Systems and methods for collaboratively annotating electronic documents
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for sharing electronic annotations, the method comprising:
- displaying an electronic document to each of a plurality of users;
allowing one or more of the plurality of users to annotate one or more portions of the electronic document and make the annotations available to a server;
calculating at the server the number of annotations associated with portions of the electronic document;
determining at the server which portions of the electronic document are more frequently annotated by the plurality of users as compared to other portions of the electronic document; and
displaying one or more indications within the electronic document of which portions are more frequently annotated by the plurality of users, wherein the one or more indications are distinct from the annotations.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
-
Citations
42 Claims
-
1. A method for sharing electronic annotations, the method comprising:
-
displaying an electronic document to each of a plurality of users; allowing one or more of the plurality of users to annotate one or more portions of the electronic document and make the annotations available to a server; calculating at the server the number of annotations associated with portions of the electronic document; determining at the server which portions of the electronic document are more frequently annotated by the plurality of users as compared to other portions of the electronic document; and displaying one or more indications within the electronic document of which portions are more frequently annotated by the plurality of users, wherein the one or more indications are distinct from the annotations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A system accessible over a network for sharing electronic annotations of an electronic document, the system comprising:
-
a database for storing a plurality of user-authored annotations of the electronic document, each user-authored annotation associated with a portion of the electronic document; and a server connected to the network and configured to; search the database to calculate the number of annotations associated with portions of the electronic document; determine which portions of the electronic document are more frequently annotated by the plurality of users as compared to other portions of the electronic document; and provide one or more indications to a user, through the network, of which portions of the electronic document are more frequently annotated, wherein the one or more indication are distinct from the annotations. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
-
30. A system for sharing electronic annotations of an electronic document, the system comprising:
-
means for associating a plurality of annotations with the electronic document; means for calculating the number of annotations associated with portions of the electronic document; means for determining which portions of the electronic document are more frequently annotated as compared to other portions of the electronic document; and means for notifying a user, within the electronic document, of the more frequently annotated portions, wherein the notifying means are distinct from the annotations. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33)
-
-
34. A method of sharing annotations of an electronic document, the method comprising:
-
receiving a plurality of user-authored annotations associated with a portion of an electronic document; maintaining a personal set of annotations for each user of a plurality of users; determining a frequently used word within the plurality of user-authored annotations including annotations from the personal set; allowing one of the plurality of users to adopt an annotation associated with a more frequently annotated portion, wherein the adopted annotation is authored by another of the plurality of users; in response to the user adopting annotation, importing the adopted annotation into the user'"'"'s personal set of annotations; and
providing to a user an indication of the frequently used word. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
-
Specification