By Dan Asbridge & Caleb Carroll

Introduction

The affordances of social reading and annotations have a far-reaching influence in the realm of academic studies. Based on a review of the current literature and the various applications and sites, the ideal site would allow for real-time social interactions and include the ability to highlight text, draw shapes that show the relationships between ideas and place images among other things.

What is Social Reading?

The ability to interact with a text and with other readers of a text is a rapidly growing area in application and web development. In essence, many apps have developed the ability to share, comment and discuss content, but of the three discussed within the article, none have yet to engage in real-time discussion that encourages and facilitates student learning in their particular interests. There is a need for this type of experience; the rough prototype suggested below, serves as an answer to these effective, yet limited applications. Social reading in a digital context enables users to share and engage a text in meaningful ways that increases comprehension. At the root of it is the sharing of books, ideas and comments and receiving feedback on those ideas. The web and digital technology enable people to have similar experiences and ultimately to share those experiences, hence the proliferation of blogs, social media and forums that serve as platforms for exploration of literature and school textbooks.

Gone are the days when social reading consisted entirely of insulated book clubs and book-of-the-month clubs. Now readers can express themselves through a whole bevy of new social media applications, book club sites and e-reader sites and applications (Mennella).

What is Digital Annotation?

Digital annotation is a loosely-defined term that refers to the supplementation of a digital object with notes, whether critical or explanatory. Several programs have been developed that allow users to annotate documents, images, videos, and even whole Web pages. This guide will focus primarily on annotations made on textual objects (especially Web books and eBooks), as well as the networks through which such annotations can be posted and shared online.

Notable Examples

Social Reading Platforms

Good Reads

There are several examples of different social reading sites in existence. For instance, Good Reads enables one to find books that he wants to read next. One can find numerous helpful elements on the site, like friend reviews and suggestions of other books to read. In addition to this and other standard features (such as a rating system of number of stars and community reviews), Good Reads has a Q & A section, which allows people to write questions about the books that they want to read or have read.

The main limitation of Good Reads is that it focuses mostly on books that one is going to read, rather than books one is currently reading or has read. Of course, it goes without saying that one must have read the book to rate it, but it is designed more for those who are looking for something to read, as one infers from the list of things one can do on Good Reads (tracking what one is friends are reading, checking out personalized book recommendations et cetera) (“Good Reads About”).

With the development of instantaneous social reading, this Q & A format could be particularly applicable to individual readers who have questions about the books that they are reading (rather than have read or will read). In the case of an educational setting, students doing research could begin to formulate research papers by posting general questions to an instant messenger. This would enable them to move from general concepts gleaned from hyper-reading into deeper reading.

SubText

Another example of a social reading app is Subtext. This application enables teachers to embed prompts, notes, annotations as well as videos and other digital content to a wide range of books. The teacher can also embed discussions within the text to increase the student’s reading comprehension. The goal of these different elements is to encourage a greater participation with the text itself. The instructor can create private groups so that she can share information with a select group of people. Another element of this social reading app is the act of collective experience through reading. A slick element of this application is the ability to make everyone literally on the same page. This is accomplished by a simple tapping of one’s fingers on the page (Chandler).

Obviously this app is designed specifically for educational purposes. It is an improvement over Good Reads in that it allows for the immediate reading of texts. Teachers can increase a deeper immersion in the text itself and the interactive elements add a level of depth to the reading experience that Good Reads does not have.

However, it is still limited to a certain extent. For one thing, the teacher has the lion’s share of the control of what the individual grasps and what he focuses on. It does not offer the student the ability to ask questions about the things that he finds interesting or noteworthy.

Kindle Fire

Finally, it would be somewhat amiss to leave out Amazon’s social reading features. The Kindle Fire enables the user to highlight his text and share notes. A user can select a piece of text, mark it and share his perspectives on the matter before him. With public notes, virtually anyone can access his ideas, making the Kindle one of the most social reading machines (Mennella).

However, this is also limited, in that the notes are archived, rather than accessed in real time. Thus, a student looking for insights does not have the ability to immediately respond to the comment maker and receive further feedback.

Digital Annotation Platforms

There are two common forms of programs that allow for digital annotation:

The first type is a web annotation program. These kinds of programs are often built for the annotation of general websites. However, with more and more titles being offered in a Web book format, these tools are very useful. A few examples are:

A.nnotate

Allows users to take screenshots of source material and annotate a separate, read-only copy.
Annotates: documents (.PDF, Microsoft Office), images, and web pages
Sharing: private or groups
Cost: free account allows 30 annotations per month; paid subscriptions required for larger amounts
http://a.nnotate.com/

Diigo

Allows users to highlight, comment, and add sticky notes, which are automatically saved to a personal library.
Annotates: web pages
Sharing: public or private
Cost: free subscription allows for unlimited number of bookmarks and notes with limited features; paid subscriptions offer more features, including an ad-free interface
https://www.diigo.com/

FloatNotes

A Firefox Add-on that can be used to annotate web pages with notes, comments, links, and images; can be formatted with basic Markdown syntax.
Annotates: web pages
Sharing: private only
Cost: free
http://www.floatnotes.org/home

Pliny

Allows users to see a visualization of the relationship between the annotations they make and their source material; also allows users to search a keyword within their collection of annotations.
Annotates: documents (.PDF), images and web pages
Sharing: private only
Cost: free
http://pliny.cch.kcl.ac.uk/index.html

The second type is an eBook or .PDF reader program. These programs allow users to purchase, manage, and/or read documents and eBooks, often giving them the option to highlight and annotate them. Notable examples are:

iBooks

Allows you to associate sticky notes to highlighted text, which can be accessed individually on the page, or as part of a list in the Bookmarks section.
Annotates: documents (.EPUB, .PDF, .IBA)
Sharing: private only
Cost: app is free; eBooks are priced on iBooks Store
Platforms: Mac, iOS
https://www.apple.com/ibooks/

Adobe Digital Editions

Features include basic highlighting and note-making
Annotates: documents (.EPUB, .EPUB3, .PDF)
Sharing: private only
Cost: software is free
Platforms: PC, Mac, iOS
http://www.adobe.com/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html

Skim

Features an extensive range of annotation tools (such as the ability to draw vector shapes); integrates with other software to turn annotations into a bibliography
Annotates: documents (.PDF) Sharing: private only
Cost: free
Platforms: Mac
http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/

Calibre

Allows users to embed annotations as metadata; also functions as an e-book conversation tool.
Annotates: documents (.EPUB, Amazon Kindle file formats, various others)
Sharing: private only
Cost: free; third-party sharing services offer paid subscriptions
Platforms: PC, Mac, iOS
http://www.calibre-ebook.com/

Amazon Kindle

Highlights made on Kindle app on any platform (phone, tablet, Kindle reader, computer) can be viewed together on the Kindle website, and can be exported using third-party tools as .TXT or .PDF documents.
Annotates: documents (Amazon Kindle file formats)
Sharing: public or private
Cost: software is free; eBooks are priced on Amazon Kindle Store
Platforms: PC, Mac, iOS, Kindle
https://kindle.amazon.com/

Best Practices

Social reading could be leveraged to the maximum effect by placing the multiple elements of these applications into one smooth interface. To simplify and solidify this idea, one might create a user interface containing a live instant messaging option for readers that can be operated in tandem with the reading. For instance, let us suppose that a class is reading a book collectively. As the students peruse the pages, they may have questions about the book itself, how it was made, when it was made, etc. These general questions and answers about the book’s metadata and content would be Good Read’s Q&A section in real time.

It would also parallel the closed group dynamics of the Subtext. For instance, in an educational setting, the students could be invited to join a group reading that is set up by the teacher. The teacher could go before them and highlight a few texts and attach information to them or annotate them. But the students could stop the flow of readings by highlighting text and dragging it into the instant messenger console. The question could be posed. The teacher could answer it in real time and proceed. This would create a greater level of interest in the work itself if students were free to pursue their own courses and get to the bottom of issues that they were genuinely passionate about. The user interface would encourage deeper reading. If one were simply reading it through, he could disable the instant messenger right at the book level.

Considering what features are offered by social reading and digital annotation tools today (and perhaps speculating a bit on what may be possible in the future), a hypothetical, ideal program would have several characteristics and features. The program would be available across multiple platforms (Mac and PC) and devices (computers, phones, tablets, eReaders, etc). The program would allow users to annotate different types of media, including images, documents, and entire web pages. Sound and video files may be an option as well (though they would require a different interface.) The program would be able to read several file formats, including .PDF, .EPUB and .EPUB3, the Kindle formats .AZW and .AZW3, etc. (Though, Kindle formats may likely be out of the question for a program not affiliated with Amazon.) It may even be able to convert files from one file format to another.

The program would be useable both online and offline. Offline use would rely on locally stored files that could be privately annotated. When connected to the Internet, these annotations could be shared with the public or private groups. It would likely require users to acquire content on their own. In other words, it would not offer texts or other media via an online store. It would therefore need authorization from other programs (including eBook readers like Amazon Kindle Reader and iBooks) to access material purchased through their stores. The reasoning behind this is that, as an annotation software, it does not intend to compete with established eBook retailers. After buying an eBook on iBooks, it seems unlikely that a person would want to re-purchase it on another program simply to use expanded annotation features.

Perhaps the software could be downloaded as an add-on to existing eBook readers, allowing them to connect to the service and sharing community from within. Whether integrated into another interface or separate, it would offer a network community that allows users to post their recommendations, reviews, annotations, and other original content online. They would be able to share such content publicly, or with specific friends or groups. For instance, a college class would be able to comment on the same document, viewable only by them through a unique URL or through invite. Of course, a user would have the option to keep their annotations private, and they could set specific privacy permissions to control who has access to their personal content, similar to social media.

The annotation interface would be accessible when viewing a document or media file. It would offer the following features:

• Highlighting — The program would offer a wide variety of customizable marking tools. It would allow users to highlight, underline, and strikethrough text in different colors and styles. A passage that is particularly long could be highlighted by a vertical line placed at the margin.
• Drawing — In addition, circles, rectangles, and freeform shapes could be drawn to demonstrate complex relationships within the text, such as chronological sequence, cause and effect, etc.
• Note-making — Notes could be affixed to a body of highlighted text, an anchor point on the page, or onto another note.
• Stylistic options — The user could create a library of font styles (with varying font colors, typefaces, etc.) that indicate different categories of notes (supportive, argumentative, personal reflection, and so on).
• Linking and referencing — Text from one document could be incorporated as a note on another. Alternatively, a user could link text from the first document to text found in another.
• Image-placing — Images (and other media) could be also embedded.
• Content lists — A separate window would display all of the text highlighted within the document in a list form. Another window would display all of the notes written. A third could incorporate both, indicating the relationship between the highlighted text and the notes.
• Format options — The overall format of the document could be altered. One user may want their notes to appear on top of the document, like floating sticky notes. Another user may want content separated into two or three columns, with the original document appearing on the left, and the various types of annotation appearing in the other column(s).
• Hiding/showing notes — All annotations could be toggled, either individually or altogether.
• Customizable toolbars — Other features would be accessible in customizable toolbars, that can be expanded, collapsed, and altered.
• Searching and managing — All annotations would be collected in a personal library, and could be keyword searched. Annotations could be easily edited separate from their source.
• Exporting — Annotations could be exported by themselves in a single document, embedded into a duplicate of the original text, or optimized as references for a bibliography. Ideally, these exported versions would also be accessible outside of the annotation program.
• Sharing — Annotations would be sharable with friends, private groups, or all users of the program.

Summary

Several applications (too many to mention in this relatively short essay in any detail) have been created to make reading social and annotate text. Among them are Subtext, Kindle Fire’s public notes and Good Reads for social reading. Annotation apps include Skim, A.nnotate and Diigo, among others. These applications and sites offer us insights into how applications should be built, from real-time interactions via an instant messenger to highlighting, drawing and image placement.

Main Points

• The social reading app suggested in this paper is a synthesis of three different social reading applications.
• These include: Good Reads, Subtext and Kindle Fire public notes.
• It takes the Q & A and interactive learning experience of these apps into account and transposes the social element into real time.
• This helps student gain an enthusiasm for what they are learning by letting them decide what they want to know.
• Both web annotation programs (such as A.nnotate and Diigo) and eBook reader software (such as iBooks and Skim) allow users to annotate content, whether these annotations are only available privately or can be shared with other people.
• Ideally, annotation should be embedded within digital reading interfaces and enable users to easily export their notes to online networks

References

Chandler, Otis. "About Goodreads." About Goodreads. Web. 12 June 2015. http://www.goodreads.com/about/us.

Chavanu, Bakari. "Why Apple’s IBooks Is The Best E-Reader For Making Annotations." MakeUseOf. MakeUseOf.com, 27 Oct. 2010. Web. 12 June 2015. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/apples-ibooks-ereader-making-annotations/.

Fance, Charnita. "Top Web Annotation and Markup Tools." Hongkiat. Hongkiat.com, n.d. Web. 12 June 2015. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/top-web-annotation-and-markup-tools/.

Mennella, Allison. "What Is Social Reading and Why Should Libraries Care?" Tame The Web. 14 June 2011. Web. 12 June 2015. http://tametheweb.com.

Saigal, Rahul. "Beyond Highlighting: How to Get the Most From Your Annotations - Tuts+ Computer Skills Tutorial." Tuts+. Envato Pty Ltd., 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 8 June 2015. http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/beyond-highlighting-how-to-get-the-most-from-your-annotations--cms-20013.

"Subtext." App Store. iTunes, 2011. Web. 12 June 2015. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/subtext/id457556753?mt=8.