Shared Web Annotations as a Platform for Third-Party Value-Added, Information Providers: Architecture, Protocols, and Usage Examples

  • Authors:

  • Martin Roscheisen;Christian Mogensen;Terry Winograd

  • Affiliations:

  • -;-;-

  • Venue:
  • Shared Web Annotations as a Platform for Third-Party Value-Added, Information Providers: Architecture, Protocols, and Usage Examples
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

In this paper, we present an architecture, called "ComMentor", which provides a platform for third-party providers of lightweight super-structures to material provided by conventional content providers. It enables people to share structured in-place annotations about arbitrary on-line documents. The system is part of a general "virtual document" architecture ("PCD BRIO") in which--with the help of lightweight distributed meta information--documents are dynamically synthesized from distributed sources depending on the user context and the meta-information which has been attached to them. The meta-information is managed independently of the documents themselves on separate meta-information servers, both in terms of storage and authority. A wide range of useful scenarios can be readily realized on this platform. We give examples of how a more personalized content presentation can be achieved by leveraging the database storage of the uniform meta-information and generating documents dynamically for a particular user perspective. These include structured discussion about paper drafts, collaborative filtering, seals of approval, tours, shared "hotlists" with section-based visibility control, usage indicators, co-presence, and value-added trails. Our object model and request interface for the prototype implementation are defined in technical detail in the appendix.