MADCOW: a visual interface for annotating webpages

Collaborative work is often based on documents produced, revised and exchanged within a team, or referred as a part of the team common knowledge. Moreover, the use of the Web and the diffusion of knowledge management systems makes it possible to base discussions among members upon a vast set of documents, many of which also include links to multimedia material, such as images or videos. This perspective could be exploited by enlarging the notion of team which may then collaborate by exchanging and retrieving annotated multimedia documents (text, images, audio and video). We designed and developed a digital annotation system, MADCOW(Multimedia Annotation of Digital Content Over the Web) a tool developed to assist users in constructing, disseminating, and retrieving multimedia annotations of documents can support collaborative activities to build a web of decision-related documents. We made a strong effort in designing the user interface with the goal of a very high interface and we tested it with 24 users. We describe a scenario in which annotation plays a crucial role, where the object of the collaboration is some artistic artefact to be restored, for which the availability of images and historical documentation is fundamental in order to take informed decisions. We demonstrate the MADCOW interface and its use in a restoration team, involved in the restoration of a politically and artistically important palace of Rome; and how this could take advantage of the possibility of annotating Web pages and annotations in turn, to develop documentcentred discussions on alternative choices. The annotations can be used to support teamwork as well as to offer the public some reasoned path along the available material.