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#1 2009-11-11 13:46:11

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

We are brainstorming about possibilities for using Scratch to read and write data to the web.

Some examples of data that would be nice if Scratch could read from the web as variables or lists are:
- Sport information (scores, baseball stats, etc) from sites like espn.com
- Weather information from sites like weather.com (temperature in a city, rain, etc)
- Movies information from sites like imdb.com
- Music information (lyrics, songs, musicians)  from sites like last.fm
- Social information from sites like Facebook, Twitter (updates, photos of friends, etc)
- Scratch website info like loveits on a project, friends, comments, etc

What others?

Some of examples of data that would be nice if Scratch could save on the web are:
- Results from a survey
- Scores of Scratch game
- After playing a game maybe it could update the player's Twitter/Facebook status to tell others about it.

So what kind of projects would people be able to make with this?

One example could be a project that access data from Billboard.com, and identify  which song has jumped the most number of spots on the sales charts from week-to-week. And then  searches YouTube for a video of each fast-rising performer and inserts the video into the Scratch project alongside the performer’s name.

Another one could be a game that uses the baseball player who has gotten the highest scores with data from ESPN.com on the latest baseball scores.

Another example could be a Scratch project that keeps tracks  of  the members of the Scratch community who have contributed the most comments to your projects projects.  The project could show  the avatars of the Scratch community members who have contributed the most comments, and continually adjusts the sizes of the avatars based on the number of comments they have contributed. Whenever
someone adds a comment to one of her Scratch projects and increases the size of the
appropriate avatar in her visualization.

What other examples can you think of?

Thanks for your ideas!


Andres Monroy-Hernandez | Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab
on identi.ca and  twitter

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#2 2009-11-11 14:04:22

Magnie
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

This re-minds me of NetScratch  wink  Maybe it could save data or text or a variable or a list. ( Kinda like the other ideas you have )
Some uses could be:
1. Scratch Email!  tongue
2. Scratch Internet!  tongue  ( I'm making this in BYOB 2.0 with the Mesh feature. )
3. I don't think Scratch Chat could be used with that.
4. Maybe reading the forums from Scratch! ( That would be awesome! )
5. Reading Comments!
6. I'm not sure what else... But if you allow it to write data ( Text and Variables and Lists as I said above ) you could do SO MUCH with it!

That's all.  big_smile

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#3 2009-11-11 14:41:43

Greatdane
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-06-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

I see a web browser coming to mind...

Maybe you can use the plugins on the computer to run Flash and Java.
Email, chat...

Oh, and of course multiplayer games. Maybe you can have a little thingy that gives you messages when you have them...

I remember the project using Scratch connections that displayed loveits in a cloud. I love that way of information. I have an idea that you would have this giant, scrollable web, and you can look at comments, make them, and even use the forums. It's not that complicated. I could make a project to show what I mean.


The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
        ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

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#4 2009-11-11 14:43:28

Lucario621
Community Moderator
Registered: 2007-10-03
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Magnie wrote:

This re-minds me of NetScratch  wink  Maybe it could save data or text or a variable or a list. ( Kinda like the other ideas you have )
Some uses could be:
1. Scratch Email!  tongue
2. Scratch Internet!  tongue  ( I'm making this in BYOB 2.0 with the Mesh feature. )
3. I don't think Scratch Chat could be used with that.
4. Maybe reading the forums from Scratch! ( That would be awesome! )
5. Reading Comments!
6. I'm not sure what else... But if you allow it to write data ( Text and Variables and Lists as I said above ) you could do SO MUCH with it!

That's all.  big_smile

The thing is, why would you want to do that in a scratch project, when you could actually open a web browser and do most of those things. No internet? Well then you wouldn't be able to have scratch connect to get those things.

But yeah this reminds me of netscratch.

I especially wanna focus on high score tables and such  smile . For that though, I think all users could create a table at like http://scratch.mit.edu/users/Lucario621/data, and each user would have one for themselves to use for their games. It could have a link to a website, to get info from their, or something else. This way people are limited so servers don't pile up with data. Depends if you need to limit it or not.


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#5 2009-11-11 14:49:18

Magnie
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

That link in your post linked me to your My Stuff page.  tongue

But if you do it through Scratch, you can have your own web browser! Like Greatdane's idea.

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#6 2009-11-11 15:00:37

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Thanks for the feedback!

Could you think of project examples? I really would like to know especific ideas you might have for projects that read/write data to the web.

I Lucario621, you're right, for storing data on the web, we could provide a table so you can store values there. Something like factual.com


Andres Monroy-Hernandez | Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab
on identi.ca and  twitter

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#7 2009-11-11 15:03:54

markyparky56
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-03-20
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

On the scratch connections website, theres a project which reads RSS feeds, that uses python, but if scratch could do it, that would be really cool.


http://j.mp/jgVnTq
Check out my game engine development site: NewDawn I'm a Level 171 Scratcher.I am http://bit.ly/nkvLNT

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#8 2009-11-11 15:15:47

Magnie
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

You're right Marky, we could have RSS feeds for Scratch.  tongue

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#9 2009-11-11 15:41:49

adriangl
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-02
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

I like the storing data on the web for a game. It's good for like saving your game and stuff  wink

Maybe a tool called a tracker that when you click it gives you different options such as sports, weather, etc., then you can customize and add it. It would be much easier to Scratchers to use a tool than make it


Scratchin' since 2007

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#10 2009-11-11 16:19:55

Lucario621
Community Moderator
Registered: 2007-10-03
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

andresmh wrote:

Thanks for the feedback!

Could you think of project examples? I really would like to know especific ideas you might have for projects that read/write data to the web.

I Lucario621, you're right, for storing data on the web, we could provide a table so you can store values there. Something like factual.com

Cool  tongue

Magnie, I guess its just that I'm not an OS fan, so just ignore me lol.

Maybe, you could make a top-down view multidirectional soccer game, and you could use use player's actual stats from a soccer website. Is that helpful?  smile


http://i.imgur.com/WBkM2QQ.png

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#11 2009-11-11 16:35:50

adriangl
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-02
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Lucario621 wrote:

andresmh wrote:

Thanks for the feedback!

Could you think of project examples? I really would like to know especific ideas you might have for projects that read/write data to the web.

I Lucario621, you're right, for storing data on the web, we could provide a table so you can store values there. Something like factual.com

Cool  tongue

Magnie, I guess its just that I'm not an OS fan, so just ignore me lol.

Maybe, you could make a top-down view multidirectional soccer game, and you could use use player's actual stats from a soccer website. Is that helpful?  smile

That would be cool, an AI of that player's actual stats, but that's advanced. But someday, when we all grow up and get a PHD from MIT, we can create that!


Scratchin' since 2007

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#12 2009-11-11 16:43:00

Lucario621
Community Moderator
Registered: 2007-10-03
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

adriangl wrote:

Lucario621 wrote:

andresmh wrote:

Thanks for the feedback!

Could you think of project examples? I really would like to know especific ideas you might have for projects that read/write data to the web.

I Lucario621, you're right, for storing data on the web, we could provide a table so you can store values there. Something like factual.com

Cool  tongue

Magnie, I guess its just that I'm not an OS fan, so just ignore me lol.

Maybe, you could make a top-down view multidirectional soccer game, and you could use use player's actual stats from a soccer website. Is that helpful?  smile

That would be cool, an AI of that player's actual stats, but that's advanced. But someday, when we all grow up and get a PHD from MIT, we can create that!

Lol

What else could we do....

Nothing right now, but I'll be thinking about it.


http://i.imgur.com/WBkM2QQ.png

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#13 2009-11-11 16:46:23

adriangl
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-02
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

It would be cool if there was like an AI trainer. Let me explain:
You play a test game
Your accuracy, score, etc. is fed into a database
That information will turn over to your AI opponent so that the AI is just as good as you

This would be cool for shooting games and stuff like that  smile


Scratchin' since 2007

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#14 2009-11-11 16:56:55

Magnie
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

That would be cool.  big_smile

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#15 2009-11-11 17:54:59

technoguyx
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-10-18
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

andresmh wrote:

Some examples of data that would be nice if Scratch could read from the web as variables or lists are:
- Sport information (scores, baseball stats, etc) from sites like espn.com
- Weather information from sites like weather.com (temperature in a city, rain, etc)
- Movies information from sites like imdb.com
- Music information (lyrics, songs, musicians)  from sites like last.fm
- Social information from sites like Facebook, Twitter (updates, photos of friends, etc)
- Scratch website info like loveits on a project, friends, comments, etc

What others?

Some of examples of data that would be nice if Scratch could save on the web are:
- Results from a survey
- Scores of Scratch game
- After playing a game maybe it could update the player's Twitter/Facebook status to tell others about it.

I agree with all of those  tongue  I'd also like to see RSS feeds somehow imported as lists.


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#16 2009-11-11 18:03:59

BWOG
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-09-19
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Great idea! But I have one question. What would happen if someone who was using the Scratch project didn't have an internet connection?  hmm

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#17 2009-11-11 18:12:51

Magnie
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Then their project wouldn't work.  yikes  Maybe there could be a block called "If Fails Do" so and so.  big_smile

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#18 2009-11-11 23:16:53

fullmoon
Retired Community Moderator
Registered: 2007-06-04
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

-Loading images and music into Scratch:

[load [url]into [costume] ]

[play sound [url]]

Loading XML:

[set [variable] to (load XML file [url]) ]

set [another variable] to (parse value ["items.things[0]@attribute"] from [variable])

And maybe something with HTTP GET and POST but for the life of my I can't think of how that would work.


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#19 2009-11-11 23:21:43

fullmoon
Retired Community Moderator
Registered: 2007-06-04
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

This would probably necessitate some sort of error handling...maybe an:

Code:

broadcast [FAIL!!!] if any of this goes wrong{
    something dangerous
}

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#20 2009-11-11 23:29:21

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

What RSS feeds do you guys read?


Andres Monroy-Hernandez | Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab
on identi.ca and  twitter

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#21 2009-11-11 23:38:31

Jonathanpb
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-07-25
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

I'm just wondering... what blocks would you use for getting some information from a website? I can't really think of what the blocks would be like.

Maybe people could make a project where you can see what percentage of the projects on Scratch are yours. If Scratch could check how many projects there are on the website, and how many projects you have (or the program asks you to input the number in), you could do it!


"Human beings... must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.
-Charlotte Brontë

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#22 2009-11-12 08:32:23

andresmh
Scratch Team at MIT
Registered: 2007-03-05
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Jonathanpb wrote:

I'm just wondering... what blocks would you use for getting some information from a website? I can't really think of what the blocks would be like.

Good question! I don't know. Maybe they could be sensor blocks? Like web sensors in that experimental version of NetScratch?


Andres Monroy-Hernandez | Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab
on identi.ca and  twitter

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#23 2009-11-12 12:59:49

Magnie
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-12-12
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

I have one question, why is the NetScratch website gone?

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#24 2009-11-12 13:05:35

BWOG
Scratcher
Registered: 2008-09-19
Posts: 1000+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Magnie wrote:

I have one question, why is the NetScratch website gone?

Because they canceled it.

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#25 2009-11-12 13:17:37

chalkmarrow
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-05-18
Posts: 100+

Re: Can you think of interesting uses of web data in Scratch?

Cool idea! Off-hand, here are some suggestions:

1. Read topology of remixes of a particular Scratch project from the Scratch website (linked list of userID's, maybe, and maybe avatars as well), then create a 3D-ish world where you can walk through a forest of the remixes (which may be clickable, to bring up the actual project).

2. Virtual geocaching: Gobo strolls through a map pulled from Google, and places virtual Tupperware containers full of sprites, which others can find via a virtual geocaching website database.

4. Fantasy Chess Team: Pull scores from USCF site; Choose players; Store and trade your dream chess players like they're Pokemon. EPIC WIN.

5. Appetite suppressant: Read the mediafoodcam tweets; when there's a new one, pull a random image with the keyword "roadkill" and send it to andresmh as a Twitpic  smile

6. Collaborative access, via Scratch, to a cloud-based text document, e.g., Google Docs.

7. Bard mash-up: Read lines from Project Gutenberg's online Hamlet while displaying random Wikimedia Commons images having the keyword 'Denmark'. Variation: Random Visual Haiku.

8. Good Old Fashion RPG: Store attributes, position, inventory of a spaceship, which you maneuver through a star field pulled from images at sky-map.org.

9. Pull data from your Google calendar, make a list from its entries, use the frequency of appointments and other characteristics in the list to make a musical composition, store the notes on a server with your friends so you play simultaneously, comparing the musicality of the upcoming week.

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