People

Graeme Ritchie and Judith Masthoff are the main people behind the Joking Computer project.

However, the Joking Computer is the result of work by some very different people over a period of years. The ideas for getting a computer program to build punning riddles were developed by Kim Binsted, supervised by Graeme and Helen Pain. This resulted in a program called JAPE.

Annalu Waller then suggested using these methods to give an entertaining but educational experience to children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy. Annalu, Graeme and Helen were joined by Dave O'Mara, Ruli Manurung and Rolf Black to form the STANDUP project team. Dave and Ruli talked to users and experts to sort out what was needed, Ruli wrote all of the software, and Rolf and Ruli carried out the trials with schoolchildren. The outcome was the STANDUP program, the first version of the Joking Computer.

Judith had the idea of making the software available to everyone through science centres and the web. She and Graeme devised enhancements to the software, which Mukta Aphale and Feng Gao implemented. Wendy Moncur helped with running Joking Computer workshops for children and evaluating how easy it is to use. The visual aspects of the software and these webpages were designed by Regina Fernandes.