1. Now with less set theory!
Annotations
Now with less set theory!

2. Outline What are annotations Paper v Digital
Limits of Paper annotations
Forms of Digital annotations
Features of Digital annotations
Sources of Digital annotations
Problems of Digital annotations
Solutions

3. What are annotations Additional content that is related to a document
Traditionally created by a person writing notes in the margins of documents
As document creation is becoming digital so is annotation of documents
Mindlessly copying the traditional format into the digital world is a significant underutilisation of the digital potential

4. What are annotations
Are created for an almost limitless number of reasons
Whether their creator intended them solely for their benefit, or to benefit other people is not as fundamental as it may seem
Paper annotations are presumably intended only for the use of their creator
However they can still end up being useful to others, even to the point of being annotated themselves

5. Paper v Digital Paper annotations
Only written/drawn annotations possible
Restricted by availability of blank space
Tied to exact document they are created on
Digital Annotations
Almost any form imaginable possible
Not restricted by properties of source document
Not tied to document used to create them

6. Limits of Paper annotations
People with a different copy of the annotated document can’t make use of them
Once annotations are made they can’t be changed without wasting available space
If an annotated document is reused irrelevant annotations can’t be removed

7. Forms of Digital Annotations
Annotation types
Text
Audio
Video
Pictures
Links
Uses
Content
Metadata

8. Features of Digital Annotations
Can refer to the entire document or only a specific part
Can refer to more than one document in a collection
Can have access restrictions
Can be stored separately to annotated documents
Can persist when the annotated document is changed

9. Features of Digital Annotations
Can be edited after creation
Can’t make it impossible for other annotations to be added to a document
Can’t (without access restrictions) prevent annotations from being shared among multiple readers of the same document
Can’t be forced on users of rare documents
Can be added to newly created paper copies of documents

10. Sources of Digital Annotations
Individual people
Manual annotations
Usually informal, unstructured
Automated systems
Automatic annotations
Usually formal, structured
Crowd-sourcing
Created by input of groups of people, not just individuals
Potentially automatically extracted from human input

11. Problems for Digital Annotations
Linking annotations to documents
Type and direction of links affects usability of annotations
Annotated documents can be changed without warning
Method for anchoring annotations within documents must be able to deal with change
Access restrictions can be confusing
Limiting what types of annotations can be made, especially on existing annotations

12. Problems for Digital Annotations
Editing annotation links can create cycles
Not possible to identify order in which annotations were created
Lack of consequences for creating “bad” annotations
Spam
Trolling
Flame wars

13. Solutions Link types affect usability of annotations
Uni-directional links are bad
Bi-directional links are good
Documents can be changed without warning
Record versions of documents that annotations were created against
Include algorithms for updating annotation anchors in response to changed documents

14. Solutions Access restrictions can cause confusion
Attempting to create a public annotation on a specific part of a (semi)-private annotation doesn’t make sense
Good error messages/notification of access level
Editing annotations can cause cycles
Include cycle checker as part of process for saving edits to annotations
Don’t allow annotation links to be created during editing

15. Solutions No consequences for “bad” annotations
Not easily solvable by automated system
Solutions not really within scope of project