September 2023 Summaries

The text discusses the use of Web Components to create interactive polls on webpages without requiring a database. It highlights the benefits of using traditional web technologies alongside modern frameworks for longevity and ease of maintenance. The author demonstrates how to implement live polls using Web Components, websockets, and a PartyKit backend. They also provide a GitHub repository with code examples and encourage experimentation in this direction.

PartyKit, founded by Sunil, aims to revolutionize the internet experience by fostering real-time collaboration between humans and AI. The platform enables developers to build scalable multiplayer applications with ease, offering a familiar programming model, instant deployment capabilities, usage-based pricing, and no lock-in commitment. With $2.5M in pre-seed funding from Sequoia Capital and others, PartyKit is now generally available for building ambitious multiplayer apps.

The text discusses the interactive multiplayer cursor feature on PartyKit's homepage, which uses a Voronoi diagram to create cells based on the proximity of cursors. The server broadcasts all cursor coordinates to connected clients, and the client-side app utilizes D3 for drawing the Voronoi pattern. This feature aims to make the web feel more alive by showing real-time presence through other people's cursors.

James introduces himself as the guest writer for a post about an open source project called TinyBase, which is a reactive data store for local-first apps. He announces the release of TinyBase v4.3, which integrates with PartyKit to provide both "local-first" and "sharing-first" functionality. The integration includes a server class for coordinating clients and persisting TinyBase store data in the cloud, as well as a client module for creating connections. A simple API allows users to create bindings between their PartyKit socket object and the TinyBase store. An example Todo App demo is provided to demonstrate the collaboration functionality, along with a starter kit for easy implementation. James thanks the PartyKit team for their support in developing this integration and encourages feedback from users.

Edward De Bono's Six Thinking Hats technique has been adapted into an AI-facilitated multiplayer chat system called "AI-facilitated De Bono Thinking Hats." The chat system consists of six coloured rooms, each representing a different thinking hat: planning (blue), new ideas (green), facts (white), new benefits (yellow), feelings (red), and evaluation (black). Each room has an AI chatbot that facilitates the discussion according to the "hat" assigned. The code for this system is available on GitHub, allowing users to run and customize it themselves.

Matt has developed Mosaic Challenge, an interactive multiplayer game that demonstrates collective intelligence. In the game, players are asked to choose whether a tile is black or not in real-time. The wisdom of crowds becomes apparent as the image gradually forms with each player's input. However, challenges arise when there is no clear goal, leading to random decisions and loss of detail. Matt has shared the code on GitHub for others to try and experiment with. He is curious about how this game would work in larger groups, such as at a conference, and invites feedback from those who have tried it live.

The new Party.Server API simplifies developing real-time, collaborative, multiplayer applications using PartyKit. Parties are globally distributed, stateful, programmable, and on-demand web servers powered by Cloudflare Durable Objects. The API includes classes for server instances, lifecycle methods such as onStart, onConnect, onClose, onError, and onMessage, request handlers like onRequest and static onBeforeRequest, onBeforeConnect, and onFetch methods. Additionally, the API supports hibernation for cost-effective scaling and better connection management with tagged connections. The naming has been updated to clarify the distinction between "parties" and "rooms".

PartyKit, a platform aimed at making collaborative, real-time interactive applications accessible to everyone, has expanded its team. Founder Sunil Pai is now joined by Chief Experience Officer Sylwia Vargas and Chief Technology Officer Jani Eväkallio. Additionally, Matt Webb has been appointed as Inventor-in-Residence for a residency program exploring the multiplayer software space. PartyKit shares an office with tldraw in London and encourages interested parties to join their Discord server or follow them on Twitter for updates.