PressBot: The AI with a Passion for Sports
Most of us are accustomed to receiving digital notifications on the world around us instantly, even as events are still unfolding. Lag-time is no longer an option. Institutions with older distribution models are struggling to keep pace and are forced to adapt the way they deliver their content to audiences who now expect instant updates. The Dallas Morning News recruited our help to keep their readers engaged and up-to-date on the news they care most about.
The largest readership of The Dallas Morning News are high school football fans. To serve this audience, the newspaper hires representatives to attend high school football games all across the Dallas area and enter the events that take place on the field. This rich source of play-by-play updates currently lives on a single page, buried amongst other categories, features, and stories. Our goal this semester was to revamp The Dallas Morning News’s sports news delivery system and update fans on a platform they already use daily.
Our solution was to deliver these play-by-play messages directly to fans with PressBot: a Messenger-based bot who loves sports and works tirelessly to keep you updated on every score. To start using PressBot, one simple goes to the PressBot Facebook page, clicks ‘Send Message’, and finally clicks on the prompt to ‘Get Started’. PressBot walks you through the rest from there:
Users can ‘add team’, ‘unsubscribe team’, ask for ‘help’, ‘update notifications’ and even say ‘thanks’. PressBot handles it all flawlessly, without any fluff.
I’m extremely proud of my team and the product we created. We hit every one of our MVP goals and last Friday night we were thrilled to see PressBot live in action. I’ve never been a football fan myself, but even I couldn’t help rooting for Argyle High School to come back in the final quarter when the updates started pouring in!
That Friday was a miserable rainy evening, but that didn’t stop me celebrating our successful launch with a burger as I kept checking my phone incessantly for updates. Here’s a picture of me looking exhausted and damp, but very very proud and happy that PressBot was finally competed:
As with any programming project, there were some hurdles to overcome which meant I had the opportunity to grow as a developer and deepen my technical skills. I developed fluency in JavaScript, became a pro at conversational design with DialogFlow, and learned how to create a project that scales with an AWS backend. My partner Connor and I have probably re-written the entire project three times as we moved through the learning process and re-structured our code to make the PressBot experience better for users and more sustainable for The Dallas Morning News.
This is just the beginning for PressBot! There are future plans for more finely tuned notification options and the ability to receive news stories about breakout teams or players. We hope football fans enjoy using our product and stay connected with their teams even when they can’t make the game in person!