[okfn-discuss] Re: Annotation systems

Mon Feb 5 11:52:25 UTC 2007

Ahoy,

On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:23:49 +0000, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> Tom Chance wrote:
>> Just a quick note to say that the FCF are interested in using an
>> annotation system for our library, to enable people to comment on the
>> texts once we commission them.
> 
> Sounds interesting. I don't know whether you saw the 'Thinking about
> Annotation' post[1] but it would be useful to know exactly what
> functionality you were looking for (for example do you want something
> more than straight 'blog comments).

It was the discussion on this list, and the OKFN blog, that prompted me to contact you. Basically we want something similar to the FSF's system for the GPLv3 consultation. Registered users should be able to comment on arbitrarily defined chunks of text, and ideally the UI would indicate areas that have more comments, perhaps even with a positive/negative rating system. The aim is to enable people to comment on essays.

>> If you're looking at improving an existing system, it would be good
>> to work together to get programmers or funds.
> 
> That would be great Tom. We're definitely looking to build on existing
> work and have already started on adapting marginilia to work with open
> shakespeare. I also know there are several other people on the
> okfn-discuss list who are working on similar stuff, for example in
> relation to drupal (and for that reason I'm cc'ing okfn-discuss on this
> mail).

That sounds good. Is your work on marginalia portable, or would it require us to bring in a chunk of OKFN technology to get it working on our server? Does this need programmers, funds, cheerleaders or more peanut gallery comments?

Regards,
Tom