Project Description

Go has many faces: a game and a sport, an art and a science, a philosophy and a way of life. Currently, the EGF perhaps puts the greatest emphasis on Go as a sport. But quantity sooner or later turns to quality and inevitably interest in the artistic, scientific and philosophic aspects of the game develops. The present vision draws attention to Go as an art and science: it's enigmatic and inmost face. Europe, the birthplace of modern science, is a suitable place for the development of Go research. Now, as the EU realizes itself as a world geo-political power, it would be only appropriate for the EGCC & EGF to deepen their scientific research on the most strategic game of all times. We would like to propose the creation of a collaboration platform: a space in the site of EGCC or EGF, where researchers can meet, discuss, publish their articles and essays, work on translations of classic texts, and collaborate on relevant projects. This will bring European researchers together in one place and help them awaken as such.Technically, the platform could consist of:

• a wiki, where projects, ideas can be formed and shared
• a calendar, where users can enter and keep track on real-life and on-line events
• a community blog and/or discussion forum
• a "main space" for published articles and other results

The space could be called, for example, European Go Research Horizon and, since Go research tends to touch on so many topics and disciplines, make use of a multi-level categorization scheme for all contributions: geographical (e.g. "Chinese studies", "Japanese studies", "European studies"), topical (e.g. "Philosophy", "Mathematics", "Informatics", "Linguistics"), and others. The community could use this platform as a place to publish and work on (among others):

• stories and essays
• Go teaching concepts
• research on Go theory, history, and others
• translation of classic texts and articles published in foreign languages by members of the community

Moreover, this space could turn into a focal point for sharing project results and the development of:

• argumentation for cooperation with European organizations/structures ("integration with European values")
• concepts, argumentation, programs for introduction of Go in European schools
• concepts to promote Go among specific external groups (e.g. prospective sponsors)

Go research in Europe, of course, does not start from zero. Since the early years, people appear that, upon encountering the game, ask questions on the philosophic aspects of the game: Hide, Giles (UK); Montanus, Seabold (NL); Leibnitz, Korschelt, Lasker (DE); Pflaunder (AT); Vacca (IT), among many others. Nowadays there are many researchers, scattered through Europe.

We believe a targeted long-term policy for supporting and encouraging researchers is called for. The creation of a virtual space is an important first step. Later, a research fund could be established to award excellent contributions and pay expenses such as hosting. This fund could take income from sponsors, grants (Go/EU organizations), and donations and will help researchers gain access to facts, articles, books, conferences, etc.

Objectives

1. Provide a platform for collaboration for European Go researchers, teachers, and promoters.
2. Bring together researchers from all over Europe
3. Deliver/publish material such as articles and project results

Realisation

In Bulgaria, we already have started our collaboration platform with a wiki, forum, and a space for articles and lessons. As a community, we have created articles and essays. Some have been translated into English (see attachments).

Resources

Human resources: Over a dozen Go players in Bulgaria participate using the platform, which is also the main site of the Bulgarian Go Association. Project leaders are: Ioni Lazarov, Konstantin Bayraktarov, Emil Ivanov, Stanislav Traykov.

Financial resources:

1. Hosting expenses for the Bulgarian site
2. Collection of books for our library (financed by members of the Bulgarian Go Association)
3. Future expenses for a central collaboration site could also include a research fund (see project summary). In the near future, the fund could sponsor excellent contributions of European researchers, such as:
   - Essay/story contest
   - Award for articles on go theory, history, etc.

Possibilities to copy this project

Technically, such a platform may be deployed anywhere. However, we believe it is important to place it on "tengen", i.e. within EGCC or EGF, at a central place, bringing together all European researchers.

Example 1: Forget all sorrows!

Example 2: Heliocentric System in Japan

Example 3: Ma Rong

Example 4: The game of Go: Stars on the goban