MIAMI – (October 4, 2013) – A tool that helps people verify and critique content on the web will be introduced to the public with $200,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The nonprofit Hypothes.is will use the funding to test its open annotation tool, which adds a layer of public feedback to web pages, so that people can get deeper insight into the information they browse. The tool is grounded in an emerging web standard called open annotation, currently being developed under the W3C, which aims to standardize the structure and exchange of annotations across digital content.
Readers can use the tool to leave comments on a page and rate other users’ critiques, further allowing readers to assess an article’s accuracy. Hypothes.is can either be embedded in an existing website, or be part of a user’s browser, so that comments can be shared across the Hypothes.is community.
Developers hope the tool can help improve and link together all kinds of texts including news articles, source documents, legislation, raw data sets and more.
“Hypothes.is provides the potential to create connections between content, while discovering and learning from a worldwide knowledge pool—charting a new path for the future of journalism and information access,” said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president of journalism and media innovation.
“Open annotation promises to significantly expand the Internet’s collaborative potential, and with it the process of journalism as a deeper partnership between reporters, bloggers and citizens,” said Dan Whaley, founder of Hypothes.is. “Knight Foundation’s support enables us to work more closely with journalists to understand how we can make research and reporting more efficient and more effective, and translate that understanding to software and services that deliver on it.”
With Knight funding, Hypothes.is will bring together technology developers, journalists, content producers, government agencies and the public to gather feedback and help improve the tool’s current capabilities. The initial testing period will focus on getting insights from this community, and on building teams that can help shape the utility of the tool for specific user groups, such as journalists. The goal is to enable collaborative critiques and linking of related content on websites, from news articles and source documents to legislation, regulations and data.
More than 10,000 people have signed up to evaluate Hypothes.is. The team will launch a prototype of their platform and track results through testing with these early users. Once the tool is deployed, users will be able to share insights and references in places where they are not currently able to comment and to do so with a level of precision that existing systems do not allow.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.KnightFoundation.org.
About Hypothes.is
Hypothes.is is a San Francisco-based nonprofit creating tools and services to support the open annotation of the world’s knowledge. Together with others, we are working towards an open source software stack ranging from interface to datastore, creating tools that allow the collaborative analysis and sharing of the world around us. We seek a community-based annotation capability centered on shared protocols, vocabularies and practice, serving as the mainspring that powers a diversity of open annotation projects.
CONTACT: Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, [email protected]