What is this tool?
Hypothes.is is a free chrome extension that I learned about in the Global Religions of Minnesota class. This tool is essentially a group annotation software that can be used on practically anything, including websites and online readings. It can be a helpful way to annotate for personal understanding, such as annotating a reading for a class, but it’s applicability reaches more broadly than this. With the extension, users can form shared groups, so if you annotate a webpage, other people can view these annotations and add their own. Also, annotations can be published publicly, so you can share with anyone on the platform.
How is this helpful in the DH world?
Because one of the tenets of digital humanities is collaborating and sharing work, this tool allows for easily accessed feedback on online projects. Along with this, it provides an effective way to start a dialogue between consumers of the digital material, since you can reply to other comments with the tool. This software can also help to ensure honest reporting as communities can provide input as to what is being published online. For our class specifically, I think this can be a really helpful tool to provide feedback on our shared projects, since it can be used to annotate WordPress sites and other things we have posted.
How can I use it?
- Start by going to https://web.hypothes.is/ and create your free account.
2. To have the tool accessible in your browser, download the chrome extension here.
3. Enter this link in your browser to join our Hacking the Humanities group.
4. Now that you’re in the group, let’s see what an example annotation looks like. Go to this link and open the hypothoes.is extension by clicking the h. icon in your browser. You should see something like this when you view the hacking the humanities group.
Now you should be able to see something like this.
5. Try making your own annotation and highlighting. Highlight some text and choose the annotate or highlight option, and then you can add a comment (similar to making a comment in Google Docs).
6. You can stay on this page, or now go and annotate anything you want, privately or in our Hacking the Humanities group.
Further Resources
This tutorial shows how web developers can embed hypothes.is on to their own webpages. This allows people to access the resource more easily if developers want to encourage the use of it on their page. Embedding to tool on a page also helps to inform people who may not be familiar with hypothes.is because it automatically shows up.
This article is specifically aimed at students who want to learn how to make their annotations better. It covers how to add tags to annotations, as well as specifying what makes good content in an annotation.
2 thoughts on “Hypothes.is Tutorial: A New Way to Annotate in the DH World”
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My A&I has been using Hypothes.is for annotations for the whole term and it has worked really well. It was really easy to set up and has been great because its easy to view my classmates annotations and make my own. Your tutorial makes the setup process clearer and also introduced me to the fact that any page can be annotated, which is really powerful. Also circling the buttons that you are referencing makes your tutorial easier to follow, which is something I wish I had added to my own tutorial.
This is a cool resource that I just learned existed. Your tutorial is very clear and easy to follow. The ability to share annotations publicly or within groups is very useful. It can provide an innovative way to collaborate and learn from people outside Carleton. One question I have is if there is a system that moderates/filters public annotations.