NovelContext - a literature based social document project · 997 days ago
I’ve been working quietly on a project behind the scenes, whilst changing jobs and buying a house, that project is now ready to go public.
It is NovelContext, which is a literature based version of the Social Documents ideas I’ve been exploring via talkeuro and discussing on this site. The NovelContext project wiki is ready for business. Please come and help us define what the project should be, this will only be better with your help.
Some outline notes to give you a sense of flavour.
NovelContext – Making literature social, collaborative and connected.
What is it?
Novel context is a social software application designed to allow people to read literature (mainly out-of-copyright) and collectively build a semantic web of information connecting the the authors and novels together, doing for literature what wikipedia has done for encyclopedias.
A longer pitch
Our literature is not part of the internet, it is just available on it. Using out-of-copyright books and the energy of the hive mind, NovelContext aims to use structured metadata to refresh these “old books”.
Gutenberg has been successful for a decade, but it’s a read only service, there is no connection with the rest of the internet. This missing context helps us to place literature, the humour in Shakespeare can be hard – we just don’t get the jokes anymore.
These dense lumps of prose need to be unlocked and reconnected with our lives. Starting, circa 1900, in Victorian London, growing outwards from there to Europe, America, India or Japan, other languages and across time.
This emphasis on existing content is important – many current projects are solely about new content. Yet these old texts are popular too, so the hive-mind can turn its hand to older literary content, but using topic maps rather than tag clouds.
NovelContext will support reading, commenting, plus annotation and generation of the topic map. Individuals will volunteer to curate a book, building up the context using the topic maps, others can simply read and comment.
A semantic web of the world’s literature is the goal. Web APIs will let us connect these books to the resources of the internet, be they encyclopedias, maps or recommendation services and in return offer up the rich context of this literature. Thus, the reader can see that Sherlock Holmes’ London is also that of Dorian Gray.
Comment [2]
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FDsys US Government document archive as a social document? · 1008 days ago
US historical and current Government publications are being put on the web, but are they missing a trick, by publishing a static document repository? Wouldn’t it be much more interesting to be able to annotate these historical documents?
The US Government’s Government Printing Office is running a future document content management system, the FDsys. They have an FDsys blog, where they are soliciting feedback. This GCN story talks about the project being fast tracked, thanks James. The GPO have published the FDsys project documents.
I wonder are they missing an opportunity, by solely treating the content as a publishing activity. They are planning on scanning the content and putting the documents online. Search and retrieval seem to to be the only end user tasks envisaged, see page 21 of the requirements document.
It doesn’t seem like they want to have these documents annotatable, like we did with the European Constitution, making it annotatable. They have fascinating historical content like the 1787 Federalist Papers with plans to go right to the present day.
It would seem a shame to lock this into a bunch of static pages, making it a commentable, linkable part of the web would be much more interesting. So if you are from the USA, then head to their FDsys blog and leave them a note. See the definition of a social document for what they could be making and have a look at talkeuro.
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More examples - annotated cpan · 1009 days ago
An annotated c-pan, this is a perfect example of the kind of thing I feel social documents is all about, using collective intelligence to make content better.
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socialdocuments vs weblogs · 1074 days ago
I suppose the question to be answered is what makes a social document different from a weblog, I think it is the sense that the publication is a one off activity or from a fixed corpus of content eg a book, consultation doc etc. Rather than a weblog where the content is continually added to or a message board where the audience continue to add content at liberty.
There is a reader vs publisher vs content owner three way split, it is not about the software used, it is the ownership of the content that makes the key difference. My personal weblog takeoneonion is a blog, so is plasticbag. TheyWorkForYou is a social document, as is talkeuro and pepys diary
The key difference is that the people creating the site didn’t create the content on the site, parliament did or sam pepys did. This also works as a definition for del.icio.us and connotea too.
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more examples of annotatable documents · 1074 days ago
An example that James Stewart gave me of an annotatable bible
Annotatable council by laws, in formation by
Cllr Andrew Brown with the encouragement of Mark Simpkins.
Of course there are plenty of other examples, arguably del.icio.us is a social document of some form, but more interestingly is connotea, which lets you enter into a whole field of research and share your reference collection with others.
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fiction as a social document · 1131 days ago
I’m back from a climbing holiday in France and have been thinking about this area more widely. There is of course Phil Gyford’s Pepys Diary project which is clearly an annotated commentary on a regularly updated basis.
I’m interested in how Phil has turned Pepys Diaries into a social commentary on life in the 1660s. I think that the contextualisation and the community really help people engage and understand the life of Samuel Pepys.
I’d like to explore some other authors too.
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Revising documents · 1151 days ago
One interesting point raised by the French non in their referendum is how to revise static documents. Luckily there is a host of prior art in the version management software and in terms of how wikis operate. Also James Stewart has been working on an MT plugin to manage version change.
So as the treaty for the European Constitution changes over the next year or so we have tools to manage that process.
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Recent publications on Social Documents · 1155 days ago
There are a couple of papers and presentations which describe the social documents ideas. Firstly there is the article for O’Reilly network entitled, "Encouraging Engagement on the Web". This supports the talk that Mark and I gave at the O’Reilly Emerging Tech conference.
The Xtech conference also has a paper, which is an extension of the O’Reillynet article and a presentation.
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Some examples · 1158 days ago
These are some sites I regard as a social document.
Obviously talkeuro is one, as it takes the European constitution and makes it annotatable.
TheyWorkForYou is another example, taking Hansard and making it readable and also annotatable.
UNcharter is nearly one, as it makes the document readable, section by section, but does not allow people to comment.
TheyWantToBeElected is another, allowing the UK population to comment on the party manifestos prior to the UK Election in 2005.
There are many other examples I’m sure, please feel free to add them below. Some that immediately spring to mind are the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (though GreenFacts is a good start) and some of the draft bills from the recent Queen’s Speech to the UK Parliament.
Comment [2]
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A definition · 1160 days ago
“A Social Document encourages direct engagement with the content of the document. It provides the means of discussion itself, enabling people’s commentary and placing it alongside the document on a section by section basis. Those reading the document can therefore read the content and the opinions of those reading before them.”
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