Re: The Dangers of Web Annotation

(cc-ing Dan explicitly, to draw his attention:-)

I wonder whether it is still possible to set up a panel on this issue at I Annotate. We do not have the program finalized yet, so a slot for this would be great.

The only problem is: who would moderate and, even more importantly, who could/would participate on a panel like that?

Ivan


> On 30 Mar 2016, at 10:50, Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi, folks–
> 
> We've focused mostly on 3 things in this group:
> 
> 1) the annotation model
> 2) the annotation REST protocol
> 3) the anchoring mechanism (e.g. FindText API)
> 
> The charter describes other deliverables [1]; my annotation architecture diagram goes into details on a few more [2].
> 
> But we haven't really discussed the social implications of Web Annotations, outside of some informal chats. Specifically, we haven't determined notification and curation models, which are critical if Web Annotations are to be used as a social good, rather than an avenue for harrassment; nor have we discussed the idea of opting-in or opting-out of allowing annotations a particular site.
> 
> There's been an interesting (if disturbing) thread the past few days about how Genius is being used for what could be considered harassment (and for rude comments, at the very mildest). I suggest that we read and discuss the blog post [3], Medium articles [4], tweets [5 – 10], and Github issues [11] that describe this abuse, and try to think about what our role, as technologists and standards folks, can do to help the situation.
> 
> Ultimately, if Web Annotation does take off as a feature of the Web, these cases will become all too common. And I don't think that scholarly and academic uses will be immune (though the accountability and reputation risk will reduce abuse). And if such abuse continues, it reduces the value and incentive for Web Annotation to succeed at all.
> 
> I don't want to derail the current push towards Recommendation, but I do think it behooves us to treat this seriously, maybe on this list, or maybe in other forums, such as I Annotate, and to discuss it with the broader community on social media, where they have started the conversation.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> 
> [1] https://www.w3.org/annotation/charter/
> [2] http://www.w3.org/annotation/diagrams/annotation-architecture.svg
> [3] https://ellacydawson.wordpress.com/2016/03/25/how-news-genius-silences-writers/
> [4] https://medium.com/@glennf/citation-appropriation-and-fair-use-news-genius-picks-up-again-where-failures-left-off-d640719a82ab#.exsmdb2l1
> [5] https://twitter.com/brosandprose/status/713380185001836544
> [6] https://twitter.com/brosandprose/status/714668474904264706
> [7] https://twitter.com/TheFriskyFairy/status/714843748199493633
> [8] https://twitter.com/FeralHomemaking/status/714970696867319810
> [9] https://twitter.com/krues8dr/status/714999625090994176
> [10] https://twitter.com/krues8dr/status/714999849205305345
> [11] https://github.com/opengovfoundation/madison/issues/920
> 
> Regards–
> Doug
> 


----
Ivan Herman, W3C
Digital Publishing Lead
Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
mobile: +31-641044153
ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0782-2704