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There are two types of annotations: semantic annotations (in the sense of
standardised metadata Web annotations) and free annotations. The former are
attached to the actual work on the Semantic Web, and are based on the development
of metadata and/or ontologies used in the description of the document, with the
purpose of facilitating their localization, identification and automatic recognition.
Without neglecting this important issue, we will focus here on free annotations,
because they are used – in philological and linguistic analysis – to interpret and
comment upon documents, and we therefore consider that they can constitute an
important factor in the development of collaborative digital production, improving,
at the same time, communication among the specialists of the domain in question.
From our point of view, annotation can have two purposes. The first concerns the
interpretation of the original document (how to translate or read it). The second
adds comments to the one part of the document and/or to the interpretation already
made. The annotation can be placed at several levels. The global level concerns the
annotation made on the whole of the document put into discussion. This annotation
can be based on free comments made on the entire document or can represent a
reaction to the global annotation already made. We consider it useful, for the sake of
analysis, that the zone of annotation is freely marked in the document. The smallest
mark up unity is the character; therefore, a part of the word, a word, a line, several
lines, a paragraph, or several paragraphs can also be the target of the mark up.
Collaborative work is situated in the context of semi-autonomous production. Every
member of this collaborative community participates in a responsible way, benefits
from the result of the work of the community, and receives feedback for his work.
Two models of work where everyone’s autonomy can be expressed are: cooperative
work (wherein everyone accomplish a part of the work and shares it with others) and
collaborative work (wherein several autonomous individuals work together in order
to produce collectively). We’ll see how the concept of a digital document and its
production can help in our case.
4. Prototype Model for the Descriptions of Annotation
4.1 General Properties
Considering the problems related to the treatment of Judeo-Spanish texts and
to the building of a corpus, and taking into account the theoretical approach to the
digital document (particularly from the point of view of collaborative work), we
propose a model that can respond to the needs we have identified. Our work focuses
on the definition of needs without making choices that could constrain future program
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