Annotator Community Call 
2014-05-09

Agenda
  1. Annotator 2.0 work update
  1. Annotator 2.0 release schedule
  1. Hypothesis fork (somebody want to take this?)
  1. annotatorjs.org website -- update 
  1. Annotator browser support
  1. Documentation
  1. AOB

Participants
  • Steph Skardal
  • Dan Whaley
  • Gergely Ujvari
  • Kristof Csillag
  • Chris  Birk
  • Jamie Folsom
  • William
  • Benjamin Young

Nick Stenning update on annotator 2.0:
  • since ianno pull UI form core  (yea!) 
  • UI split in 4 parts
  • adder (popup box)
  • highlighter 
  • viewer (hover)
  • editor
  • Implications of the split
  • They are completely independent of each other
  • Viewer only is possible
  • just highlighter is possible
Problem with splitting is configuration
Design goal is to get simpler not more complicated
Still open: coordination between plug-ins (Annotator 2.0 blocker)

Kristof
  • on details of the communication using events returning promises
  • allows adding the hypothesis fuzzy anchoring

Places where there are still hacks around core functionality:
  1. Override xpath serialization to ignore extra markup

  1. Question: Should we split the document plugin for Annotator?
  1. The document plugin gathers both metadata and alternate links
  1. it also gathers labels for facebook and twitter links

Release Schedule
  • commit to ongoing release schedule desired
  • how do we get a 2.0 release out the door? See below for action items


Major unsolved problems
  • Coordination between plugins and annotation lifecycle

Randall
  • empty annotator object of non core concerns
  • instead of events use overridable hooks
  • onSelect, onCreate,....
  • core interactions should be simple that way
  • Aron and I talked about alternative APIs for core

Steph:
  • As a user, I'd like to have documentation about the timeline of events

Nick
  • Make explicit, but don't lose simplicity in terms of events / hooks

Kristof on Hypothesis fork
  • fork with many differences
  • all changes needed to move Hypothesis to Annotator v2:
  • all changes need to be validated and documented
  • creation and raattachments of annotations
  • should become set of independent plug-ins
  • spliting of adder plug-in
  • how are annotations created
  • ui separation is good
  • enhanced anchoring pugin 


Website Updates (Steph/Andrew)
  • reorganized commit rights to allow people to contribute more
  • perhaps share release notes, meeting notes, highlight use cases

Browser Support (Chris - OpenGov Foundation)
  • Scope was too large, so want to focus priorities
  • Skip mobile for now, good b/c there are a lot of unanswered user interface questions for Annotator in the mobile experience
  • Integrate CI tool like Sauce / testling
  • (before) IE8 doesn't support fundamental behavior of Annotator, so lost cause?
  • Automated cross browser test environment is #1 wish. Nick: "I don't think it should be too hard."
  • Make Aron's mobile touch plugin part of core.

Documentation
  • Not enough, not right kinds, not up to date.
  • B/c things are a moving target right now, it negates the need for documentation, perhaps.
  • High priority when things become more stable.
  • High level: What is Annotator? Why would I be interested? Possible use cases, not implementation details. Keep in mind audience is both technical and non-technical folks:
  • high level product manager
  • users in basic configuration
  • customize it
  • core contributors 
  • TODO, in addition to writing documentation: Information architecture / curate structure of documentation

Action Items:
  • make proposal to enhance the document plugin -> mailinglist
  • Contribute change for touch enhancements
  • Nick:
  • Write up conversation about ongoing release schedule -> mailinglist
  • Randall:
  • Curate the 2.0 milestone on GitHub so that everything is known
  • Add a new 2.0 beta milestone
  • Steph:
  • Send summary of core overrides, events used in H2O to mailing list
  • Discuss creating a blog of notes / updates / etc. 
  • Send email summary of notes
  • Website People
  • Remove links to demo
  • Figure out "blog" / release notes / etc.
  • Chris:
  • Connect with Nick on broken legacy browser items
  • High-level docs: What is the Annotator? Why would I use it?
  • Motivations for contributing
  • Non-technical folks, why is it good?
  • Customizers
  • Implementers
  • Ping/Poke Nick 

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