[alicebot-archcomm] A test aiml fetch service for Jon

[Kino Coursey]

Perhaps [alicebot-developer] is a more appropriate venue for the
experimentation and announcements. There does need to be a way to
collaborate on exploratory development. If that development proves useful, a
there has to be a way to standardize what is developed into the official
specification.

 While convenient to develop a spec from the top down, from idea to fully
formed standard, sometimes time throws a curve ball. New technologies and
needs arise, and not to address them can cause the tool not find the same
audience. One problem faced with the adoption of AI in the past has been
that the tools did not integrate as well with the user's environment as more
conventional solutions. So the users adapted the conventional solutions, and
merged in the AI methods and ideas, even though the AI tools would have been
better IF they had the interface functionality.

The tag and service developers are trying to maintain and extend the
relevancy of AIML-based systems. They have not as of yet put their mods up
for a vote or as a standard. While they are members of archcomm, and I
suspect they intend to submit the final form of their ideas for debate as
some standard, they haven't done so yet. I would contend that their "a tag
like X would be nice and work like Y" discussions ran quickly into working
code, but they never bothered to switch over to [alicebot-developer] mode.
So a technical development discussion looks like a de facto fait accompli
coup of the standards process in the heart of the committee.

In congressional terms, it would be as if enthuastic law makers did their
negotiations on the floors, instead of behind the scenes and bringing their
final suggestion to the floor for a vote. If they did that, then they would
probably cause the same reaction.

In short they should be given a traffic warning, with no jail time. ;-)

Enjoy,
Kino

Elect a real Bot: AliceBot for California governor 2003!

-----Original Message-----
From: alicebot-archcomm-admin@list.alicebot.org
[mailto:alicebot-archcomm-admin@list.alicebot.org]On Behalf Of Dr. Rich
Wallace
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 10:34 AM
To: alicebot-archcomm@list.alicebot.org
Subject: Re: [alicebot-archcomm] A test aiml fetch service for Jon


Some ArchComm members might say that this dicussion is moving way too far,
way too fast.

First of all, we've gone an implemented a new AIML tag in one AIML
interpreter, and also gone and implemented some services somwhere that are
compatible with that tag.  We've also shown some sample AIML tag that will
work with that code and with that interpreter.

Conservative Arch Comm members would say is Not the way the Arch Comm works.

There are at least half a dozen other developers out there with their own
AIML interpreters who have had no comment on these new tags and services,
no mattter what their merits, and no we have no idea whether they will
ever be implemented, no matter how cool they are.

This is the the dreaded "Embrace and Extend" that kills any standard.

I am living through a really tough experience myself right now trying to
port some AIML files from Pandorabots to Program E and finding out that
even the existing AIML standard has some big compatibility problems which
have not yet been hashed out.  For example, they each process "that"
differenlty.  Also, has anyone looked at the "Annabot" project lately?
They have forked AIML and replaced the <that> tag with <this>.

It is worth pointing out that the volunteer who was editing the spec
document has left our community and no one has stepped forward to take
over that role.  We have already found many errors and inconsistencies.
Some have also said that we need some kind of validation scheme to
validate the existing AIML software so that botmasters can trust that
their AIML files are portable between implementations.

A long time ago we discussed creating a "Good Housekeeping Seal of
Approval" for prgrams that implement the AIML 1.0x standard.   The idea
was the developers could submit their code to the Foundation and then get
the seal of approval so that botmasters could trust their implementation
as "official" AIML.

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