Comments on: Digital Annotation: A Revolution in the Making? http://www.teleread.org/blog/2006/06/04/digital-annotation-a-revolution-in-the-making/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:35:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Jon Noring http://www.teleread.org/blog/2006/06/04/digital-annotation-a-revolution-in-the-making/#comment-60103 Jon Noring Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:55:30 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4965#comment-60103 Yes, it is a good idea to explore why prior annotation systems did not take off. One difference to what is being proposed is that we want to develop an open standard enabling all kinds of annotation systems, for e-books as well as all kinds of other digital objects. Yes, it is a good idea to explore why prior annotation systems did not take off. One difference to what is being proposed is that we want to develop an open standard enabling all kinds of annotation systems, for e-books as well as all kinds of other digital objects.

]]> By: Robert Nagle http://www.teleread.org/blog/2006/06/04/digital-annotation-a-revolution-in-the-making/#comment-60101 Robert Nagle Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:37:48 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4965#comment-60101 Just a random thought, but I wouldn't be surprised if online videogames haven't already come up with a tagging and geopositioning system for objects in virtual worlds. I've heard of browser-based annotation systems around 2000-1, but none of them took off. Maybe they were too proprietary, but it would be interesting to explore why they didn't succeed. Maybe they didn't succeed because annotators wanted their comments to be visible on WWW, not just to people who had downloaded the special plugin for reading annotations. Just a random thought, but I wouldn’t be surprised if online videogames haven’t already come up with a tagging and geopositioning system for objects in virtual worlds.

I’ve heard of browser-based annotation systems around 2000-1, but none of them took off. Maybe they were too proprietary, but it would be interesting to explore why they didn’t succeed. Maybe they didn’t succeed because annotators wanted their comments to be visible on WWW, not just to people who had downloaded the special plugin for reading annotations.

]]> By: Jon Noring http://www.teleread.org/blog/2006/06/04/digital-annotation-a-revolution-in-the-making/#comment-60099 Jon Noring Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:18:28 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4965#comment-60099 Thanks for your comment, Robert! It is important that a digital annotation not be added to a digital object, but rather would be a stand-alone digital object which points to the target object. From my understanding, microformats simply add metadata-type markup to existing markup — hardly a universal solution. Anyway, we are talking about annotating <em>any kind</em> of digital object, and not only markup-related content. Nevertheless, links (or more specific information) of what others have already done is definitely important! I'd like to hear more about pingback/trackback, for example. Importantly note that Annotea is one area of inquiry in the Semantic Web, so there is definitely traction to that idea in the web world. Thanks for your comment, Robert!

It is important that a digital annotation not be added to a digital object, but rather would be a stand-alone digital object which points to the target object. From my understanding, microformats simply add metadata-type markup to existing markup — hardly a universal solution. Anyway, we are talking about annotating any kind of digital object, and not only markup-related content.

Nevertheless, links (or more specific information) of what others have already done is definitely important! I’d like to hear more about pingback/trackback, for example.

Importantly note that Annotea is one area of inquiry in the Semantic Web, so there is definitely traction to that idea in the web world.

]]> By: Robert Nagle http://www.teleread.org/blog/2006/06/04/digital-annotation-a-revolution-in-the-making/#comment-60097 Robert Nagle Sun, 04 Jun 2006 20:56:16 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4965#comment-60097 Are we simply talking about the need for another microformat? What need exists that pingback/trackback or technorati hasn't already solved? When the target object is unavailable or has been moved to another URI, is there still a way to reference it? Should the question of referencing the target object be the central focus of such a standard? Or should the standard concern itself more with describing the different characteristics of the annotation itself? Are we simply talking about the need for another microformat? What need exists that pingback/trackback or technorati hasn’t already solved? When the target object is unavailable or has been moved to another URI, is there still a way to reference it? Should the question of referencing the target object be the central focus of such a standard? Or should the standard concern itself more with describing the different characteristics of the annotation itself?

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