{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/15","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/15/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/15/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/15/events","html_url":"https://github.com/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/15","id":113375472,"number":15,"title":"Virgil's Commonplace Book","user":{"login":"ikarth","id":1009991,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1009991?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth","html_url":"https://github.com/ikarth","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/labels/preview","name":"preview","color":"c7def8"}],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":17,"created_at":"2015-10-26T15:03:28Z","updated_at":"2015-11-26T19:34:09Z","closed_at":null,"body":"I have only vague ideas and way less time this year, but I'll be doing _something_."},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/comments/159983074","html_url":"https://github.com/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/15#issuecomment-159983074","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dariusk/NaNoGenMo-2015/issues/15","id":159983074,"user":{"login":"ikarth","id":1009991,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1009991?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth","html_url":"https://github.com/ikarth","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/ikarth/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2015-11-26T19:34:09Z","updated_at":"2015-11-26T19:34:09Z","body":"The twitter bot already rounds the miles down to something more reasonable. Though I hadn't thought of expressing the fraction in other units, which is a good idea. \r\n\r\nI'm not particularly worried about padding word count here, mostly because if I end up short, I can just send Virgil out to wander around a bit more. Though suggestions in general are appreciated.\r\n\r\nThere's a number of ancient precedents for what I'm assembling, and a ton of source data to draw from. (I'm not aware of any of them ordered geographically, though.) Plus, as you pointed out, things like Moby Dick. Or Victor Hugo's multi-chapter digressions.\r\n\r\nWith this (and the Twitter bot) one angle I'm exploring is the idea of an alternate interface to data. In the age of the search engine it's easy to find what you are looking for (or at least something vaguely like it) but search engines are no help at all if you don't know exactly what you are looking for, and they'll never help you find things that you didn't know you wanted to ask for. Browsing a library, in contrast, incorporates much more serendipity into the process. \r\n\r\nThe novel generator is one way to reintroduce that serendipity and explore the blind spots that you didn't realize that you had. I doubt I would have read about the first Roman treaty today if it hadn't come up in the generator, for example. Likewise, one thing the Twitter bot does is find coins minted near it's current location. Most of the coins it find are simply one of thousands, but by singling one out and putting it in a context the bot offers an insight into an aspect of ancient Rome that is difficult for us to experience otherwise. Sure, you _could_ have browsed the database and gotten a sense of where that coin fits in, but that would mean that you'd have to know that there was something that you didn't know.\r\n"}}