The Value of Plurality in ‘The Network with a Thousand Entrances’

Abstract

This contribution reflects on the value of plurality in the 'network with a thousand entrances' suggested by McCarty (http://goo.gl/H3HAfs), and others, in association with approaching time-honoured annotative and commentary practices of much-engaged texts. The question is how this approach aligns with tensions, today, surrounding the multiplicity of endeavour associated with modeling practices of annotation by practitioners of the digital humanities. Our work, hence, surveys annotative practice across its reflection in contemporary praxis, from the MIT annotation studio whitepaper (http://goo.gl/8NBdnf) through the work of the Open Annotation Collaboration (http://www.openannotation.org), and manifest in multiple tools facilitating annotation across the web up to and including widespread application in social knowledge creation suites like Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web annotation)

“When I saw my peers annotating”

“…A number of learning practices typify collaborative activity among such "texts-as-contexts" (Kalir, 2019), including multimodal expression, the demonstration of expertise (McCartney et al, 2018), and knowledge construction (Plevinski et al, 2017). The socio-technical "formations" (Facer, 2011) made possible by SA have productively supported interdisciplinary teaching and learning among formal course contexts (e.g., Paradis and Fendt, 2016;Reid, 2019), aided meaning-making in open educational initiatives (e.g., Kalir, 2020), and have also encouraged new approaches to scholarly production and communication (Mirra, 2018;Siemens et al, 2017).…”

Towards Open Annotation: Examples and Experiments

“…As illustrated by the Siemens et al (2017) bibliography, digital annotation resources are rich and abundant. However, it was imperative for the purpose of this exploration to focus on a small group of comparable tools and projects in order ensure a keen evaluation of their objectives, affordances, and challenges.…”

“…While these can be adapted for the classroom, tools that are built with students and instructors in mind, and with learning objectives as a core tenet of their design, more easily fit pedagogical goals. With this selection criteria-text-based annotation, free, standalone, and pedagogically-focused-I combed through the Siemens et al (2017) bibliography and compiled a shortlist of five tools (Annotation Studio, Hypothes.is, NowComment, Prism, and Google Docs) and two projects (Open Utopia and Infinite Ulysses).…”

“…Contrastingly, today, the parallel rise of digital humanities research, Web 2.0, and collaborative methods have shifted annotation strategies from static to dynamic. Now, there is an expanse of annotation platforms that can be used for describing a variety of materials and accommodating different annotation strategies, sharing preferences, and needs for cataloguing and posterity (Siemens et al 2017). Most significantly, annotation practices have become open-existing online in spaces accessible to scholars, students, academic professionals, and citizen scientists.…”

Facilitating Reusable Third-Party Annotations in Digital Editions

“…When project groups or classes can share annotations on an edition within their groups, this already has the effect of creating a living document and an alternative channel of scholarly communication; it is fundamentally different from sending annotations via email or keeping a shared but separate annotation document or database (Holub et al 2014). The focus widens from 'reader-content' interaction to include 'reader-reader' interaction (Siemens et al 2017). Being able to see the annotations of collaborators in the context of annotated object creates a direct connection that leads to a different engagement with the text (Pearson et al 2012).…”