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Marginalia is an open source Javascript web annotation system that allows users of web applications to highlight text and write margin notes. The Moodle version adds annotation to Moodle discussion forums; a stand-alone version provides sample source code and instructions for how to integrate this with other web applications. The annotation feature works in Internet Explorer and Firefox. The applications also includes smartcopy, which automatically includes citation information when a user copies & pastes text in Firefox. All of these features are integrated with a web application; none require special browser or other client software.

See the links on the left for an online demo, complete downloadable source code and documentation, and a patch to add annotation to Moodle forums. This page also includes a screenshot and screencast of the system in action. My blog includes articles about technical issues, design choices, and problems I enountered.

I would like to thank BC Campus for funding this effort, and for allowing its release under the GNU General Public License, and to Simon Fraser University for their support of the project through Dr. Andrew Feenberg's Applied Communication and Technology Lab in the School of Communication and through the Learning and Instructional Development Centre. Open Journal Systems support and additional features were made possible by Dr. Rick Kopak's "Navigating Information Spaces" project at the University of British Columbia, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The UNDESA "Africa i-Parliaments Action Plan" project provided support for edit actions, the per-paragraph multiuser support, and a number of other improvements.

This is a continuation of the work pioneered by Andrew Feenberg and Cindy Xin in the TextWeaver project sponsored by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education.

Screencast

This is a video showing an older version of the annotation feature in action in Moodle. It requires Windows Media Player 9, so it may not work on all systems.