Building an International Knowledge Base for the Performing Arts, Presentation Slides, Wikimania 2018, Cape Town, 21 July 2018

1. Building an International Knowledge Base
for the Performing Arts
Beat Estermann, Cape Town, 21 July 2018
▶ Bern University of Applied Sciences, E-Government Institute
La Traviata at the The Royal Opera House Muscat. Photo: Khalid AlBusaidi (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Unless otherwise noted, the content of these slides is provided under the CC BY 4.0 license.

2. ▶ The Vision
▶ State of Implementation
▶ Developing Knowledge as a Service
▶ Thoughts on Enhancing Knowledge Equity
Contents

3. The Vision

4. ▶ Realize an international performing arts database on the
basis of Wikidata
▶ Provide a powerful finding aid for performing arts related content
on Wikimedia Commons
▶ Promote Wikidata-powered performing arts related information in
the various language versions of Wikipedia
▶ Get heritage institutions to make their performing arts related
data and content available through Wikidata & Wikimedia
Commons
The Vision: International Database for the Performing
Arts
Role Model Projects for Inspiration:
• MusicBrainz (music recordings)
• IMDb (movies)
• IMSLP (music scores)
• Operabase (opera)

5. In the Footsteps of Leroy Ehrenreich (1929-2016)
Roy Ehrenreich in 1981 during a trip in Nepal.
Unidentified photographer. All rights reserved.
• Approx. 15’000 hours of
audio recordings on reel-to-
reel tapes (bootleg live
recordings; recordings of
broadcasts and copies of rare
LPs and CDs).
• Mostly classical opera
repertoire (full operas and
recitals)
• Coverage: performances
worldwide, with a strong
focus on NYC, mostly
between 1960s and 2000s
• 2016: collection bequeathed
to Bern University of the Arts

6. The Collection Today
Photos: Beat Estermann (CC BY 4.0)

7. ▶ Large-scale sharing of official and boot-legged recordings on
Youtube, etc.
▶ Several online databases in the area of opera
▶ Linked data / web of data
▶ Increasing numbers of recordings are out of copyright
What has not changed, though:
▶ Most recordings are under copyright; it is unlikely that they will be
released under a free license in the near future.
▶ There are many unofficial recordings and/or releases of opera-
related content
▶ In the U.S. the principle of “fair use” applies for research and
education; similar exceptions apply in countries with continental
European legal tradition.
The World Has Changed Since the 1960s…

8. Building a Performing Arts Platform for
Research & Education

9. State of Implementation 2018

10. State of Implementation Swiss Performing Arts Database
Wikidata / Wikimedia Commons

11. In the area of theatre in general:
▶ Pilot ingest Repertoire of Schauspielhaus Zürich 1938-1968
(~700 productions)
In the area of opera:
▶ Working toward pilot ingests of:
▶ Carnegie Hall Performance History (opera-related performances)
▶ Catalog of the Ehrenreich Collection
▶ Ingest of operas, arias, roles
Outlook:
▶ Further ingests in the pipeline
▶ Start resolving data modelling issues
▶ Start resolving data quality issues (references, inconsistencies, etc.)
▶ Encourage the creation of first pilot applications
State of Implementation – Focus on Wikidata

12. Wikidata Item Statistics
Source: Wikidata – WikiProject Performing Arts (9 July 2018)
Pilot Ingest
Schauspielhaus
Jan 18
Wikipedia Import
Operas / Roles / Arias
June 18
?
?

13. Current Challenges
Source: eCH-0205 – Linked Open Data
Data
scraping &
cleansing
Data Ingest (data
mapping &
matching) Data
Modelling
Issues
✔ ✔

14. Developing Knowledge as a Service
“International Opera Database”

15. ▶ Wikidataists’ self-conception as service providers
/ service co-producers
▶ Catering to user requirements
▶ Aiming for high quality and reliability
▶ Users willing to pay for (extra) services. – What is the business
model?
• Donations and volunteer contributions as the sole resource model?
• Freemium model?
• First customer pays for all model?
(cf. “print on demand programmes”)
• How about third party service providers building their services upon
Wikidata? What are the expectations / rules of the game?
Knowledge as a Service – What Does it Mean?

16. ▶ Tools to facilitate the search of and access to relevant documents /
artefacts:
• Identification of existing recordings and documents across various archives
(commercial availability?)
• Filtering according to various criteria
e.g.: work, composer, live vs. studio recording, singers, conductor, stage
director, venue, language of performance, date copyright status/use rights,
quality, completeness & accessibility of recordings
▶ Easy access to large numbers of audio-recordings
▶ Access to the entire performance history of specific places / venues for a
given time-period
▶ Information about venues (sound systems, artistic directors)
▶ Access to background information about the historical development of
various interpretation approaches
▶ Access to biographical information about singers
Example: Requirements from the Point of View of
Opera Interpretation Researchers

17. ▶ Ability to download material to the researchers’ own research platforms
▶ Access to analytical tools and related services for…
• automatic analysis of vocal timbre
• automatic analysis of vibrato
• dissection of audio-recordings of the same work into equivalent passages;
mapping with the music score, for:
• comparative analysis of the tempo
• comparative analysis of editing/cuts in the plays, completeness of recordings
• automatic analysis of the type of feelings expressed through singing (based on
voice analysis)
▶ But, most importantly: Fundamental Change regarding Research
Methods! (requires change management & support among research teams,
within research communities, and within institutions)
Additional Requirements in View of Leveraging
Big Data Analytics
Bern University of the Arts: Strategic Board Decision Required

18. Tentative Sourcing Concept for the Wikidata Part
Task Paid staff @
data providers
Volunteer
community
Hybrid forms
(e.g. student
assignments)
Paid staff on
Wikidata
Data scouting Exceptionally Default Exceptionally Fall back
Data provision Default Fall back
(manual data
entry)
Exceptionally Exceptionally
Data scraping Exceptionally Default Default Fall back
Data cleansing Default Exceptionally Fall back Fall back
Ontology
development
Exceptionally Default Exceptionally Exceptionally
Data mapping Exceptionally Default Exceptionally Fall back
Data matching Exceptionally Default Default Fall back
Data ingest Exceptionally Default Default Fall back
Data maintenance Exceptionally Default Exceptionally Fall back
Data use on
Wikipedia
Exceptionally Default Exceptionally Exceptionally
Encourage data
use beyond the
wiki world
Default Default Exceptionally Fall back

19. Thoughts on Enhancing
Knowledge Equity

20. International Performing Arts Database from the Point
of View of Knowledge Equity
Enhancing Knowledge Equity Threatening Knowledge Equity
Providing performing arts data
from all corners of the world to all
Wikipedias
Western-centricity of readily
available performing arts data &
documentation (including data
models)
Providing free basic infrastructure
(platform, data models, etc.) for
everyone to use
Unevenly distributed capacity to
contribute
Making “coverage holes” visible
(artistic styles, countries,
languages, gender, etc.)

21. What Can We Do to Enhance Knowledge Equity?
▶ Channel funding for the enhancement of services towards
several low-income countries, triggering the build-up of
competencies at a local level
• Avoid crowding-out effects!
(i.e. replacing paid work by volunteer work)
• Make sure that paid contributors have strong intrinsic
motivation!
▶ Listen to underrepresented communities and cater to their
needs
▶ Any other suggestions…?

22. Thank You for Your Attention!
Contact
Beat Estermann
Bern University of Applied Sciences
beat.estermann@bfh.ch
+41 31 848 34 38