Tag: BookBrainz

GSoC 2024: Integrating imports into BookBrainz

It really bugged me that it proved impossible to finish the huge BookBrainz importer project last year. Fortunately MetaBrainz (and Google) gave me the chance to continue working on my 2023 project during this Summer of Code, thank you! Our goal is still to import huge external datasets into the BookBrainz database schema.

Last year I worked on the backend services to transform and insert simple entities into the database. This year’s goal was to support importing multiple related entities and exposing the imported data on the website. We can now import entities (on the backend), which can be reviewed and approved by our users with ease.

If you want to know the full story, I recommend you to start with my previous blog post to learn more details about the existing importer infrastructure and last year’s problems. Or just read on if you are only interested in the advanced stuff which I did this year.

Continue reading “GSoC 2024: Integrating imports into BookBrainz”

MetaBrainz Summit 2024

MetaBrainz nerds at the Jantar Mantar observatory. Left to right: jasje, reosarevok, atj, zas, KasukabeDefenceForce, monkey, yvanzo, lucifer, mayhem, ansh, theflash_, kellnerd, bitmap, akshaaatt, ApeKattQuest, outsidecontext, aerozol

This year it was New Delhi, India, that was invaded by data nerds from across the globe!

The MetaBrainz team was treated to the glorious chaos, hospitality, sights, noise, sweets, monkeys, traffic, heat, and delicious food of India. We reflected on the last year in MetaBrainz, planned and collaborated for the future, and got a little work done – when we could fit it in between mouthfuls of Indian sweets.

Read on for a comprehensive summit recap, including the annual recap for each MetaBrainz project, as well as breakout session notes, photos, and links to the slides and video recordings.

Continue reading “MetaBrainz Summit 2024”

You are invited to MetaBrainz Summit 24

MetaBrainz Summit 24 is upon us! September 23-27 in New Delhi, India.

We would love for you to join us remotely. If you are reading this, you are qualified to attend. Congratulations! Read on for more information.

Continue reading “You are invited to MetaBrainz Summit 24”

Downtime today for PostgreSQL / MusicBrainz schema change upgrade: 17:00 UTC (10am PT, 1pm ET, 7pm CEST)

Today (Monday, May 13) at 17:00 UTC (10am PT, 1pm ET, 7:00pm CEST), we’ll be:

  • Upgrading our production database server to PostgreSQL v16.
  • Performing the MusicBrainz schema change upgrade.

See the previous announcement on this topic for more information.

Expect MusicBrainz and services that depend on its database (MetaBrainz, ListenBrainz, the Cover Art Archive, CritiqueBrainz, BookBrainz) to be down for the hour, but we’ll be working to restore services as quickly as possible.

Afterward, we’ll post instructions here on how to upgrade your MusicBrainz mirror server (whether using musicbrainz-docker or otherwise).

P.S. The initially announced upgrades for MusicBrainz search engine are just about to reach our beta website, and thus are postponed for mirrors too.

Welcome Summer of Code 2024 contributors!

We are thrilled to announce the selection of 8 contributors to work with us for this year’s Google Summer of Code program! 

MetaBrainz received many great applications this year. Selecting the final contributors was tough and involved deliberating various factors – what these contributors did right is getting in early, engaging with our community, presenting specific and detailed proposals, and proving excellent communication skills and the ability to integrate our feedback back into their proposals.

Thank you to all contributors who submitted a proposal with us!

Continue reading “Welcome Summer of Code 2024 contributors!”

MetaBrainz Summit 2023

As always, the silliest photo is the best photo. Left to right: aerozol, zas, outsidecontext, mayhem, yvanzo, bitmap, monkey, kellnerd, akshaaatt, reosarevok, laptop: atj, lucifer

A year has flown by and once again the MetaBrainz team found itself in the MetaBrainz HQ in Barcelona, Spain, for #summit23. And once again we were munching on a mountain of international chocolates, hiking Mt Montserrat, bird-watching, groaning at terrible puns, testing out mayhem’s Bartendro cocktail robot (some of the team committing themselves too thoroughly to this testing), and of course discussing everything and anything MetaBrainz related. This year we had a longer summit, taking place over the week instead of the usual weekend, broken up into three days of presentations, followed by two days of hands-on ‘hacking’.

This means it’s time to strap in for a long post!

Continue reading “MetaBrainz Summit 2023”

Welcome Ansh Goyal to the MetaBrainz team!

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve added yet another former Summer of Code student/mentor to our team: Ansh Goyal. Welcome to our team, Ansh!

After Alastair Porter decided to not resume his position with MetaBrainz after his 6-month break, we were lucky to have Ansh ready to jump in to join our team. Thank you for your hard work over the years, Alastair!

Ansh will be focusing on Javascript programming, in particular React, on the BookBrainz and ListenBrainz projects. Both of these projects desperately need a lot of UI/UX work, and Ansh has proven himself that he’ll be able to help us tackle our backlog of UI projects that we need to accomplish in the short term.

Welcome to the team Ansh — we’re looking forward to your contributions!

GSoC’23: Administration System for BookBrainz

Namaste!

I am Shivam Awasthi, a recent graduate from IIT(BHU), Varanasi. As part of Google Summer of Code’23, I participated as a contributor for the MetaBrainz Foundation, where I worked on creating an Administration System for BookBrainz.

During this period, I was mentored by monkey, and ansh. With this post, I’ll be giving an overview of my project.

Continue reading “GSoC’23: Administration System for BookBrainz”

We are ready for Summer of Code 2023 !

A belated congratulations to the 7 contributors that we selected to work with for this year’s Google Summer of Code program! 

The competition was fierce this year. MetaBrainz received a huge amount of high quality applications. Narrowing it down gets harder every year – what these contributors did right is getting in early, engaging with our community, presenting specific and detailed proposals, and proving excellent communication skills and the ability to integrate our feedback back into their proposals.

Continue reading “We are ready for Summer of Code 2023 !”

MetaBrainz Summit 2022

The silliest, and thus best, group photo from the summit. Left to right: Aerozol, Monkey, Mayhem, Atj, lucifer (laptop), yvanzo, alastairp, Bitmap, Zas, akshaaatt

After a two-year break, in-person summits made their grand return in 2022! Contributors from all corners of the globe visited the Barcelona HQ to eat delicious local food, sample Monkey and alastairp’s beer, marvel at the architecture, try Mayhem’s cocktail robot, savour New Zealand and Irish chocolates, munch on delicious Indian snacks, and learn about the excellent Spanish culture of sleeping in. As well as, believe it or not, getting “work” done – recapping the last year, and planning, discussing, and getting excited about the future of MetaBrainz and its projects.

We also had some of the team join us via Stream; Freso (who also coordinated all the streaming and recording), reosarevok, lucifer, rdswift, and many others who popped in. Thank you for patiently waiting while we ranted and when we didn’t notice you had your hand up. lucifer – who wasn’t able to come in person because of bullshit Visa rejections – we will definitely see you next year!

A summary of the topics covered follows. The more intrepid historians among you can see full event details on the wiki page, read the minutes, look at the photo gallery, and watch the summit recordings on YouTube: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Continue reading “MetaBrainz Summit 2022”