TafAnnote: Digital Document Annotation

The TafAnnote Annotation System

Exploiting the Annotation Practice for
Personal and Collective Information Management

What is TafAnnote?

TafAnnote is a research prototype that enables people to annotate digital documents, just as we commonly annotate paper documents. Annotating digital documents is a useful both personal and collective activities:
- personal use: active reading (critical thinking), proofreading, note-taking ...
- collective use: in-context discussion and opinion exchange thanks to discussion threads. This features allows the creation of a "forum" on any part of a document.
An annotation can be anchored to any part of a document: a word, a sentence, an image, etc. The user stores and organizes them in a personal hierarchy (a feature similar to common browser bookmarks).

The TafAnnote annotation system is an extension, i.e. a plugin designed for the Mozilla Firefox Web browser. It is integrated as a toolbar that gives access to its annotation-related features.
Installing TafAnnote

TafAnnote is a research prototype currently under development. It is provided "as is," for evaluation and testing purposes.
- You can have a try with the "Anonymous" login with the "TafAnnote" password.
  Alternatively, please request your personal account by sending me an email.
- Install Mozilla Firefox 2 if necessary, and launch it.
- Check that Java 6 or above is installed on your system.
- Open xpointerlib-0.2.7.xpi with Firefox to install the required XPointerLib extension.
- Open tafannote-1-1.xpi with Firefox to install the TafAnnote extension.
- Restart Mozilla Firefox.
- Enter the login and password that you received by mail (Tools menu / TafAnnote).
Frequently Asked Questions
- How to get the latest version of TafAnnote?
Known Issues and Bugs

As TafAnnote is under development, please notify me of the issues or bugs that you may encounter. The following ones are already known:
- TafAnnote does not work on Mozilla Firefox 3. Only Mozilla Firefox 2 is supported for the moment.
- The GUI is only in French (maybe one day I will translate it in English...).
- Anchoring points are expressed in XPointers as a path in the Document Object Model (DOM). When a document is modified, annotations appear at the bottom of it when TafAnnote cannot place it at its right location. Such annotations are called "misleading" (the anchoring point is locating a text range that does not correspond to the original selected text any more) or "orphans" (the annotated location does not exist any longer).
- Network disconnections may halt TafAnnote. A workaround consists in restarting Firefox.
Extra Information
- Scientific References Related to TafAnnote
  
  Guillaume Cabanac, Max Chevalier, Claude Chrisment, Christine Julien. Collective Annotation: Perspectives for Information Retrieval Improvement. In: RIAO 2007: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Retrieval - Large-Scale Semantic Access to Content (Text, Image, Video and Sound), Pittsburgh, PA, USA, May, 30, 2007 - June, 1, 2007, C.I.D. Editions, May 2007.
  
  Guillaume Cabanac, Max Chevalier, Claude Chrisment, Christine Julien. Validation sociale d'annotations collectives : argumentation bipolaire graduelle pour la théorie sociale de l'information. In: INFORSID'06: 24e congrès de l'INFormatique des Organisations et Systèmes d'Information et de Décision, Hammamet, Tunisia, June, 1, 2006 - June 3, 2006, INFORSID Editions, pp. 467-482, June 2006. (in French)
- Contact Information
  
  Guillaume Cabanac, PhD candidate in Computer Science
  https://www.irit.fr/~Guillaume.Cabanac
  
  IRIT - Institute of Computer Science, Toulouse University, France
  Generalized Information Systems team






		The TafAnnote Annotation System Exploiting the Annotation Practice for Personal and Collective Information Management What is TafAnnote? TafAnnote is a research prototype that enables people to annotate digital documents, just as we commonly annotate paper documents. Annotating digital documents is a useful both personal and collective activities: personal use: active reading (critical thinking), proofreading, note-taking ... collective use: in-context discussion and opinion exchange thanks to discussion threads. This features allows the creation of a "forum" on any part of a document. An annotation can be anchored to any part of a document: a word, a sentence, an image, etc. The user stores and organizes them in a personal hierarchy (a feature similar to common browser bookmarks). The TafAnnote annotation system is an extension, i.e. a plugin designed for the Mozilla Firefox Web browser. It is integrated as a toolbar that gives access to its annotation-related features. Installing TafAnnote TafAnnote is a research prototype currently under development. It is provided "as is," for evaluation and testing purposes. You can have a try with the "Anonymous" login with the "TafAnnote" password. Alternatively, please request your personal account by sending me an email. Install Mozilla Firefox 2 if necessary, and launch it. Check that Java 6 or above is installed on your system. Java is not installed on your computer. Open xpointerlib-0.2.7.xpi with Firefox to install the required XPointerLib extension. Open tafannote-1-1.xpi with Firefox to install the TafAnnote extension. Restart Mozilla Firefox. Enter the login and password that you received by mail (Tools menu / TafAnnote). Frequently Asked Questions How to get the latest version of TafAnnote? You may download and install it by clicking on this link: tafannote-1-1.xpi. Known Issues and Bugs As TafAnnote is under development, please notify me of the issues or bugs that you may encounter. The following ones are already known: TafAnnote does not work on Mozilla Firefox 3. Only Mozilla Firefox 2 is supported for the moment. The GUI is only in French (maybe one day I will translate it in English...). Anchoring points are expressed in XPointers as a path in the Document Object Model (DOM). When a document is modified, annotations appear at the bottom of it when TafAnnote cannot place it at its right location. Such annotations are called "misleading" (the anchoring point is locating a text range that does not correspond to the original selected text any more) or "orphans" (the annotated location does not exist any longer). Network disconnections may halt TafAnnote. A workaround consists in restarting Firefox. Extra Information Scientific References Related to TafAnnote Guillaume Cabanac, Max Chevalier, Claude Chrisment, Christine Julien. Collective Annotation: Perspectives for Information Retrieval Improvement. In: RIAO 2007: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Information Retrieval - Large-Scale Semantic Access to Content (Text, Image, Video and Sound), Pittsburgh, PA, USA, May, 30, 2007 - June, 1, 2007, C.I.D. Editions, May 2007. Guillaume Cabanac, Max Chevalier, Claude Chrisment, Christine Julien. Validation sociale d'annotations collectives : argumentation bipolaire graduelle pour la théorie sociale de l'information. In: INFORSID'06: 24e congrès de l'INFormatique des Organisations et Systèmes d'Information et de Décision, Hammamet, Tunisia, June, 1, 2006 - June 3, 2006, INFORSID Editions, pp. 467-482, June 2006. (in French) Contact Information Guillaume Cabanac, PhD candidate in Computer Science https://www.irit.fr/~Guillaume.Cabanac IRIT - Institute of Computer Science, Toulouse University, France Generalized Information Systems team