Botbotbegins
The day is Wednesday, or the evening if we're being precise. The month is October, and because of the global warm it is toasty - but I digress. Botbot is born. Though if we're being completely honest you could say that botbot was sort of always with me.
Why the world needs botbot
The origin story
Botbot was born out of my curious yet effective habit of understanding complex technical concepts by likening them to children's stories. Understanding how a SYN flood exploits a standard TCP 3-way handshake by way of Harry Potter (the Hogwarts letters flooding Uncle Vernon's kitchen without waiting for a response), or thinking through a logged-user problem using the:
We can't go over it. We can't go under it. Oh no! We've got to go through it!
logic of Michael Rosen's beloved children's book We're Going On A Bear Hunt
It sparked an idea.
Pipeline problem, my bot!
Sick of hearing:
It's a pipeline problem
in response to a lack of diversity in tech, I wondered if botbot couldn't be part of the answer.
How botbot will save us all
Botbot as family-first swag
Developers have families. Some are parents, some are aunts and uncles and step-parents and older cousins and sisters and brothers. Tech events and hackathons are often held at night, steeped in beer and pizza and swag is often superfluous - yet another t-shirt you won't wear, a logo sticker for your crowded laptop or yet another bottle opener for your keychain.
Take a botbot book home from your next tech event and share a little of your work world with the children who reside in yours. Better yet, bring them along to the event.
Botbot for all generations
Botbot lives in the heart of the tech ecosystem, and experiences many of the conflicts that are part and parcel of this brave new world, but that often go unaddressed, swept under the rug in favour of yet another 'hack your morning routine' blog post.
Botbot is a multi-layered universe, with stories for the young and the not so young.
On the surface of 404: Botbot Not Found we take a light-hearted look at playing hooky (chucking a sickie, in Australian terms), and the glorious possibility that a day off from routine held when you were a child. But we also explore the very real threat of burnout in the startup world and the need to consider mental health a business imperative as we busily go about building the future.
In Botbot and the Darkweb we joke about 'the scaries' and meet Naughtybot but we too delve into the underbelly of the internet, and the ethics and behavioural questions posed by technology.
What makes a bot go bad?
Botbot asks, somewhat innocently - and we the audience must also consider what drives us to destroy, rather than create.
Botbot as a heroine
Botbot is female, and if you wonder why it's important to note this, I'd encourage you to ask better questions. She is a super-heroine, not because of a freak accident (radioactive spiderbite anyone?) but because of her persistent, essential, flawed human-ness. Human-ness? Isn't botbot a well... bot? Yes she is, she's also as human as her creators - a reminder that what we build will always reflect us, for better, or for worse.