Annotation Studio
Annotation Studio is a user interface component for capturing text and structured data. It is for use in viewers and crowdsourcing projects, and can be configured for any data model.
Annotation Studio is a reusable user interface component that makes an appearance in the National Library of Wales crowdsourcing platform, in Madoc, and maybe in your project too. Its job is to generate a user interface for data capture, then send the user's created annotation to an annotation store.
Annotation Studio uses the Web Annotation Data Model and the Web Annotation Protocol to read and write interoperable annotations that are compatible with IIIF.
Its job is to:
- present a resource (typically an image) to the user
- guide the user through the process of capturing one or more annotations on the resource (e.g, tags, descriptions, dates, map locations, transcriptions, complex form data)
Some kinds of annotation are seen again and again in multiple projects, but others are very specific to one project.
The Capture Model
Annotation Studio is configured with one or more Capture Models, which:
- define the user interface to show - text input boxes, region selectors, map pickers - to capture the information. The capture model provides the information for Annotation Studio to build a form, and present the right user interface for data capture.
- define the format of the captured annotation that will be saved to the annotation server. The capture model specifies the persistent data model for the information gathered in the form(s) and from a selection of points and regions in images.
Built on Canvas Panel
Annotation Studio is a self-contained component that can be reused in other projects and viewers. It builds on another Digirati component, Canvas Panel, which provides the drawing surface for selecting regions and points. But it can also be used on non-image sources.
Annotation Studio is also integrated with Madoc, our Omeka-S-based IIIF collection builder. In this integration, the capture model can be managed as Omeka items:
You can also create capture models in JSON-LD, in YAML, and from spreadsheets. Under the hood, they all get converted to a JSON-LD representation which the Annotation Studio component loads to generate the annotation capture user interface.
Next steps
We are looking to create a visual editing tool for capture models, to make it easier to configure new crowdsourcing projects and find new uses for Annotation Studio. If you would find this useful in your project, get in touch!