Japanese Visual Media Graph–

Project Introduction

Prof. Magnus PfefferStuttgart Media University

pfeffer@hdm-stuttgart.de

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Overview Data-driven research in the MAG field Japanese Visual Media Graph project

Main project goals Data representation and integration

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Data-driven research in the MAG field

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A vast and complex field of study MAG are a research interest of both Japan and media

studies From large commercial franchises with complex media

mix to works by independent artists and producers Multitude of themes and topics Distinct visual styles and expressions Exponential growth of publications

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Lack of comprehensive resources Outdated encyclopedic works by individual scholars Small collections in libraries, with limited metadata

focussed on the media carrier instead of content

No larger bibliographic databases No standardized vocabulary to describe themes,

styles or topics

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Strong need for more research options Search possibilities for both carrier and content

metadata, e.g. characters, themes, and topics Network analysis: how are works connected by shared

contents or contributors? Time analysis: how have certain aspects of visual

media changed over time?

Completeness: what are all the works that share a certain aspect?

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A vibrant enthusiast community International and national enthusiast communities

exist on the web since the 1990s They address the “discovery and access” problems of

their peers by collecting information on Japanese Visual Media

Larger communities strive for complete documentation of their favoured type of media

Enthusiast communities focus on the contents / works first, and carriers second

Most communities use refined entity-relationship data models with strong quality control mechanisms

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A vibrant enthusiast community Examples:

anidb.net (anime) myanimelist.net (anime and manga) vndb.org (visual novel type computer games) animecharactersdatabase.com (characters from all

media) animexx.de (all media, German) animeclick.it (all media, Italian)

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Project partners Martin Roth

Ritsumeikan University Media / Japan Area Studies

Magnus Pfeffer Stuttgart Media University Information Sciences

Leander Seige University of Leipzig University Library

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Experience from prior projects diggr.link (Leipzig University)

Goal: building a data-driven research infrastructure for computer games research

Access to large local game collection Working with enthusiast communities

FID Judaica (Stuttgart Media University) Goal: building an expert information service for the

domain of Jewish studies Access to digitized archives and encyclopedic data Large scale metadata integration

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Japanese Visual Media Graph

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Main project goals Create a research database on Japanese visual

media, including, but not limited to, anime, manga, computer games and visual novels

Aimed at researchers in Japan Studies who focus on modern media and its expressions, themes, topics, characters and reception

Use a graph-based, highly interconnected database structure, similar to the Google knowledge graph, that is combined with a flexible search interface and analytic tools

Use the data on Japanese visual media that is being created and curated by the many enthusiast communities on the web

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Data model Needs to accommodate

the media itself the entities involved in its creation the contents the relationships between the individual works and their

elements.

Derived from the models used by enthusiast data The final model will not be described as a traditional

metadata schema, but as a data graph containing typed entities with a pre-described set of attributes and typed relations between these entities

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Data model: Methods Create a local RDF model for each data source

Separate namespaces with URIs for all entities, properties and relations

1:1 mapping of the existing data

Create a central model for the graph data and retrieval Learn from enthusiast data models Consider research questions of the media researchers

Map and merge entities, properties and relations

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Data model: Challenges Reuse of existing ontologies or metadata schemata

Pro: Data sharing with other projects; reuse in external apps

Con: Loss of precision in attributes; researchers not familiar with the existing ontologies

Also: mapping at a later stage always possible

Matching of entities Boundaries not always clear, so 1:N mappings are

possible Automatic matching can lead to errors, which must be

fixable manually

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Technological realisation Adapting graph data to a traditional database schema

often results in information loss or performance problems in storing and retrieval

Native graph databases have become more mature in the past years and it is viable for our project to store the data directly into such a database

No own solution, but implementation using an open-source software stack that is adapted from other similar projects

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Technological realisation: Methods Install and evaluation of multiple solutions

Fuseki triple store + Pubby web interface Wikibase software stack (BlazeGraph + web interface) Others?

Data pipelines for each source Download, storage, conversion to RDF (local model)

Central data process Matching entities and merging of properties (global

model)

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Technological realisation: Challenges Uncertain future of open source graph database

development Performance and indexing issues possible Costly commercial solutions not viable

Position at Leipzig University still open

Documenting the full development process Ideally, a new instance of our database can be

generated by “git pull” of our repository

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Team and timeline

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Stuttgart Media University Zoltán Kacsuk

Media researcher DA in Manga Studies

(Kyoto Seika University)

Luca Bruno Media researcher MA in Japan Studies

(University of Venice ca’ Foscari)

Senan Kiryakos Information Science researcher PhD in Information Science

(University of Tsukuba)

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Timeline Past

2018-01: Project proposal 2018-12: Grant approved 2019-05: Project start 2019-07: First community workshop in Leipzig 2019-08: First data sharing agreed

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Timeline Planned

2020 Q1: Choice of software for prototype 2020 Q2: Access to first prototype Mid 2020?: Follow-up workshop with communities Late 2020?: First workshop with researchers

Project funding ends 2022-06

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Project website https://jvmg.iuk.hdm-stuttgart.de/

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Questions and Discussion

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