CHATBOT COMMUNITIES

One of the most interesting developments in the chat bot technology areas is the emergence of companies and projects that enable the development of communities of people (botmasters) and bots. Although none of these projects can as yet claim to be a great financial success story, they have succeeded in creating sustainable markets for large numbers of users of their respective technologies. As these communities grow, we expect to see emerging secondary markets for books, classes and instructional materials, add-on software products, conferences and trade shows, and consulting businesses. The most important feature of these communities is the emergence of an eco-system for trade and business between the multitude of developers and users of these bot systems.

Many of the people involved in the bot communities are youth and students. This has the dual benefit that young people grow into adults who will continue to have an interest in this technology as they enter their careers, and will carry the torch of the bot technology into the real world of business, much as early pioneers of PC technology did a generation ago. The second benefit is that we will continue to recruit new generations of young people as they become interested in bots through online chat, web sites, and mass media. So we expect the chat bot communities to continue their rapid growth.

The major online bot communities today include:

Project: Pandorabots 
URL: http://www.pandorabots.com/ 
Principal: Dr. Doubly Aimless 
Remark: 50000 botmasters, 60000 bots 

Community: ALICE A. I. Foundation 
URL: http://www.alicebot.org/ 
Principal: Dr. Richard S. Wallace 
Remark: 200 members, 500 developers, 250000 downloads 

Community: RunABot 
URL: http://www.runabot.com/ 
Principal: Dave DeVitry 
Remark: 100000 botmasters 

Community: AI-Buddy 
URL: http://www.ai-buddy.com/ 
Principal: Unknown 
Remark: 5100 members 

Community: Zabaware 
URL: http://www.zabaware.com/ 
Principal: Robert Medeksza, President 
Remark: 200000 downloads 

Community: Personality Forge 
URL: http://www.personalityforge.com/ 
Principal: Benji Adams 
Remark: 2500 members 

Community: Robitron 
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/robitron 
Principal: David Hamill 
Remark: Watering Hole for Loebner Prize winners, contestants, organizers, fans and Hugh Loebner