Brooks Antweil

E 375

Project 2 Storyboard

            I would like to do more of what I set out to do originally last time and create an informative project concerning Charles Dodgson.  Last time, I proposed to simply meet his ghost and follow him around, but this time I actually plan to have a more interactive project.  I would like to create some sort of Charles Dodgson bot that will talk to the MOO user.  If I cannot figure out how to program a moo-oriented bot, I may have to post my bot on a web page separate from the bot.  Returning to the MOO would be possible, because I could give Alex Games the ability to edit the page where my bot presides and he can insert a link back to the bot if necessary.

            If I find myself needing to do a non-Moo-oriented bot, I will either program my bot using Java (if I can figure it out/remember how it works) or flash.  A flash bot would be very multimedia-friendly, as I would be able to insert pictures and sounds.  If I can figure out how to program the bot in flash, I may even use a menu/tree style for the interactive questions.  For instance, instead of allowing the user to type in any question they want, I could have a set of choices for the first word (such as “how,” “what,” etc.) and depending on which word they choose, the next set of words would appear (so one could choose “what” then “is” then “your” then “name”).

            Since there is no interactive Dodgson (at least that I could find) yet in the MOO, he would connect somewhere similar to the place that Lewis Carroll appears in Christ Church.  So if one started at the tower (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu:7000/171/), then navigated to the Wrenn Library ceiling (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu:7000/213/), and clicked on the Oxford Seal and followed it to Christ Church (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu:7000/222/), one would find his/herself at the meeting place for Dodgson.  The bot could even be linked to the current Lewis Carroll page (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu:7000/564/), as an interactive Carroll.

            Counting words will be difficult since the project is interactive.  It would be ultimately up to you to decide how to do this, but depending on the difficulty of a flash project, I might just simply print out a transcript of my responses, and these could add up to a total to be determined by you (either the original 2100 or maybe less because of the extra time/effort required for such a project).  There may be another way to count words that I’m not thinking of, however.