Workshop Report

The July workshop we discussed in our last post has now concluded, and we’re pleased to report that the event was quite successful! After introducing our own JVMG project, and the diggr project from Leipzig University, several of the invited community members gave presentations about their own sites and experiences. Over the two days of the conference, a lot of insightful discussions took place, and we think both the project and community members were able to both contribute and receive some information that will be helpful, either to their research projects or their community efforts.

Regarding the JVMG project, we received a lot of useful feedback from the invited community members, which will be important in allowing us to clarify how we communicate our project with other sites and interested parties in the future. In addition, all participants seemed interested in working with us on the project in various ways. In the near future, this will take the form of some data sharing agreements made between our project and various fan communities, allowing us to begin the project in earnest by collecting and analyzing a significant amount of aggregated, community-created data.

Finally, a big thanks to all of the community representatives from the Anime Characters Database, AnimeClick.it, Animexx, IGDB, Oregami, Stifftung Digitale Spielekultur, VNDB, and Wikidata’s Video Games Task Force for taking the time to come meet with us, and with the Leipzig members for hosting the workshop. This was an important initial milestone for us, and community involvement is vital to the foundation of our project, so we’re thankful for all of the interest and cooperation we received. We’ll be sure to update this blog as the project continues, so stay tuned!

All photos from Jean-Frédéric, Wikimedia.

Our first workshop!

We will be holding our first workshop in cooperation with the diggr project at the Leipzig University Library on July 2-3rd 2019. Participants include community-driven initiatives and fansites from North-America and Europe, along with more data-focused initiatives.

The first day of the workshop is open to the public, schedule is as follows:

Time

Presenter(s)

Theme

10.00

JVMG Project Group/diggr Project Group

Workshop Introduction

10.15

diggr Project Group

Project introduction and overview, project members introductions

11.00

JVMG Project Group

Project introduction, overview, aims and project members introductions

11.45

Coffee break

12.00

Stephen Goral (Anime Characters Database)

12.20

Jean-Frédéric Berthelot (Wikidata – Video Game Taskforce)

12.40

Lunch break

14.30

Yoran Heling (The Visual Novel Database)

14.50

Jerome Richer (IGDB)

15.10

Maria Pino (Animeclick.it)

15.30

Coffee break

15.50

Winfried Bergmeyer (Stifftung Digitale Spielekultur)

16.05

Marc Schuler (Animexx)

16.25

Jens Mildner (Oregami)

16.45

Coffee break

17.05

Round Table Discussion

Workshop_Poster_July_2nd

Some new hardware

As our project is data-driven, it can use the resources of the Stuttgart Media University Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence. Those resources have recently been upgraded. Meet the deep learning servers, each with four nvidia GPUs:

Offices are getting prepared

The project members will work in the new lab room of the Stuttgart Media University Institute for Applied Artificial Intelligence. The lab room is currently being furnished, and I have prepared a suitable decorative piece 🙂

Project team grows

We have found two excellent young researchers who are interested in working on the project. As soon as the contracts are finalized, we will introduce the new team members here on the project website.

Grant application approved

We have been informed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) that our grant application has passed peer review and the program board has deceided to approve our application. The research plan will be fully funded with no cuts.

The project can start in 2019.