Data Brain: AI for Public Service Media

HYBRID MEETUP:

Data Brain: AI for Public Service Media

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THE PROGRAM (CEST Time)

• 5:30 - 5:40 pm: Welcome by Afsaneh Asaei
• 5:40 - 6:30 pm: Talks by Lilian Dammann, David Massimo, Andreas Grün + Q&A
• 6:30 - 7:00 pm: Onsite Networking

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Onsite: Eventbrite Registration (required for onsite entrance)
Munich Urban Colab
2nd Floor - Media Power Room

Remote: Zoom (no Eventbrite registration is needed)
Meeting ID: 973 4296 3813
Passcode: 261347

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TALK #1: Behind the scenes: How data teams can help public broadcasters become strong digital brands

Public broadcasting in Germany has faced great challenges in recent years to master the shift from traditional media to digital news and video distribution on multiple platforms. Data is one of the key factors to successfully navigate this transition. This talk provides insights into which methods and technologies can be used to make online media production as user-centric as possible; new processes and technical challenges for providing live user data or complex success metrics. How can a traditional newsroom step by step adapt data-based working methods? How can a digital news platform best serve the needs of its users? These are the central questions that are answered in this short lightning-talk.

SPEAKER: Lilian Dammann is Director of Analytics & Dataplatforms at PubTech, the digital subsidiary of the public broadcasters Bayerischer Rundfunk and Südwestrundfunk. Together with her team, she is responsible for setting up the analytics infrastructure in the cloud and supports journalists and product development teams in the transition to a data-driven work culture. Previously, she worked as a producer and editor, and knows the day-to-day business of public broadcasters firsthand. Lilian Dammann studied production and media management at the University for Television and Film Munich, as well as Philosophy at the University of Philosophy in Munich, SJ.

TALK#2: Empowering Decision-Making: Designing Effective Recommender Systems for Media Providers

Recommender Systems (RSs) are AI-based software tools designed to ease human decision-making. This talk serves as a primer on designing RSs technologies that effectively support users in their decisions. During the presentation, various RS tasks will be discussed, highlighting their feasibility and design strategies based on specific application scenarios and the available data at hand. Furthermore, the talk delves into the critical aspects of offline and online evaluation of RSs for user-centricity. Finally, the presentation concludes by future directions in RSs solutions tailored for public and private media providers.

SPEAKER: David Massimo is Senior Data Scientist at Public Value Technologies, where his primary focus revolves around creating Recommender Systems and AI-driven solutions. Massimo has a consolidated academic background. After obtaining a PhD in Computer Science and completing a Post-doc, he served as an Assistant Professor at the Free University of Bolzano, Italy. He published the outcome of his work in ACM and IEEE international journals and conferences. Massimo’s research contributions to the field of Recommender Systems have been awarded by ACM and IFITT.

TALK#3: GenAI @public broadcasting: Guiding principles, use cases, and processes

It has only been a few months since GenAI applications like ChatGPT, DALL-E or Midjourney were released. For the public broadcaster ZDF, GenAI is already a key technology. This talk will give an overview of which use cases already exist today, which guiding principles are essential and where the broadcaster wants to use GenAI more in the future. Based on the use cases, the talk will address responsibilities and new processes to be able to use GenAI applications efficiently in a values-oriented way.

SPEAKER: Andreas Grün is head of the technology department in the Digital Media unit at ZDF. He is responsible for the technological development of the video-on-demand platform ZDFmediathek with a focus on personalization, algorithms, automation and architecture. He is also responsible for managing the AI project portfolio within the Communications, Planning and Distribution departments and is a regular speaker at professional conferences. Before joining ZDF's IT department as a planning engineer in 2008, he worked independently for several years. Andreas holds a degree in Business Informatics from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.