---
source_id: EX-MONITOR-001
date: 2026-09-10
owner: Workshop lead
status: exercise
---

# Optional · Build your own monitoring assistant

## Purpose

Turn a recurring research question into an instruction you can reuse in an
ordinary AI chat. You will choose what matters, try one run and improve it.
This exercise uses real public sources, separately from fictional GeoNordic.

**You need:** your usual AI chat and a topic your group wants to follow. No
installation, files or paid feature is required. If you tried E9, adapt its
reviewed instruction; otherwise start here.

## Do

1. Choose a narrow topic, a reader and a decision the report should help.
   For example, new GIS capabilities relevant to field teams. Choose one or
   two real companies, a reporting period and what would make a news item
   relevant. [Esri's newsroom](https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/announcements)
   is one starting source; you may search for other relevant official sources.
2. Write your request using the short prompt tips. Have the assistant ask
   about missing choices before drafting a reusable monitoring instruction.
   Read and change that instruction before running it.
3. Run it manually in chat. Request up to five relevant items, each with
   **news · event/publication date · direct source · why it matters · follow-up**.
   Keep documented facts, company claims and your own conclusions separate.
4. Open two cited sources. Check their dates and whether they actually support
   the news and its relevance. Remove duplicates. Improve one rule in your
   instruction and try again on the same sources to compare the results.

## Prompt tips — fill the gaps and write your request

```text
Topic: … | Reader and decision: … | Companies/sources: …
Period: … | Include when: … | Exclude when: …
Ask about gaps first; then help me write a reusable instruction.
```

Add a source check and a clear “no relevant items found” result. Require the
assistant to name unread or unavailable sources; an incomplete search is not
evidence that nothing happened. You decide the wording and relevance rules.

## Check

Can another group member use the instruction without your explanation?
Does every accepted item fit the chosen period and relevance rule? Are dates,
links and limits visible? A short, well-supported report is enough; do not
invent news to fill the five slots.

## Help

If your chat cannot browse, open two public articles yourself and paste their
text, dates and URLs. Ask for **analysis of supplied material**. Test the same
instruction on that material; do not describe it as current web monitoring.
Use public information and leave confidential company lists out of the chat.

## Use it again

Keep the instruction in your chat and reuse it manually with a new period
and sources. It does not schedule itself, run in the background, remember
previous runs automatically or send alerts. No file or group deliverable is
required. Bring your experience to the [closing round](closing.md).