Ming the Mechanic:
The Annotated Web

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 The Annotated Web2003-11-29 07:35
7 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

Roger is doing some good thinking about how to make an annotated web:
"The voice of humanity network will be implemented first as the "annotated web", that is, as a community created stigmergic overlay of the web. The AntWeb is entered through portal pages, one portal page for each participating web community. Having entered through the portal, every link traversed by the membership is logged as the members browse the web. Facilities will be available to rate web pages and to add notes and keywords as members browse along. The links followed and the ratings given will be used to mark links as popular or unpopular for the others who might visit the same site – provided they have entered through the same portal, of course. The notes will likewise be accessible to those who come by later, and the keywords can be used in a lookup facility on the portal page to jump straight to items that are "funny" or "curious" or "delightful" etc. It should be fun. (See the MetaWeb Article for a previous take on the Annotated Web concept.) [...]

From the portal, every link we take will be tracked and participants will be encouraged to rate each page visited and optionally to add notes and keywords. This tracking process will not cover only the links on the portal, but will continue no matter how deep into the web we get. When we visit pages, if we have "NOTES ON" then we will see the annotations as interpolated wiki-like links, or if "NOTES OFF", then the annotations will be available through tiny buttons. Either way, the annotations will be presented as separate web pages, available for sub-annotations and rating. Annotations, therefore are wiki like. However, it is not possible to actually edit the original page, only to add annotations."
"AntWeb" = "Annotated Web" - that's very cool. And it all seems like something almost familiar, that I'd of course want. And it is almost strange that it doesn't already exist. A couple of years ago there were some sites/programs that allowed you to browse around the web and leave independent notes about the sites, and to see who else was currently hanging out on the same site, using the same program. I can't remember any names, but whatever happened to those programs?


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7 comments

29 Nov 2003 @ 11:03 by Seb @156.34.178.143 : Crit
CritDotOrg died recently - it was about 5 years old. I think blogs will overtake those. It's too challenging to make and sustain a centralized killer app.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=critdotorg&btnG=Google+Search  



29 Nov 2003 @ 11:37 by dang @24.242.10.18 : yay for stigmergy!
Mmm stigmergy. I've got a hard-on for anything which smacks of that concept.

Anyway, I too wonder what happened to those programs, Ming. I was trying to re-find one awhile back-- all I remember is that it had the logo of a sailing vessel, or might have been called by the name of one, or something. It showed the user a dmoz-like organization of the web, and you could post messages and leave notes and such. Never could find it.

When you install the latest Microsoft FrontPage, or Office XP, it installs the Microsoft "discussion" software, which allows you to annotate web pages. Unfortunately I don't know of any discussion servers I can link up with to do this.

Web annotation would be a huge leap forward for the web, if it were more ubiquitous (if you didn't have to sign up with a certain portal or discussion server in order to see the comments) Unfortunately that would probably never work, because un-moderated access would just mean a shitload of porn and spam being attached to pages.

I need to sit down and try to find a way to utilize porn and spam toward the good of humanity. How can we take advantage of the great masses of it that are being sent and posted every day, in order to add impetus toward openness and energy flow? It's obviously a force to be reckoned with, one can't get rid of it, so how can we ride it?

cheers
-dan  



30 Nov 2003 @ 10:25 by Seb @156.34.178.143 : Technorati Anywhere
Forgot to say, the Technorati Anywhere bookmarklet is becoming a decent replacement to annotation systems. http://technorati.com  


3 Apr 2004 @ 16:00 by swanny @209.90.162.52 : Stigmergic Impetus
I could a figured it.....
Got here on a google search....
You must be doin somethin right ming!!!!

Swanny  



3 Apr 2004 @ 18:45 by ming : Stigmergence
Are you sure it wasn't an ant who told you there would be good food in this general direction?  


3 Apr 2004 @ 18:59 by swanny : Robin Williams
I could da swore it was mork......

but then again I don't swore....

*smiles*

swanny  



1 May 2016 @ 10:42 by Allayna @188.143.232.32 : gVhqNnHtTNWCQmH
Finindg this post has solved my problem  


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