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| Issue 8 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Brian Kelly -November 2002
Brian Kelly describes a new service which enables readers to provide feedback on articles published in Cultivate Interactive.
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The title of this e-journal is Cultivate Interactive. However to date the interactive features have been limited, providing little more than a facility for sending em,ail to authors of articles or the editorial team. Recently however we have deployed a Web-based system for providing feedback on articles. In this article we describe the service, including details of how to use the service, how it can be used, the advantages and disadvantages of the service we are using and how the service is managed by the Cultivate Interactive editorial team.
There is a need to provide a richer feedback mechanism for Cultivate Interactive. The mechanism should aim to stimulate debate by providing a means for readers to comment on the content of articles and to encourage debate. In addition a feedback mechanism could be used by the Cultivate Interactive editor to support the editorial role (e.g. to flag changes made by the editor such as removing links which have become broken). A feedback mechanism could also be used by the author of an article to provide an update on developments or to inform readers of errors or inaccuracies in the original articles or of developments which were predicted but which did not happen.
The Cultivate Interactive e-journal has very limited funding and for the purchase of feedback software. Technical resources for the installation of open source software is also limited. We have therefore chosen to use an externally-hosted tool. As is the case with other types of externally-hosted software such as Web usage tools [1] there are potential dangers with this approach, due to the lack of control over the software. However there are also advantages, especially for projects with limited funding and a finite lifetime. Provided the potential dangers are acknowledged and strategies for dealing with them if they arise are developed, this approach is worth considering.
Cultivate Interactive has chosen to make use of the Crit annotation system [2]. Crit is a well-established system, which has been running since 1997.
We have updated the template for article in Cultivate Interactive. There is now a link to Crit from the bottom of each article, as illustrated in Figure 1. By following this link reader can submit comments or read comments which others have provided.
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| Figure 1: Accessing The Crit Annotation Service |
Once you have followed the link to the Crit service the article will still be displayed. However at the top right hand corner of the page is a "Comment" link which enables you to provide a comment on the article, as illustrated in Figure 2.
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| Figure 2: Creating An Annotation |
To read comments which have been submitted you should scroll to the bottom of the page. If an annotation has been made you will see a link, as shown below.
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| Figure 3: Viewing An Annotation |
As well as reading and making annotations this service can also be used to find out about links to the page.
Crit also provides another potentially useful service - information on links to the article, as provided by Google.
As has been mentioned there is a need to be aware of potential dangers in the use of externally-hosted software. There is also a need to be aware of dangers when providing access to annotation services.
There is a risk that the Crit service could cease to exist as has happened with a number of Web sites following the dotcom crash. If this happens it is likely that annotations will be lost. In addition there is a danger that the Crit Web site could be taken over by, potentially by a pornographic Web site!
It could be argued that, in light of this risk, the Crit service should not be used. However there are always risks in life - even when driving to work. In this case we are taking the same approach as we do when driving - we are aware of the risk, but feel that it is unlikely. Even so, we will still take a cautionary approach.
In this case, we ensure that access to the Crit service is managed, through use of a server-side include (SSI). If the Web site is removed, we can remove the link to the service by updating a single file. We also provide advice on use of the service together with warnings of potential dangers [3].
Crit also provide a downloadable version of the software [4]. If the service is felt to be useful we will consider installing the software locally, which will remove one of the potential risks.
We hope that this will provide a useful service for Cultivate Interactive readers. We will monitor use of the service. If the service is successful we will consider extending it to other Web sites.
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
BA2 7AY
United Kingdom
URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/>
Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus. He works for
UKOLN
which is based at the
University of Bath
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For citation purposes:
Kelly, B. "Providing Feedback On Cultivate Interactive Articles", Cultivate Interactive, issue
8, 15 November 2002
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue8/annotations/>
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Related articles:
If you would like to view similar articles to this one click on a key word below:
< - Cultivate Interactive - annotation - feedback - >
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