Using Web annotations for asynchronous collaboration around documents

ABSTRACT

Digital web-accessible annotations are a compelling medium for personal comments and shared discussions around documents. Only recently supported by widely used products, "in-context" digital annotation is a relatively unexamined phenomenon. This paper presents a case study of annotations created by members of a large development team using Microsoft Office 2000-approximately 450 people created 9,000 shared annotations on about 1,250 documents over 10 months. We present quantitative data on use, supported by interviews with users, identifying strengths and weaknesses of the existing capabilities and possibilities for improvement.

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INDEX TERMS

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

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.5 On-line Information Services
          Subjects: Web-based services
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Web-based interaction; Asynchronous interaction

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.2 Installation Management
          Subjects: Performance and usage measurement

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Human Factors, Management, Measurement, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
World Wide Web, annotation, asynchronous collaboration, computer mediated communication, distributed work