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.
See the file INSTALL for installation instructions.