◆ Semantic Web Catalogue

Problem thread

Can readers write back?

Can readers attach comments, corrections and links to someone else's page, where other readers will see them?

issue
linking
also governance
status
open
steps
7, 1960–2018
threads
all problem threads

Early hypertext designs such as Xanadu expected links that both ends know about, so a reader's response could sit beside the text. The Web let only the author decide what a page shows. Annotea tried RDF annotations stored on separate servers in 2001; social bookmarking let readers describe pages on their own sites; Webmention lets a page learn who replied to it; and the W3C's 2017 Web Annotation standard, with tools such as Hypothesis, gives a shared format for notes laid over any page. Whether such notes are ever shared across tools, and who may refuse them, is still open.

Lineage

  1. 1960
    precedent project ★ seminal
    Project Xanadu

    Nelson's design has links that both documents know about and lets one document quote another, so commentary and source stay connected. [src]

  2. 1990
    precedent project ★ seminal
    World Wide Web

    The Web's links run one way and only the author edits a page, so a reader has no place on it. [src]

  3. May 2001
    proposes project
    Annotea

    Annotations are stored as RDF on separate servers and shown over the page, so anyone can comment without changing it. [src]

  4. Sep 2003
    proposes project
    Delicious

    Readers bookmark, tag and describe pages publicly on a separate site, building shared notes about the Web outside it. [src]

  5. 12 Jan 2017
    proposes standard
    Webmention
    ↳ responds to World Wide Web

    A reader replies on their own site and notifies the page, which can then show the reply. [src]

  6. 23 Feb 2017
    proposes standard
    Web Annotation Data Model

    A W3C standard format for annotations in JSON-LD, so comments and highlights can move between tools; Hypothesis, founded in 2011 to build an open annotation layer, took part in the work. [src1][src2]

  7. 23 Jan 2018
    proposes standard ★ seminal
    ActivityPub

    Replies travel between servers, so a conversation can span sites that do not share an owner. [src]

Open now

Under each question, the answers people have put forward or built. The catalogue gives no odds on them.

  • Should the owner of a page be able to refuse annotations on it? [src1][src2]
    Annotation services lay notes over pages without the publisher's consent, which lets readers correct a page and also lets them harass its author.
    • Annotations live on a separate service, outside the publisher's control. Annotea
      The model of Annotea and Hypothesis: anyone can annotate any public page.[src1][src2]
    • The page decides which replies it shows. Webmention
      With Webmention the receiving site chooses what to display.[src]
  • Will annotations be shared across tools, as the 2017 standard intended? [src]
    The Web Annotation model gives a common format; most annotations still live inside the tool that made them.

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