Re: ::scr Desktop Dipsy

[jo walsh <jo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > So ... what about a desktop dipsy. A small avatar/bot (or even just a dialogue
> > box with a input box under it) that sat somewhere on your desktop. 
> This reminds me somewhat of Autonomy's "Active Knowledge" product. 

it reminds me of the start of tim berners-lee's semantic web story:
http://www.sciam.com/2001/0501issue/0501berners-lee.html
that's where i would like to see this heading, attempt to distribute the
intelligence, the featureset, rather than localise it on the desktop.

what i like best about infobots is their offer of internal community,
factoid sharing, learning, the sense of the trust network between them.

what i like least about infobots is the code fragmentation, the constant
necessary patching. i'd like them to be able to share their knowledge
acquisition skills as easily as they share their knowledge. 

the word 'marshalling' keeps popping into my head. it probably has a
formal sense which i am abusing. my dream desktop dipsy is a kind of
project manager bot; bossy, well-organised, locquacious but inane, without
many ideas of its own, but with a network of knowledgable peers to call
on. 

merging, mirroring, delegation. a central-ish version of a bot that can
send out an image of itself, which may or may not return to be merged once
its task is done. which could make friendships on its way and callback in
time of need: 'oh, i remember dadadodo can speak french', for example (and
no, it can't). all enhancements become public, useful ones are propagated.

sorry if this isn't very practical, but neither am i.

z