Web Annotations
Web annotations can be defined as a manner to attach information to a resource which is like an image or webpage. In this regard, those additional information can be thought as an upper layer on resource, which does not alter resource itself and this additional information can be seen by other people utilizing same tool.
A web annotation consists of two distinct parts, body and target according to data model suggestion of W3C. A variety of web annotations is created by changing content of these parts.
The Web Annotation Data Model is defined using the following basic principles:
- An Annotation is a rooted, directed graph that represents a relationship between resources.
- There are two primary types of resource that participate in this relationship, Bodies and Targets.
- Annotations have 0 or more Bodies.
- Annotations have 1 or more Targets.
- The content of the Body resources is related to, and typically "about", the content of the Target resources.
- Annotations, Bodies and Targets may have their own properties and relationships, typically including creation and descriptive information.
- The intent behind the creation of an Annotation or the inclusion of a particular Body or Target is an important property and represented by a Motivation resource.
The suggested data model standardizes a format called JSON-LD for representation of web annotations. Thanks to this standardized model, different clients can consume them in an appropriate way. For further information about protocol, this page can be visited. Following example is basic usage scenario of format.
As it said before, annotations are defined on different resource types. These types are not only a web page or a chain of text on content of that page, but also they can be a video file, a mp3 file or a sequence in those resources. That is, this partial definition of annotations were defined as follows by W3C.
- A specific area within drawn boundaries of an image resource.
- A specific time interval of a mp3 or video resource.
- A specific part of a longer text resource.
Serialization of JSON-LD format for being creating several web annotations can be seen through the following link.
There exist various types of web annotation tools. Some of them are listed in below:
To start using it, user is required to enter URL of a webpage and Bounce will then create an image of it allowing you thus to add text and annotate it. Also, users can be able to share their annotated content via a unique URL. Here is the bounceapp link for demo use.
This tool allows users locate little yellow squares of digital paper anywhere in a webpage.
This tool allows users to bookmark and annotate web service. It allows users to save a web page and annotate it the way they want via adding comments in text boxes or highlighting important parts. It also has a social ingredient in it in that users can share their annotated content with each other.
