IRC bot challenge

[Vivek Khurana]

Hello All,

Here is challenge for all upcoming code geniuses.

Create an IRC bot that is capable of interacting with users on an IRC
channel and respond to queries. Normally IRC bots respond with limited
set of commands where as humans interact by understanding natural
language. So the challenge is to build a bot that can understand
queries in natural language and respond. Specially we are interested
in a bot that can answer queries of newbies and help them
troubleshoot. Bot can access a knowledge base and is free to create
its own representation of knowledge base.

The bot should be able to respond to multiple people at a time and the
knowledge base of the bot should be extensible. An interface should be
provided for human to feed knowledge into the bot.

You are free to use any language or technology (even M$ and IBM). But
bot that uses open sourced community driven language/tool/libraries/
frameworks will be given a preference. In case of a tie between a bot
running proprietary code and one built with open source technologies,
bot using open source technology will win.

Dates

Last date to commit your interest in this project is December 15
2009. You can respond to this thread if you are interested in building
the bot
Those who show interest will have time till March 15 2010 to finish
the bot. First one to finish the bot will be declared a winner, even
if the bot is completed before March 15 2010.

Terms and conditions

* You can form teams but at most two members per team.
* This challenge is open to Indian citizens only.
* All code should be released under an open source license (we will
prefer GPL) on a code hosting site. (preferably sf.net)
* You are free to extend any existing bot, to add natural language
parsing and knowledge base representation.
* #lug-jaipur channel can be used for testing the bot.
* No certificate of training or anything else will be issued against
this challenge. Your code released in open will be your certificate.
* More terms and conditions can be added to this based on user
response.

Prize.

Apart from 2 minute name and fame you have a bit more to win.
* The person/team to finish this bot will be given a gala dinner/
lunch at Hyatt Regency Delhi.
* To and fro cost of volvo bus ticket to Delhi will be re-imbursed
subjected to a maximum of INR 1000/-
* A goodie bag.

Disclaimer

This challenge is offered out of personal itch/need. I will be
sponsoring the prizes out of my pocket. This challenge has no
commercial angle of any sorts attached with it.

regards
Vivek

[Vaibhav Gavane]

Respond to newbies, eh?

while(true)
{
    cin >> query;
    cout << "RTFM!";
}

Now, where's my prize?



P.S. Sorry, couldn't resist  :-p

[shantanu choudhary]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 5:28 PM, Vaibhav Gavane
<vaibhav...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Respond to newbies, eh?
>
> while(true)
> {
>     cin >> query;
>     cout << "RTFM!";
> }

http://9.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt2eynYSP91qz4axuo1_500.jpg

> P.S. Sorry, couldn't resist  :-p

This stands for me too.

Must say, great attempt Vivek.
--
Regards
Shantanu Choudhary

[priya iyer]

i am in :), better watch out for this n00b .

-- beachbrake