These are hook scripts for the CIA notification service at <http://cia.vc/>

They are maintained by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>.  There is an
upstream resource page for them at <http://www.catb.org/esr/ciabot/>,
but they are unlikely to change rapidly.

You probably want the Python version; it's faster, more capable, and
better documented.  The shell version is maintained only as a fallback
for use on hosting sites that don't permit Python hook scripts.

You will find installation instructions for each script in its comment
header.