Meet tech’s new superhero

Her name is Botbot, and she’s got something to say

Who is Botbot?

Simply put, Botbot is the hero of a brand new range of children’s stories by the same name.

Botbot is a bot who lives in the heart of the tech ecosystem. She experiences many of the situations and conflicts that are part and parcel of this world.

In Botbot at the Career Fair we joke about ‘the Scaries’ and meet Naughtybot but we also delve into the underbelly of the internet, and explore the ethics and behavioural questions posed by technology.

What makes a bot go bad?

Botbot asks, somewhat innocently — and we the reader must also consider what drives us to destroy, rather than create.

A super-hero

Botbot is female, and if you wonder why it’s important to note this, I’d encourage you to ask better questions. She is a super-hero, not because of a freak accident (radioactive spiderbite anyone?) but because of her persistent, essential, flawed human-ness.

Human-ness? Isn’t Botbot a well… bot?

Yes she is, she’s also as human as her creators — a reminder that what we build will always reflect us, for better, or for worse.

Why Botbot?

The Art of Tech

Botbot was born out of my curious yet effective habit of understanding complex technical concepts by likening them to children’s stories. Understanding how a SYN flood exploits a standard TCP 3-way handshake by way of Harry Potter (the Hogwarts letters flooding Uncle Vernon’s kitchen without waiting for a response), or thinking through a logged-user problem using the logic of Michael Rosen’s beloved children’s book We’re Going On A Bear Hunt:

We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!

It sparked an idea.

Pipeline problem, my bot!

Sick of hearing:

It’s a pipeline problem

in response to a lack of diversity in tech, I wondered if Botbot couldn’t be part of the answer. Role models, representation and systemic change are all necessary steps towards diversity, and we believe Botbot might help us along that journey.

Botbot as family-friendly swag

People who work in tech also have families. Some are parents, some are aunts and uncles and step-parents and older cousins and sisters and brothers. But tech events are often held at night, steeped in beer and pizza and swag that is often superfluous.

We thought, what if you could take a children’s story home from your next tech event and share a little of your work world with the children in your life? And while we’re at it, let’s start working towards building more family-friendly events.

What does all this have to do with Sqreen?

Here at Sqreen we have an internal program called Sqreenity where Sqreen team members (aka ‘Sqreeners’) can dedicate a week per quarter to a side project and Sqreen will give them a platform and audience to promote it.

We figure what’s good for Sqreeners is good for Sqreen, and we also have a people strategy that we call ‘align and accelerate’.

What is align and accelerate?

Align and accelerate is all about understanding what individual Sqreener’s unique skills and goals are, aligning them with Sqreen’s needs and objectives, and where possible, accelerating both.

That might mean giving a Sqreener who one day plans to be a co-founding CTO exposure to our board of investors, cross-training with our CTO and introductions to our collective network.

Or it might be giving a would-be conference speaker the chance to practise and sharpen their presentation in front of a friendly audience, then financing the airfare for the conference.

Or perhaps it’s enthusiastically supporting your Head of Talent’s wild idea to write a series of children’s stories and making that happen. For example ;)

How do I get my hands on a Botbot story?

The Botbot story is a physical, printed book. It is free, and available directly in person at our Sqreenhouses (Paris and SF) from early April. We’ll also give Botbot copies out at our Sqreen events (Sqreenpero, Sqreen-lunch) and the various conferences and meetups we attend. And if you’d like a copy but can’t get to one of those places or events, just send me an email with your name, a postal address and a short note letting me know what sparked your interest and we’ll use Sqreen magic to get a copy out to you.

What’s next for Botbot?

More books, we hope! But for that I’ll need your help. If you read the first book and love it, send me a note or use the #botbotstories hashtag on Twitter. You can also suggest titles and subjects for future books on the Github repo.

Many thanks to the team at Muxu.Muxu for their incredible illustrations, animations and for loving Botbot as much as we do!