Standards Requirements

Dear all,

My thoughts on requirements for standards support in the spec annotation
software to be used.

* We clearly must support the model and protocol coming out of the Web
Annotation WG.  The timing is less obvious, as it has only just begun.
Engagement and implementation early will drive the WG faster and further,
but is reliant on the software providers' good will to track a spec that is
certain to change.  Setting too low a bar will reduce the value as a
demonstrator, while setting too high a bar will make it too costly to
implement.  I think getting this right will be critical for the success of
the experiment, and towards Annotation in the W3C moving forwards.

* Supporting the Open Annotation CG specification seems like a good
requirement as it will not change, has multiple implementations already,
and would make transition to the WG spec very easy.  This is my suggestion
as a way to hedge our bets on the WG spec output:  by requiring support
here, we do not have to keep client(s) and server(s) in step with a
changing document, but ensure that they are already at (say) 80% of the
final solution.

* As the OACG did not specify any transport protocol, following basic REST
with the default JSON-LD context seems like the most interoperable baseline.

* For extended protocol features such as search, notify, and so forth, I
don't know of any significant prior art though would welcome references
towards the WAWG work!

Best, and happy thanksgiving,

Rob

-- 
Rob Sanderson
Technology Collaboration Facilitator
Digital Library Systems and Services
Stanford, CA 94305