Pelagios Introduces: Activity Lead Virginia Boyero- on annotation, games and history.
By Virginia Boyero
The Annotation activity is one of the core elements of the Pelagios network and I was privileged to be asked to lead it for a while as its coordinator. My background is mixed, originally a historian with an inclination for archaeology, who then turned video game developer. Somewhat unexpectedly I have spent most of my professional career in games production, hooked on the fast-paced multidisciplinary development of AAA games such as The Division and The Division 2. During the last few years I managed the Narrative, Audio and Localization teams, with very close and often conflicting dependencies that span from the early story conception to the final touches of translation and voice recordings. Making a plan that fits all puzzle pieces together, on budget and on schedule are some of the main challenges in games production, and there are many processes that can be applied to digital humanities tools development. Working with distributed teams is no longer unusual; coordinating progress at regular periods such as in between activity meetings is not very different from working in sprints; reviewing the initiatives taken by the different projects linked to Annotation at regular intervals is important to keep a central vision.
It might not be easy to achieve in reality, but increasing collaboration between game studios and institutions can lead to extraordinary tools and user experiences in the digital humanities and heritage sectors, uniting the expertise and efficient production cycles from software development with the immense content and defined applications in academia and museums. A few examples show the type of experiences that can be achieved, and the possibilities are endless.
