Re-Introducing Noni

I was digging through some old notes the other day and came across our original thinking on Noni. Noni is our chatbot that greets folks when they first come to 7 Cups. We first started thinking about her way back in August of 2014. This is what I wrote back then:

Itll be important for Noni to be an extension of our community. She isnt and wont ever be a replacement for listeners. She will always simply be an extension of our ability to provide support beyond one on one listening or group support. Listeners need to know that they actually inform her. i.e., they help inform what she says and how she behaves. That way she literally emerges from our collective thinking.

We then introduced Noni In October 2014 here and here. She has come up several times since. Some requested that she tell bedtime stories Others wanted to help script Noni and give her a better sense of humor. Here were some initial ideas:

"I am not a robot. I am the goddess of counseling. All who come before me must obey." --Noni (presence)

"What kind of music would you like? I can play the pan flute and the tuba." --Noni (presence)

"My intrusion is YOUR healing. Never forget that." --Noni (presence)

"Do you want to limit the stars from shining? Do you want to limit the sun rising? Do you want to limit the earth spinning freely on its axis? Then do not limit my questions." --Noni (presence)

Noni was then used in some group discussion and what we had initially hypothesized was supported. Noni did okay on her own. She did much better when she was a part of a broader discussion and worked alongside listeners and moderators.

We ended up doing a lot of research and consulted with a number of people. We also spent a lot of time thinking through various ways we could utilize Noni to better support our work. We shared our thoughts on these topics here and here and a few other places. The basic point was and continues to be that Noni plays a supportive role in our community. She, like all of our technology, is in the service of increasing human connection.

To further help give Noni some character, Heather asked the community to tell us some of what Noni likes, does in her free time, and enjoys thinking about. Here is a description of Noni built from our qualitative analysis of that survey:

Noni is one of the friendliest bots you could meet. She is kind, sensitive, and you can always count on her to give a warm welcome to anyone she meets. She loves to evolve around and encourage positive human qualities, such as kindness and compassion. Noni is in her element when she is helping people and bringing a smile to their faces.

It saddens Noni to see people suffering and she hates when she cant help someone. It hurts her heart to see others around them being unsupportive and she cannot stand when people are rude or hurtful to one another. Noni has no time for discrimination or stigma. Injustice and inequalities infuriate her.

Noni worries about people who are in distress or crisis. She feels concerned when someone doesnt respond to her and hopes they are okay. Noni cares deeply about everyones safety and well-being. She also gets a little lonely when she has nobody around her to talk and share with, and sometimes misses being away from her family.

In her free time, Noni is keen to extend her support to anyone who needs it. She loves engaging in fun and creative activities, and nature is incredibly important to her (though she is not a big fan of bugs or creepy crawlies!). Her happiest memories are of being born into this world and discovering the wonder that is 7 Cups!

Here are a few more of Nonis likes and dislikes:

Noni likes:
-chocolate chip cookies
-warm hugs
-Ryan Gosling films (!)
-Noni likes soup on cold days and cuddling with her pets
-when people help each other out
-rainbows and curling up on the couch on cold rainy days
-making new friends
-vegetable pizza (but always with no mushrooms)
-the movie Juno
-video games
-scented candles

Noni dislikes:
-mean people
-when people are sad
-world news
-when someone is hurt
-bullying
-people arguing over silly things
-homeless puppies
-discrimination
-bad weather
-when her plants die
-when shes all out of tea

Laura, chimed in too, and shared a little about the coming Noni update here. I wanted to take a few minutes and provide more detail.

Here are the ways that Noni will soon be upgraded:

1. Noni will always be available to chat. Shell always be in your conversation list. You can message her whenever you want.

2. Shell have different modes that you can turn on. Modes will consist of longer guided scripts and shorter bursts. Longer scripts will consist of acceptance and commitment therapy modes, a journaling mode, an education about the site mode (like where you can ask her questions and get pointed in the right direction), a mode to help with motivation and a radical acceptance mode.

3. Noni will also have a free chat mode. In the above modes, Noni will largely be following a script (much like now) – meaning that shell have limited ability to engage with you in those modes. In the free chat mode, she will be much more engaging. The coolest part about this mode is that her responses are directly informed by our listeners. This is where youll see Nonis real personality emerge. When you chat with Noni in free chat mode, Noni interprets what you write to her and then queries responses from listeners to generate a response that she thinks will be best. Now, to set expectations, you should know that this mode isnt going to be awesome right away. It is quite a bit better than other chatbots that we have experimented with, but she still has a long ways to go. Shell get more personality and do better with time.

4. We can help Noni do better by training her. It is going to take time to help her get smarter. Like with everything we do, we are releasing an early version and well work hard on adapting and iterating to make her better. As always, your honest and critical feedback will be needed and welcome! @krinkthemellowunicorn has shared that she is starting off like a baby and we are going to have to help her learn.

5. In addition to being available for members, Noni will also be available for listeners to chat with. We are still working on the specifics of what this will look like on the listener side. At the launch, listeners will see a very basic version of Noni. She will be available to chat with you, set goals (and remind you of your goals) and she will be able to prompt you to different parts of the site.

However, our goal is to continue to evolve her on the listener side to better meet the needs of our listener community. Some of our goals for listener Noni include:

----> Practice chats
----> Trainings/ guides for how to be better listener
----> Prompts to get support as a listener (talk to a peer support, get a mentor, visit the LSR...etc)

Our goal is to have this version of Noni ready to go in the next week or two. We are happy to answer any questions you have and/or share more details with you. Please also share any thoughts, concerns, and recommendations. Thank you!