open annotation: annotating high energy physics on the web

Open Annotation AAHEP5, 22nd of September 2011, Ithaca, NY

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Open Annotation: Annotating High Energy Physics on the Web

Robert Sanderson [email protected] Los Alamos National Laboratory @azaroth42

Herbert Van de Sompel [email protected] Los Alamos National Laboratory @hvdsomp

http://www.openannotation.org/

This research is funded, in part, by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation


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Overview

•  Motivation

•  Open Annotation Model •  Basics •  Segments •  Resources Changing over Time •  Machine Annotations

•  Network Model

•  Quick Demo


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Scholarly Communication

Scholarly Communication is increasingly: •  Online •  Open •  Distributed •  Collaborative •  Data-Oriented

Annotation is a scholarly primitive, spanning discipline and level.

Need to ensure that Digital Annotations fall under these headings!

•  Apply the standards and architecture of the World Wide Web to the Annotation use case. •  Even if scholar doesn’t share annotations with others, she will want to access them from different tools and environments.


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Open Annotation Collaboration

http://www.openannotation.org/

Focus on interoperable sharing of annotations •  Web-centric and open, not locked down silos •  Create, consume and interact in different environments •  Build from a simple model for simple cases, to more detailed for complex scholarly annotation requirements

The Collaboration: •  Los Alamos National Laboratory •  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign •  University of Queensland •  University of Maryland •  George Mason University •  plus many adopters and partners


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Open Annotation Data Model

Design Guidelines: •  Based on the Architecture of the World Wide Web •  … and on Linked Open Data •  Should be general enough for ease of adoption •  … and rich enough to cover scholarly use cases

Status: Beta, with 9 ongoing funded experiments to inform 1.0

Hardest part: Define what an Annotation is! •  "Aboutness" is key to distinguish from general metadata

A document that describes how one resource is about one or more other resources, or part(s) thereof.


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Basic Model

The basic model has three resources: •  Annotation (an RDF document) •  Body (the ‘comment’ of the annotation) •  Target (the resource the Body is ‘about’)


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Basic Model Example


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Additional Relationships and Properties

Any of the resources can have additional information attached, such as creator, date of creation, title, etc.


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Additional Properties Example


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Annotation Types

There can be further types of Annotation, such as a Reply. Example: Replies are Annotations on Annotations.


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Annotation Types Example


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Inline Information

It is important to be able to have content contained within the Annotation document for Client Autonomy:

•  Clients may be unable to mint new URIs for every resource •  Clients may wish to transmit only a single document •  Third parties can generate new URIs if the client does not

The W3C has a Content in RDF specification: •  http://www.w3.org/TR/Content-in-RDF10/


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Inline Information: Body

•  We introduce a resource identified by a non resolvable URI, such as a UUID URN, as the Body. •  We then embed the data within the Annotation document using 'chars’ from Content in RDF.


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Inline Body Example


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Multiple Targets

There are many use cases for multiple targets for an Annotation: •  Comparison of two or more resources •  Making a statement that applies to all of the resources •  Making a statement about multiple parts of a resource

The OAC Data Model allows for multiple targets by simply having more than one hasTarget relationship.


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Multiple Targets Example


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Segments of Resources

Most annotations are about part of a resource

Different segments for different media types:

•  Text: paragraph, arbitrary span of words •  Image: rectangular or arbitrary shaped area •  Audio: start and end time points, track name/number •  Video: area and time points •  Other: slice of a data set, volume in a 3d object, …


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Segments of Resources

Web Architecture Segmentation:

•  A URI with a Fragment identifies part of the resource: •  IETF Mime-type fragment identifiers; eg xpointer •  W3C Media Fragments URI specification for simple segments of media: http://www.w3.org/TR/media-frags/

We introduce a method of constraining resources:

•  Introduce an approach for arbitrarily complex segments that cannot be expressed using Fragments •  Can be applied to Body or Target resource


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Segments of Resources: IETF Fragment URIs

URI Fragments are a syntax for creating subsidiary URIs that identify part of the main resource

The syntax is defined per media type:

•  X/HTML: The named anchor or identified element

•  XML: An XPointer to the element(s)

•  PDF: Many options, especially page and viewrect

•  Plain Text: Either by character position or line position


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Segments of Resources: W3C Media Fragments

Media Fragments allow anyone to create URIs that identify part of an image, audio or video resource.

The most common case is for rectangular areas of images: •  http://www.example.org/image.jpg#xywh=50,100,640,480

Link to the full resource as well, for all Fragment URIs


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Media Fragments Example


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Complex Constraints

Fragment URIs are not always possible •  Introduce a Constraint that describes the segment of interest •  And a ConstrainedTarget that identifies the segment of interest •  Constraints are entire resources, so can be more expressive •  Constraints may also describe 'contextual' information


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Constraint Example


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RDF Constraints

Instead of having the information in an external document, it could be within the RDF of the Annotation document.

•  We can attach information to the Constraint node

•  Or use the Content in RDF specification to include what would have been in the external document


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RDF Constraint Example


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Constrained Body

The Body may also be constrained in the same way as Targets


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Web-Centric Annotation: No Persistence

Google Sidewiki Annotation on http://news.bbc.co.uk/ as of 2010-06-14

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Web-Centric Annotation: No Annotations

Archived page from: http://www.dracos.co.uk/work/bbc-news-archive/2010/03/08/07.05.html

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Web-Centric Annotation: Desired Cross-Linking

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Annotations and Time

There are three different types of Annotation with respect to Time:

•  Timeless Annotations •  These are always relevant, regardless of the current state of the resources.

•  Uniform Annotations •  There is a single timestamp at which all of the resources should be considered.

•  Varied Annotations •  Each of the resources (Body, Targets) should be considered at a different time.

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Timeless Annotations

The model for a Timeless Annotation is the base model

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Uniform Annotations

If the same time is applicable to all resources, we attach it to the Annotation using the oac:when predicate.

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Uniform Annotation Example

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Varied Annotations

If different timestamps are required for each resource, we use oac:when from an oac:WebTimeConstraint.

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Varied Annotation Example

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Annotations for/by Machines?

•  The Body consists of one or more Statements •  Human understandable: Text, Image, Video, Symbols, … •  Machine understandable: Data

•  Humans can infer relationships and context, Machines cannot •  Need to be as explicit as possible •  Need structured information

•  When would we do this? •  Nano-Publications: publication of data for further processing •  Simple Data associations •  Semantic annotations

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Human Annotation of Human Annotation

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Human Annotation of Human Annotation

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But what about this?


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Simple Data Association

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Equivalent to 12 people saying: "I Like This"

I = ex:User Like = fb:likes

This = ex:Anno


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Human Language Annotation

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Machine Language Annotation?

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Transcription for Humans: Image to Text

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Transcription for Machines: Single Named Entity

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Transcription for Machines: Entity Relationships

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Advantages of this Approach

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•  Only uses existing OAC constructions •  No new ‘isTopicOf’ or similar shortcut relationships •  Creator of Body is not confused with Creator of Annotation!

•  Aligns very closely with human annotation practices

•  Consistent model that scales from resource to part of resource •  Can annotate data extracted at most appropriate level •  Could extract from sentence/paragraph/section/entire text

•  Consistent model that allows association of any amount of data: •  From Single Entity •  To scholarly discourse extraction from entire document


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Annotation Protocols

Protocol: publish, subscribe, consume tied together

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Unlike previous systems, Open Annotation does not mandate a protocol.

No reliance on a client/server combination gives the client autonomy.

Instead we promote a publish/subscribe methodology, where annotations may be stored and consumed from anywhere.


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Publish/Subscribe Method

publish

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We don’t specify how this transfer should occur


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publish subscribe

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Nor this.


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publish subscribe consume

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Nor this.


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Publish/Subscribe Advantages

•  Client can use most appropriate method for transferring annotation to storage service •  May already be specified in certain domains •  Can use existing services without requiring direct adoption

•  Annotations are web resources in their own right •  Can be protected for limited access using existing technology •  Have their own URIs by necessity, not good-will of service

•  Promotes a market-place of services •  Archiving Annotations and resources for preservation •  Enriching with additional metadata and information •  Aggregation and curation to provide trusted annotation feeds


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Demo!

http://www.shared-canvas.org/impl/demo3/

•  Took the PDF of Dirac’s thesis on Quantum Mechanics and split into individual page images

•  Allow transcription by annotation, and commentary by annotation •  Allows storage at different services, both public and private


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Thank You

Robert Sanderson [email protected] [email protected] @azaroth42

Web: http://www.openannotation.org/ Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.2643

Slides: http://slidesha.re/……

open annotation: annotating high energy physics on the web

Technology

open annotation 17aahep5

open annotation 8aahep5

open annotation 6aahep5

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types of annotation

annotation target