Teaching librarians to build Twitter bots

Robin Davis (@robincamille) and I are running a Twitter bot-making workshop next week at ALA Annual in New Orleans. We’ve run this workshop a couple of times before, and it’s always been a positive experience. It’s a great way to introduce people to Python while building something fun.

Right now, I’m in the midst of re-checking all of the bots and activities, to make sure they still work. Technical workshops, especially ones like this that rely so heavily on networked tools, are sometimes a real gamble. One broken service and the whole workshop quickly comes to halt. Of course, we have a plan B, and even a plan C; but still.

With a workshop like this, the elephant in the room is that bots have earned a bit of a reputation lately. Our workshop emphasizes making bots that bring some whimsy to Twitter. We’re aiming for increased bot literacy, and a bit of practical Python knowledge. We want our participants to use their new found skills to make something constructive.

If you can’t make it to ALA, you can still play along here.

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