categories:
1) Most Knowledgeable
2) Most Popular
3) Funniest
4) Most uniquely interesting character/personality
5) Best Interface
6) Functionality or "most capable"
7) Best teachable/learning bot

I am real pleased with this. This is over $1000 more in money from the previous contest and as many people indicated after the last contest we are offering Oscar like awards for the different categories. This really opens the contest ups. There are 24 medals up for grab and although we haven't decided exactly how the medals are going to look trust me they will be super nice and something you will be proud of winning.

Now a few things I would like some help on. We have a message board on the contest site and I hope you will all use it. You know it looks bad if no one is posting messages as if no one really cares. Your post doesn't have to be some intellectual, philosophical, type of post. Everybody should feel comfortable using it. In addition this contest is a sponsored contest and that mean generating traffic to the site is extremely important. I know the Professor will promote the contest through PF but you all can help further by promoting the contest beyond the Forge. For example, your personal website, message boards, news groups etc. This is a small request compared to what is being offered.

This should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

Chris

Could you elaborate a little on category #6? Most capable of what?

And category #5. Don't all non-speaking bots just have a window that you type text into?

Jabberwacky has a better interface than we do. It has faster response time (usually) and you can read more than one previous statement.

We will be providing detailed information to the contest site about each category. My initial post was only to let people know in general terms about the contest. BTW I've added a banner section to the site as a sublink under the main header "Contestants". I hope many of you can use them on your personal site. The banners look good and were made by the Professor. What I did was alter mine by putting "Vote For Talk-Bot" on it.

Chris

Chris, I'm still debating whether or not to enter my bot. How long have I got to decide, and do you need anything apart from the info on the entry form?

Hi Corwin,

I encourage everybody to enter. I hate to keep harping on this but because the contest is sponsored the more people will having entering the better we look. As for a date we are looking at maybe April or May of 2003 but with so many categories testing may begin as early as March. Nothing more is required to enter except to help promote the contest which is something that help all of us.

Chris

Most Capable is for bots who can do things- get information from the internet, cook you dinner, open programs, massage your back, etc.

Best Interface- there are a number of bots who have moving graphical interfaces, some which change along with their responses. But along with this is accessibility, ease of use, environment, speaking, etc.

I'll give you a massage if you can get me in the top five.