Annotation for collaboration in engineering design

International audienceAnnotation technologies have reached a certain maturity over the last decade. Web based text annotation technologies are shared among a wide community and a great number of webbased groupware applications today provide annotation functionalities. However, widely available technologies such as Annotea, Smore and others have made in roads mainly for web based applications of text based annotations to text, software and image data. In design and engineering, while annotations have played a major role in the paper based media for centuries as means for communication with oneself and others, annotations in digital representations are just starting to play a role in the design process. Digital representations in design not only provide a means to represent and manipulate the geometry of the product for manufacturing or simulation purposes, but are also used to capture the entire scope of information that is used in engineering and product design Annotations on design and engineering information in the digital medium would serve an important role in recording the evaluation of design solutions during design reviews and in aiding the negotiation, reconciliation and collaboration processes among various groups of experts. Annotation facilities in design need to be embedded within the richness of the range of digital representations to provide for textual and non-textual annotation. There is a need for reflection, debate and exchange of experiences on both the theoretical and applications of annotations within digital design environments and more widely within collaborative design processe