Asynchronous collaborative writing through annotations

ABSTRACT

Annotation is central to iterative reviewing and revising activities in asynchronous collaborative writing. Currently most digital annotation models and systems assume static context information and provide far less functionality than physical annotations. We extend prior annotation research by Marshall and Cadiz and design an activity-oriented annotation model to mimic the rich functionality of physical annotations for an enhanced collaborative writing process. In this model, we define an annotation life cycle and support annotation version control. We implement a collaborative writing system that supports improved in-situ communication and cross-role feedback based on our annotation model.

REFERENCES

• 1: Brickley, D., Guha, R. (2004). Resource Description Framework (RDF) Schema Specification 1.0. W3C recommendation, World Wide Web Consortium.
• 2: Alice Jane Bernheim Brush , Alan Borning, Annotating digital documents for asynchronous collaboration, 2002
• 3: J. J. Cadiz , Anop Gupta , Jonathan Grudin, Using Web annotations for asynchronous collaboration around documents, Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, p.309-318, December 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States [doi>10.1145/358916.359002]
• 4: Campbell, D.G. (2002). The Use of the Dublin Core in Web Annotation Programs. in Int. Conf. on Dublin Core and Metadata for e-Communities 2002.
• 5: Farkas, D.K., Poltrock, S.E. (1995).Online editing, mark-up models, and the workplace lives of editors and writers. Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on, Volume: 38 (Issue: 2). 110--117.
• 6: Gennari, J.H., Weng, C., McDonald, D.W. (2004). An Ethnographic Study of Collaborative Clinical Trial Protocol Writing. Proc of MedInfo'04, San Francisco, CA. (in press).
• 7: Grudin, J., Bargeron, D. (2004). Communication and Collaboration Support Systems. in K. Okada, T.H., and T. Inoue (Eds.) ed., Ohmsha. (in press).
• 8: Catherine C. Marshall, Annotation: from paper books to the digital library, Proceedings of the second ACM international conference on Digital libraries, p.131-140, July 23-26, 1997, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States [doi>10.1145/263690.263806]
• 9: Weng, C., Gennari, J.H., McDonald, DW. (2004). A Collaborative Clinical Trial Protocol Writing System. Proc of MedInfo'2004, San Francisco, CA. (in press).

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Asynchronous interaction

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Computer-supported cooperative work

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
annotation, asynchronous collaboration, collaborative writing