Hi,
Over the past few months I’ve found myself been very busy with parts of my life that seem to demand most of my attention. However, I have found moments to reflect upon various AI chat problems. This is my consolation since I don’t have the time to program ‘Walter’.

I’ve observed that from one day to the next, I manage to forget that ‘brilliant’ thought from the day before…and find myself rethinking these points. Sort of 2 steps forward, 1 step backwards.

So, a month ago I started a Journal to record my various ‘ramblings’.  I’ve been very faithful to record bits and pieces as they occur. In fact, I take this journal with me to work…just in case something work-related sparks an idea.

I’ve got to say, it has been very effective…and I have managed to develop quite a few ideas that might be worth designing, programming, and testing.

I’m curious…what do you designers and developers do to ‘record’ your ideas about your chatbot programs? 

Regards,
Chuck Bolin

I’m curious…what do you designers and developers do to ‘record’ your ideas about your chatbot programs?

For all my soft, I have huge piles of paper notes. I usually write them during the evening.

I use a “Todo” agent to tell the bot how I want to improve it.

Eventually, it should implement the Todo’s itself

Chuck!!!!!!! You’re back! How are you mate! Long time no see!

I am a little bit absent on the forum these days. I’m working on some marketing stuff for the site (the external promotion of our virtual assistant review on the Gartner report http://www.chatbots.org/conversational/agent/virtual_assistant_market_gartner_2011/ and our list of 128 chatbot synonyms which will be published probably this Monday).

About your ToDo list: I always have the intention to work very structured. So once in a while I enter all tasks in Outlook and clean up my desk. But within two weeks, all kind of notes pile up and I copy it to an A4, and I continue to use the A4 as a ToDo list, and continue answering my emails. Once all emails are being answered, after a week of hard work, I return to my A4. And twice in a year, the A4 list is decreasing and that brings me back to my tasks in Outlook, which are often outdated.

A typical task in Outlook: work on our Alexa rankings and a DMOZ entry, which appears to be impossible because the moderator seems to have died or something (do you have a suggestion??).

Anyway, glad to have you back and see you soon in other discussions.

@Mitchell: don’t forget to upload a picture! :-p

I’m running a local Wordpress on my laptop as a digital notebook. I have several projects set up as a ‘blogpost’ and I use the comment function to add short notes to such a ‘project’. I use a specific plugin for quick internal linking between blogposts. When I find something relevant online, like a website with interesting information, a research paper, etc. then I can quickly ‘shoot it into’ my local Wordpress (I use a Firefox plugin for that). If stuff I found is usefull in relation to a project, I create an internal link between the two.

My laptop is almost always on, so I can always quickly add something to my digital notebook. Especially the fact that I can dump online stuff I find into the ‘notebook’ with just a few mouseclicks, made me choose this solution.

Forgot this: the tagging feature in Wordpress is very handy to find stuff quickly. I use a ‘todo’ tag to list stuff that I still have to review and/or process.

Chuck Bolin - Mar 22, 2011:

[...]I’m curious…what do you designers and developers do to ‘record’ your ideas about your chatbot programs?

http://cyborg.blogspot.com/2010/09/sep09mfpj.html is “both a tool in developing MindForth open-source artificial intelligence (AI) and an archival record of the history of how the AI Forthmind evolved over time.”

Arthur

I use a combination of things.  Like Jan, I still find the good old tried-and-true paper & pencil approach still has a lot of merit.

I keep a notebook on the end table beside the bed, with pencil ready to go.  I get most of my ideas 1/2 hour after climbing into bed, just before falling asleep.  Also, if I wake up for whatever reason, I seem to have fresh ideas at those times, so having the note book handy is very important.

The note book is just so that I don’t have to take the time to boot up a computer.  Now, in the morning or later in the evening I usually spark up OpenOffice (yes, Linux guy here, probably only one), and write up the idea formally.

I have 2 sub directories under my main CLUES directory, one called “./documentation” another “ideas”.  Documentation is for the eventually user guide, and ideas, well, random stuff mostly.

If the idea is good, I usually write up a copy on Google Docs.  I also use Google Docs to write up finalized versions of documentation and store as a PDF and version control it.

Chuck—- good to “see” you again on here!!

Yes, welcome back, Chuck! You have been missed! Lots of interesting stuff going on here, too, and your ideas and insights would be most welcome. But take whatever time you desire to get “back up to speed”.

Oh, shoot! I forgot to add my .02¢ worth!

Usually, I just keep things “in my head”, mainly because I’m too lazy to “write” stuff down. When I do, though, I have a graph pad and pencil in the main part of the house to jot stuff down on, if needed. Otherwise, I use StickyPad to collect notes and such. Since my computer is on 24/7, and it’s less than 6 feet from my bed, it’s just as easy to fire up StickyPad as it is to chase down some other means of note-taking.

Hi,
I must admit I like Robert’s response the best.

I use a “Todo” agent to tell the bot how I want to improve it.

Eventually, it should implement the Todo’s itself smile

=)

I must admit I still prefer paper and pen for capturing ideas. It seems most convenient as I sit at baseball games, find myself waiting as a chauffeur for the kids, or as I sit on the patio enjoying the outdoors. Sometimes the computer, or programming, seem to hinder thinking problems through. However, when I do have something figured out I do like to put it into a written specification.

It’s definitely good to be back.

Regards,
Chuck

Victor Shulist - Mar 22, 2011:

yes, Linux guy here, probably only one

You’re not alone here

My company delivers Open Source Support to our clients

Chuck Bolin - Mar 23, 2011:

..... as I sit on the patio enjoying the outdoors. Sometimes the computer, or programming, seem to hinder thinking problems through.
Regards,

Yes, agreed.  I like to ‘doodle’ ... I draw boxes, lines here and there, just whatever way I can express my wild ideas

about enjoying out doors .... you said it… I hope it isn’t long before I’ll be able to take the laptop outside again and sit and do my coding.

Hans Peter - excellent, glad to hear it

Hans Peter Willems - Mar 23, 2011:

Victor Shulist - Mar 22, 2011:

yes, Linux guy here, probably only one

You’re not alone here

My company delivers Open Source Support to our clients

Yup, I’m a dual-booter myself. Ubuntu for day-to-day and programming, but Windows for some of the software I use in lab.

I sometimes jot notes down in gedit. I use that as my python editor as well, so it’s handy. For more fleshed out ideas, I built a “website” for organizing them and referencing. But it’s not currently online—just for my own use.

Oh, and definitely great to see you again, Chuck

I use a sophisticated technique called “Advanced Pile Management”. Paper, notebooks, sticky notes and an ideas file on the computer.

CR - if you are using a browser for things you might be interested in “Tidlywiki”. It allows you to create and edit a web page wiki on your local disk. http://www.tiddlywiki.com/