Casey has some thoughts on web page annotations. It’s a good read.
A distributed annotation service could be based on blogging technology. Annotation blogging would address most of Casey’s concerns, at the expense of some wheel-re-inventation.
Your typical blog entry has a title, text, a creation date, and a “permalink” URL that identifies the entry. An annotation entry would have those attributes, as well as the URL of the annotated page.
I would publish my annotation entries on my website, and my friends would publish their annotation entries on their websites. When I browse a page that has been annotated by my friends, my annotation-aware browser would download my friend’s annotations and display them.
Threaded discussions in page annotations could be added by allowing one annotation to refer to another. This extension would also help annotaters to find other annotaters they might be interested in subscribing to.
The Third Voice annotation system that Casey describes suffered because it did not have a good mechanism for viewing just those annotations from credible sources. With annotation blogging, the source of annotations is as credible as a blog entry—which is good enough for most on-line community purposes.
Annotation blogging would encourage lively communities to form around news sites and popular pundits. Annotation and regular blogging would work in parallel, with blogs containing both annotations and regular entries. It would bring the blogosphere closer to mainstream current affairs.
The technological basis for annotation blogging is in place. If an enthusiastic bunch of programmers got working on it, we could all be annotation blogging by Christmas.
Well, it’s a nice thought.