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Title: Materiality of Bots Slug: 02-s6-step-2 Date: 2020-11-01 12:01 Summary: Code, API's and background processes.
Talking about the materiality of bots might sound a bit funny at first. It is crucial though to closely look at how and where a bot operates, in order to imagine in what kind of way they can intervene in an infrastructure. As we learned from the section Bot Logic, making a bot both includes studying its technical mechanisms and the platform, network of infrastructure it will operate within.
To unpack the materiality of bots, we can have a closer look at three features of a bot-making process:
- code
- API's
- background processes
Code
The first feature will not come as a surprise: code. If we look at the digital materiality of a bot, we can say that it is a script: an executable file that sits on your computer or on a server. Code is used to describe how the bot makes a connection, what behaviour it has and when it comes into action.
There are a whole range of programming languages that a bot-maker can use to make a bot. The most popular ones are Python and Javascript. The choice for a specific language is often based on the preference of the programmer, it is a bit like picking your favorite flavour. However, the choice for a programming language can also be based on the availability of a library around an API.
API's
If we talk about the relationship between platform and bots, we cannot escape talking about the API.
The term API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface. It is an code-based interface between the programmer and a platform, such as Wikipedia, Reddit, Whatsapp, Twitter or Mastodon. Not all platforms have an API, it's a decision of the owner of the platform to make one. Every API is therfor different and comes with different constraints or rules.
Taina Bucher1 defines an API as:
“Among other things, web APIs encompass: a physicality in terms of the corporeal landscape of infrastructure and technology, through to the economic logics at work (i.e. business models, ownership, licencing of the APIs), functions and services (i.e. access to data), practices of users (i.e. forms of labor, play and collaboration), discursive formations (i.e. statements, knowledge, ideas), rules and norms (i.e. design principles, terms of service, technical standards), as well as social imaginaries and desires.”
An API is a set of rules that applications use to communicate with each other. This (apparently) neutral conception is in reality a very complex conglomerate of imaginaries, whether technological, economical or societal.
Essentially does the API determine how the platform developers imagine it will be used by other developers, revealing a relationship of imbalanced power. It welcomes interventions as an opportunity to expand the functionalities beyond what the original developers might have imagined. On centralized infrastructures this often results into generating more economical value in the end.
So to sum up: a bot is written in code and uses an API to connect to an infrastructure.
Background processes
In order to run the bot, we need one more last feature: a so called process.
A process is nothing more then a term to refer to the act of putting the bot into action. In the most simple version, this can be done by running a script from your own computer. In a more complex version, you could upload your script to a server and run it from there continuously.
Why would you run a bot continuously?
As bots usually operate over a long period of time, you might not want to run them from your own computer, as this means that you need to keep your computer on for a long period of time (like a year or as long you want to have your but running).
Instead, bot-makers often run their bots from a server instead. There they can run the bot as a process, which allows them to turn it into a background activity. As processes bots can be stopped, started or restarted. Their status can be checked (to see if a bot is still running for example) and logfiles can be accessed.
These three features (code, API's and background processes) give us an understanding of what the digital materiality of a bot is.
Footnotes
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Taina Bucher, Objects of Intense Feeling: The Case of the Twitter API ↩︎