Using Web Annotations for Asynchronous Collaboration Around Documents

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 1250 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. Keywords Annotation, asynchronous collaboration, distributed work, computer mediated communication, World Wide Web 1 INTRODUCTION Highlighting and writing comments in the margins as we read is a natural activity. These annotations are often personal notes for subsequent reference. When shared among co-workers they also support communication and collaborat..