SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR COLLABORATIVELY ANNOTATING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

• US 20070055926A1
• Filed: 09/01/2006
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Follett Higher Education Group (Follett Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fourteen40, Inc. (Follett Corporation)
• Inventors: Johnson, Bryce, Christiansen, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,347 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Systems and methods for sharing annotations associated with an electronic document. The annotations are created by one or more annotation authors and are shared with one or more other users. A method includes determining frequently annotated portions of the electronic document and providing indicators within the electronic document of the frequently annotated portions. In one embodiment, frequently used words within the annotations are also indicated within the text of the electronic document. In addition, or in another embodiment, the annotations can be searched based on a user'"'"'s location within the electronic document.

Claims

1. A method for sharing electronic annotations, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of annotations corresponding to an electronic document;

determining a frequently annotated portion of the electronic document, the frequently annotated portion being associated with a larger number of the plurality of annotations as compared to other portions of the electronic document; and

providing indicia to a user of the frequently annotated portion.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a value to the frequently annotated portion based at least in part on a degree to which the frequently annotated portion has been annotated.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising assigning the value based at least in part on the size of the annotations associated with the frequently annotated portion.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising assigning the value based at least in part on a number of frequently used words in the annotations associated with the frequently annotated portion.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the indicia comprises the value assigned to the frequently annotated portion.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the indicia further comprises a source population of the plurality of annotations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the source population is selected by the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the indicia to the user comprises displaying the indicia with the frequently annotated portion.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request from the user for one or more of the plurality of annotations that are associated with the frequently annotated portion.

10. A system accessible over a network for sharing electronic annotations, the system comprising:

a first database for storing an electronic document;

a second database for storing a plurality of user-authored annotations of the electronic document; and

a server configured to;

access the first database and the second database;

search the second database for a subset of the annotations that are associated with a first portion of the electronic document;

determine a second portion of the electronic document within the first portion that is frequently annotated by the subset of annotations; and

provide indicia to a user through the network of the second portion.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first portion is selected by the user.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to provide the electronic document to the user through the network.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to assign a value to the second portion based at least in part on a degree to which the second portion is annotated by the subset of annotations.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the server is further configured to assign the value based at least in part on the size of the subset of annotations.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the server is further configured to assign the value based at least in part on a number of frequently used words in the subset of annotations.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the indicia comprises the value assigned to the frequently annotated portion.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indicia further comprises a source population of the plurality of annotations.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the source population is selected by the user.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the server is further configured to provide the subset of annotations to the user through the network.

20. A system for sharing electronic annotations, the system comprising:

means for associating a plurality of annotations with an electronic document;

means for determining frequently annotated portions of the electronic document; and

means for notifying a user of the frequently annotated portions.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising means for specifying a number of most frequently annotated portions to display to a user.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising means for determining frequently used words within the plurality of annotations.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising means for searching the electronic document based on a selected location in the electronic document.

24. A method of annotating an electronic document, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of user-authored annotations associated with a portion of an electronic document;

determining frequently used words within the user-authored annotations; and

providing indicia to a user of the frequently used words.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising hiding the indicia for one or more of the frequently used words.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein determining the frequently used words comprises:

indexing the plurality of user-authored annotations; and

comparing the index to a database of frequently used words related to the subject matter of the portion of the electronic document to thereby remove words from the index that are unrelated to the subject matter.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein comparing the index to the database comprises comparing the index to a subject-specific database.

28. The method of claim 27, where the subject-specific database is a legal dictionary.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the subject-specific database is a medical dictionary.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the indicia is provided inline with the portion of the electronic document.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein providing the indicia comprise highlighting the frequently used words within the portion of the electronic document.

32. The method of claim 24, wherein the portion of the electronic document is selected by the user.

33. A method of filtering electronic annotations, the method comprising:

receiving a search request comprising address information associated with a user-selected portion of an electronic document, the address information being automatically added to the search request upon a user'"'"'s selection of the user-selected portion, the address information uniquely identifying the electronic document and a location of the user-selected portion within the electronic document;

filtering a plurality of annotations to find a subset of the annotations that are associated with the user-selected portion; and

providing the subset of annotations to the user through a network.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising filtering the subset of annotations based on how frequently the annotations in the subset are associated with a sub-portion of the user-selected portion.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising filtering the subset of annotations based on frequently used words within the subset of annotations.

36. The method of claim 33, further comprising filtering the subset of annotations based on access rights granted to the user.

37. The method of claim 33, further comprising filtering the subset of annotations based on an identity of an author.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

receiving one or more user-evaluations of an author of an annotation; and

deriving an author ranking from the one or more user-evaluations.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising filtering the subset of annotations based on the author ranking.

40. The method of claim 33, further comprising filtering the subset of annotations based on an annotation ranking corresponding to one or more user-evaluations of the subset of annotations.

41. The method of claim 33, further comprising filtering the subset of annotations based on an annotation category.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the annotation category corresponds to an annotation population.

43. The method of claim 33, wherein the user-selected portion of the electronic document is highlighted by the user.