JP2007233698A - Web display terminal and annotation processing module - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To promote knowledge sharing between a plurality of persons in exchanging electronic data. <P>SOLUTION: This Web display terminal acquires and screen-displays a Web page, and loads an annotation module for processing annotation data to a memory when the annotation data are set in the Web page. The annotation processing module accepts input for setting the annotation data, and transmits annotation data and page ID to an annotation management device. This module receives the annotation data set in the Web page as the object of acquisition from the annotation management device in acquiring the Web page, and screen-displays the annotation data when the Web page is screen-displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic document display technique, and more particularly to a technique for realizing knowledge sharing among a plurality of persons via an electronic document.

  In recent years, with the spread of computers and the development of network technology, the exchange of electronic information via the network has become popular. As a result, many of the business processes that have been conventionally performed on a paper basis are being replaced by network-based processes. Advances in digitalization and network technology have drastically reduced information acquisition costs. Under such circumstances, there is a demand for a technique for effectively sharing knowledge obtained from a large amount of information among a plurality of persons.

The electronic conference system described in Patent Document 1 has a two-layer configuration of a client system and a server system. Participants browse electronic data as materials via the client system and input annotation data (annotations) on a user interface that feels like handwriting. The server system holds electronic data and annotation data. Annotation data input by a participant A is displayed when another participant B views electronic data. With such a processing method, a plurality of participants can view electronic data while exchanging annotation data with each other. The exchange of additional information called annotation data facilitates consensus formation and knowledge sharing among participants.
JP 2004-206658 A

This electronic conference system seems to be a system built specifically for the specific purpose of a conference. However, in organizations such as companies, most of the information is already being digitized, and the field that needs to promote communication via electronic data is not limited to a specific purpose such as a conference.
The present inventor is not only a closed information exchange system such as the electronic conference system of Patent Document 1, but also an open information exchange system in which electronic data exchange has already started such as the Internet. Recognized the need to promote knowledge sharing in Japan.

  The present invention is an invention made based on the above-mentioned attention of the present inventor, and its main object is to provide a technique for promoting knowledge sharing for electronically published documents on a network. There is.

Another aspect of the present invention is a web display terminal.
This terminal acquires a web page and displays it on the screen. When annotation data is set in the web page, an annotation processing module for processing the annotation data is loaded into the main storage device.
The annotation processing module receives an input for setting the annotation data, and transmits the annotation data and the page identification data to the annotation management device.
When acquiring a web page, this module receives annotation data set in the acquisition-target web page from the annotation management apparatus, and displays the annotation data on the screen when the web page is displayed on the screen.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements and a conversion of the expression of the present invention between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, a computer program, etc. are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, even an already-operated information exchange system is effective in promoting knowledge sharing among a plurality of persons.

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of the annotation management system 10.
In the annotation management system 10, the annotation management device 100, a plurality of web display terminals such as the web display terminal 200a and the web display terminal 200b (hereinafter simply referred to as “web display terminal 200”), the web server 300a, the web server 300b, and the like. A plurality of web servers 300 (hereinafter simply referred to as “web servers 300”) are connected via the Internet 12.
The web display terminal 200 acquires desired web page data by accessing the web server 300 via the Internet 12. The web server 300 is a general known device.

  The annotation management apparatus 100 provides a mechanism for exchanging annotation data between users of the web display terminal 200. The annotation data is data indicating the annotation set by the user of the web display terminal 200 on the web page, and will be described in detail later. Each web display terminal 200 is installed with software modules (an “annotation processing module 206” and “module load processing unit 204” described later) for processing annotation data. The annotation management apparatus 100 registers users who are targets of the annotation data exchange service among the users of the web display terminal 200. Only users registered in the annotation management apparatus 100 can receive the annotation data exchange service via the annotation management apparatus 100. The annotation management apparatus 100 assigns identification information (hereinafter referred to as “user ID”) for identifying each user to registered users. The annotation management apparatus 100 and the web display terminal 200 transmit and receive annotation data using a protocol such as XML-RPC (Remote Procedure Call). Hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, the “user” is described as meaning the user of the web display terminal 200.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining the relationship between the web page 302 and the annotation 304.
The data of the web page 302 is held in any web server 300. The data format of the web page 302 may be a structured document file description format such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language), XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language), or XML (eXtensible Markup Language), or so-called plain text. It may be in the form of In the present embodiment, description will be made assuming that the format is XHTML.
The web display terminal 200 designates a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), acquires the data of the web page 302 from the web server 300, and displays it on the screen.

  Assume that users A to D are registered in the annotation management apparatus 100. The user A sets the annotation 304 a and the annotation 304 b when displaying the web page 302 via the user interface of the web display terminal 200 used by the user A. The annotation 304 a and the annotation 304 b are annotations that the user A sets for the contents of the web page 302. Data indicating the contents of each annotation 304 is annotation data.

  The contents of the annotation data are specified by a two-step selection by the user. The first selection is a selection of a judgment criterion “from what point of view an annotation (hereinafter referred to as“ annotation set ”)”. For example, “evaluation” on how to evaluate the content itself. Comment set, typographical / missing check, or “correction” comment set regarding correctness of contents. The second selection is a selection of a determination result of “what kind of content is an annotation (hereinafter referred to as“ annotation tag ”)”. For example, when the annotation set “evaluation” is selected, an appropriate annotation tag is selected from annotation tags such as “Very important”, “Very important”, and “I am interested”. Similarly, in the case of the annotation set “correction”, an appropriate annotation tag is selected from annotation tags such as “wrong / missing characters” and “subject unknown”.

User B also sets annotations 304 c and 304 d at two locations on the web page 302. User C has set a large annotation 304e in one place. User D has set annotation 304 f on the entire web page 302. The annotations 304 set by each user have different setting positions and ranges, and the setting ranges may overlap each other. The setting range of the annotation 304 indicates the range of data to be an annotation target. Information about the setting position and setting range of the annotation 304 is also part of the annotation data.
In this way, four users can set each annotation 304 by freely specifying the position, range, and content of the annotation tag for a single web page 302. Annotation data indicating the content, position, etc. of each annotation 304 is centrally managed by the annotation management apparatus 100.

  As can be seen from the above, the data actually displayed on the web display terminal 200 includes two sources: a source document managed by the web server 300 such as the web page 302 and annotation data managed by the annotation management apparatus 100 such as the annotation 304. It can be said that it is stratified. Information for mapping which source data and annotation data such as which annotation data is set in which web page 302 is managed by the annotation list of the annotation management apparatus 100. The annotation list will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. When acquiring the web page 302, the web display terminal 200 also obtains annotation data from the annotation management apparatus 100, thereby seamlessly displaying these two types of information on the same screen.

Furthermore, an additional annotation 304 can be set for the annotation 304 set by itself or another person. Such an annotation 304 is different from an annotation 304 for the web page 302 (hereinafter referred to as “primary annotation”), and an annotation 304 for the primary annotation (hereinafter referred to as “secondary annotation”). ). For example, the user B may further set the annotation 304 for the annotation 304a set by the user A. Secondary annotation data is also managed by the annotation management apparatus 100. Furthermore, annotation data may be chained indefinitely, such as a tertiary annotation for a secondary annotation and a quaternary annotation for a tertiary annotation.
Therefore, in the annotation management system 10, data displayed on the web display terminal 200 is managed in a hierarchical manner such as a source document group, a primary annotation group, a secondary annotation group,. .

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the annotation management apparatus 100.
Each block shown here can be realized in hardware by an element such as a CPU of a computer or a mechanical device, and in software it is realized by a computer program or the like. Draw functional blocks. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by a combination of hardware and software. The same applies to the functional block diagram of the web display terminal 200 shown in FIG.
3 and 4, the functions of each block included in the annotation management device 100 and the web display terminal 200 will be described, and their interaction will be described in detail in FIG. 5 and later, particularly in FIG. 8 and later.

The annotation management apparatus 100 includes a user interface processing unit 102, a communication unit 104, a data processing unit 106, and a data holding unit 108.
The user interface processing unit 102 is in charge of processing related to the entire user interface such as input processing from a user who is an operator of the annotation management apparatus 100 and information display to the user. The communication unit 104 is in charge of communication processing with the web display terminal 200 and the web server 300. The data processing unit 106 executes various data processing based on data acquired from the user interface processing unit 102 and the communication unit 104. The data processing unit 106 also serves as an interface among the user interface processing unit 102, the communication unit 104, and the data holding unit 108.
The data holding unit 108 stores various data such as setting data prepared in advance and annotation data received from the data processing unit 106.

First, the data holding unit 108 includes an annotation list holding unit 150, an annotation set data holding unit 152, a notification list holding unit 154, and a registered user data holding unit 156.
The annotation list holding unit 150 holds an annotation list in which web pages and annotation data are associated with each other. The annotation set data holding unit 152 holds data defining the relationship between the annotation set and the annotation tag included in each annotation set as annotation set data. When the annotation data is set in the web display terminal 200, the notification list holding unit 154 holds a notification list that is a list for specifying a user who should be notified of the setting. The data structure of the notification list will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The registered user data holding unit 156 holds information regarding a user who is a target of the annotation data exchange service. More specifically, a user ID and a communication address for specifying a user, for example, an e-mail address are associated and managed.

The communication unit 104 includes an annotation communication unit 110, a search communication unit 112, an annotation statistics transmission unit 130, an annotation set transmission unit 132, and a page acquisition unit 134.
The annotation communication unit 110 is a block that transmits and receives annotation data to and from the web display terminal 200. The annotation communication unit 110 includes an annotation reception unit 114, an annotation transmission unit 116, an annotation setting notification unit 118, and a page ID acquisition unit 120.
When the annotation data is set, the web display terminal 200 transmits the annotation data to the annotation management device 100. The annotation receiving unit 114 receives annotation data from the web display terminal 200. On the other hand, when the web display terminal 200 displays a web page, the annotation transmission unit 116 transmits the annotation data set in the web page. In the annotation setting notification unit 118, when annotation data is input in any one of the web display terminals 200 and the annotation receiving unit 114 receives the annotation data, the annotation data is set for the other web display terminals 200. (Hereinafter, such notification is referred to as “annotation setting notification”). As a notification method, a known method such as an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed or e-mail may be applied. The user who is the target of the annotation setting notification is specified by the notification list of the notification list holding unit 154 according to the content of the annotation data. When the web display terminal 200 requests the web server 300 to acquire a web page, the page ID acquisition unit 120 acquires the URL of the web page that is the acquisition request target. In order to uniquely identify a web page, identification information called “page ID” is used in this embodiment, but the URL itself may be used as the page ID.

  The web display terminal 200 may perform a web page search. The search communication unit 112 transmits and receives information related to various searches between the web server 300 and the web display terminal 200 in order to support web page search. The search communication unit 112 includes a search request reception unit 122, a search result transmission unit 124, a page list reception unit 126, and an annotation state transmission unit 128.

In this embodiment, web page search by the web display terminal 200 can be mainly divided into two types.
1. When the annotation management apparatus 100 performs a web page search using the annotation data as a search key (hereinafter referred to as “annotation search”).
2. When a search server (explained here as a kind of web server 300) performs a web page search using a term included in the web page text as a search key (hereinafter referred to as “text search”).
Of course, it is also possible to search the web page by combining the annotation key search and the text search.

  The search request receiving unit 122 receives an annotation search execution request (hereinafter referred to as “annotation search request data”) from the web display terminal 200. The annotation management apparatus 100 detects a web page in which annotation data designated as a search key is set from the annotation list, and notifies the web display terminal 200 of the corresponding page ID. The search result transmission unit 124 transmits the search result to the web display terminal 200 as annotation search result data.

  When a text search execution request (hereinafter referred to as “text search request data”) is transmitted from the web display terminal 200 to the web server 300, the page list receiving unit 126 receives a search result (hereinafter “ The page list is called. When the search communication unit 112 detects that the text search request data is transmitted from the web display terminal 200, the search communication unit 112 requests the web server 300 to transmit the search result to the annotation management apparatus 100. The annotation management device 100 detects the setting state of annotation data for each web page on the corresponding page list with reference to the annotation list. The annotation state transmission unit 128 transmits the detection result as annotation state data.

The annotation statistics transmission unit 130 forms the annotation statistics unit 146 together with the annotation statistics generation unit 136 included in the data processing unit 106. The annotation statistical unit 146 quantifies the degree of attention of each user with respect to the web page by counting the number of annotation data set in the statistical processing target web page. The function as the annotation statistics unit 146 may be realized by the web display terminal 200 instead of the annotation management device 100.
The annotation statistic generation unit 136 counts the number of annotation data set in the web page to be statistically processed. The annotation statistics transmission unit 130 transmits the set number of annotation data to the web display terminal 200 as annotation statistics data. The annotation statistics will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The annotation set transmission unit 132 and the page acquisition unit 134 together with the word extraction unit 138 and the annotation set selection unit 142 included in the data processing unit 106 form a context determination unit 148.
When setting annotation data, the user of the web display terminal 200 first selects an annotation set and then selects an annotation tag. However, depending on the type of web page to be annotated, the annotation set to be selected can be predicted to some extent. For example, if it is a web page of a shopping site, the annotation set “recommendation” may be easily selected. For web pages that disclose a company's financial situation, the annotation set “Evaluation” may be easily selected.

The context determination unit 148 performs processing for automatically selecting an annotation set according to the content of the web page. The function as the context determination unit 148 may be realized by the web display terminal 200 instead of the annotation management device 100.
First, the page acquisition unit 134 acquires data of a web page to be browsed from the web server 300. The word extraction unit 138 extracts words included in the web page. For example, in the annotation set “evaluation”, terms highly relevant to content to be evaluated such as {finance, sales,..., Project} are set in advance. In the annotation set “recommendation”, terms that are highly relevant to the content to be recommended, such as {product, price, quality,... The annotation set selection unit 142 selects an annotation set according to which annotation set has the most frequent term based on the words extracted from the web page by the word extraction unit 138. The annotation set transmission unit 132 notifies the web display terminal 200 of the annotation set selected by the annotation set selection unit 142.

  The data processing unit 106 includes a search unit 144 in addition to the above-described annotation statistics generation unit 136, word extraction unit 138, and annotation set selection unit 142. When the annotation search request data is received from the search request receiving unit 122, the search unit 144 searches the corresponding web page with reference to the annotation list. Also, when the page list receiving unit 126 receives the corresponding page list, the searching unit 144 searches the web page for which annotation data is set from the web pages on the corresponding page list.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the web display terminal 200.
The web display terminal 200 includes a page processing unit 202, a module load processing unit 204, and an annotation processing module 206.
Here, the page processing unit 202 is a function provided in a general web browser. The page processing unit 202 includes a user interface processing unit 208 and a communication unit 210. The user interface processing unit 208 is in charge of processing related to the entire user interface, such as input processing from the user of the web display terminal 200 and web page display for the user. The communication unit 210 is in charge of communication processing with the web server 300. The communication unit 210 includes a page request unit 214 and a page acquisition unit 216. The page request unit 214 transmits a web page acquisition request to the web server 300. The page acquisition unit 216 receives web page data from the web server 300. The page display unit 212 of the user interface processing unit 208 displays the web page acquired by the page acquisition unit 216 on the screen.

  The module load processing unit 204 loads the annotation processing module 206 into the memory. If the web display terminal 200 only displays a web page, the annotation data exchange service by the annotation management apparatus 100 is usually unnecessary. In fact, out of a huge number of web pages, which are said to be billions, web pages where annotation data is set are a part of them. When requesting acquisition of a web page, the page request unit 214 notifies the annotation management apparatus 100 of the URL. The page ID acquisition unit 120 of the annotation management apparatus 100 receives this URL notification, and the search unit 144 determines whether annotation data is set for the web page. If the annotation data is set, the annotation transmission unit 116 transmits the corresponding annotation data to the web display terminal 200.

When the annotation data is received, the module load processing unit 204 loads the annotation processing module 206 for processing the annotation data into the memory. In other words, as long as a user browses a web page for which no annotation data is set, the annotation processing module 206 is not loaded into the memory. Such a processing method can save computing resources such as a memory and a processor. Once the annotation processing module 206 is loaded into the memory, when browsing a web page for which no annotation data is set, or when only browsing a web page for which no annotation data is set for a predetermined time The module load processing unit 204 may automatically end the annotation processing module 206.
The module load processing unit 204 may be loaded into the memory from the time when the page processing unit 202 starts execution, and may be resident to detect reception of annotation data.

In addition, the module load processing unit 204 may load the annotation processing module 206 when a preset load condition is satisfied. Similarly, the processing of the annotation processing module 206 may be ended when a predetermined end condition is satisfied. As a specific example of the load condition, the annotation processing module 206 may be loaded only when annotation data related to the annotation set “evaluation” is set. Alternatively, if the annotation data is set by a user A, the annotation processing module 206 may be loaded.
Of course, the user of the web display terminal 200 can instruct loading of the annotation processing module 206 by a menu command or the like.

The annotation processing module 206 in this embodiment is provided as a DLL (Dynamic Link Library), for example. The annotation processing module 206 includes a user interface processing unit 218, a communication unit 220, an annotation data processing unit 222, and an annotation set data holding unit 224.
The user interface processing unit 218 is in charge of processing related to the entire user interface, such as input processing from the user of the web display terminal 200 and display of annotation data for the user, regarding processing of annotation data. The communication unit 220 is in charge of communication processing with the annotation management apparatus 100 and the web server 300. The annotation data processing unit 222 also serves as an interface among the user interface processing unit 218, the communication unit 220, and the annotation set data holding unit 224.
Similar to the annotation set data holding unit 152 of the annotation management apparatus 100, the annotation set data holding unit 224 holds the annotation set and the annotation tag in a structured manner.

The annotation data processing unit 222 includes a context determination unit 238 and an annotation statistics generation unit 246.
The context determination unit 238 exhibits a function corresponding to the context determination unit 148 of the annotation management apparatus 100, and the annotation statistics generation unit 246 exhibits a function corresponding to the annotation statistics unit 146 of the annotation management apparatus 100. When the annotation management apparatus 100 includes the context determination unit 148, the context determination unit 238 is not an essential function. When the annotation management apparatus 100 includes the annotation statistics unit 146, the annotation statistics generation unit 246 is not an essential function.

The context determination unit 238 includes a word extraction unit 240 and an annotation set selection unit 244. The word extraction unit 240 has a function equivalent to that of the word extraction unit 138 of the annotation management apparatus 100. The annotation set selection unit 244 has the same function as the annotation set selection unit 142 of the annotation management apparatus 100.
Similarly, the annotation statistics generation unit 246 has a function equivalent to that of the annotation statistics generation unit 136 of the annotation management apparatus 100.

  The user interface processing unit 218 includes an annotation display unit 226 and an annotation input unit 228. The annotation display unit 226 displays annotation data. The annotation input unit 228 accepts input of annotation data.

The communication unit 220 includes an annotation transmission unit 230, an annotation reception unit 232, an annotation set reception unit 234, an annotation statistics reception unit 236, a search request transmission unit 248, and a search result reception unit 250.
The annotation transmission unit 230 transmits the annotation data input via the annotation input unit 228 to the annotation management apparatus 100. The annotation receiving unit 232 receives the annotation data set in the web page from the annotation management apparatus 100. The annotation set receiving unit 234 receives the specification of the annotation set from the annotation set transmitting unit 132 of the annotation management device 100. However, when not the context determination unit 148 of the annotation management apparatus 100 but the annotation set selection unit 244 specifies the annotation set, the annotation set reception unit 234 does not need to receive the annotation set. The annotation statistics reception unit 236 receives the annotation statistics data from the annotation statistics transmission unit 130 of the annotation management apparatus 100. However, when the annotation statistics generation unit 246, not the annotation statistics unit 146 of the annotation management apparatus 100, generates the annotation statistics data, the annotation statistics reception unit 236 does not need to receive the annotation statistics data.

The search request transmission unit 248 transmits the annotation search request data to the search request reception unit 122 of the annotation management apparatus 100. The search result receiving unit 250 receives the annotation search result data from the search result transmitting unit 124 of the annotation management apparatus 100.
The annotation processing module 206 may be a software module provided from the annotation management apparatus 100 such as a Java applet (JavaAplet).

FIG. 5 is a data structure diagram related to the primary annotation among the data structures of the annotation list stored in the annotation list holding unit 150.
The annotation data related to the primary annotation includes the following data.
1. 1. Type of annotation set 2. Types of annotation tags Comment data When a user sets an annotation tag, the user can also enter a comment in a free description format for the annotation. The comment data may include text-format comment data.
4). Page ID of the web page to be annotated
The page ID may be substituted by the URL of the web page itself, or may be assigned as a dedicated ID.
5). 5. Public designation data for designating whether annotation data is also disclosed to users other than the annotation setter. 6. Position designation data indicating the position and range of the data to be annotated on the web page User ID for identifying the user who set annotation data
When the annotation list holding unit 150 of the annotation management apparatus 100 receives the annotation data from the web display terminal 200, it registers the annotation data in the annotation list shown in FIG.

  The user ID column 306 shows the user ID of the user who set the annotation. A page ID column 308 indicates a page ID to be set for annotation data. The page ID is an ID assigned by the annotation management apparatus 100 in order to uniquely identify the web page, but the URL itself may be used as the page ID. An annotation ID column 310 indicates an annotation ID. When the annotation data is received from the web display terminal 200, the annotation management apparatus 100 assigns an annotation ID as an ID for uniquely identifying the annotation data. An annotation set column 312 indicates an annotation set, and an annotation tag column 314 indicates an annotation tag.

  The annotation position column 316 shows position designation data. The annotation position is a text position from the origin in the target document of the selected character string. Here, the origin is the root element in the case of a structured document, and is the head in the case of plain text. For example, the annotation data with the annotation ID “02” is annotation data set for text data from the 5th row 20th column to the 10th row 30th column. In addition, the annotation target range may be designated simply by the number of characters from the beginning. For example, in a web page in which an alphabet of 11 characters “ABCDEFGHIJK” is described, when “CDEF” is an annotation target, the position designation data may be designated as (3, 6). This means that the third to sixth characters counted from the beginning are to be annotated. If a tag is included between these text data, the tag itself does not affect the count of character strings. For example, the above string is actually structured as "<xhtml> <body> <p> ABC <h1> DE </ h1> FG </ p> HIJK </ body> </ xhtml>" Even so, the position designation data when “CDEF” is the annotation target remains (3, 6). Further, as a modification, a coordinate system may be set for the entire web page, and position designation data may be set by upper left coordinates and lower right coordinates of the data range to be annotated. In addition, data to be annotated may be specified using a tag of the web page. For example, when data surrounded by tags <car>... </ Car> is set as an annotation target, the position designation data may be designated by the Xpath expression of the corresponding <car> tag. The position designation data may be “data for designating a range of data to be annotated in the target web page” in any format such as a character, a tag, and coordinates. The comment column 318 shows comment data. Although input of comment data is not essential, there is an effect that the viewpoint of the user who set the annotation is further detailed by the comment data.

  The openness column 320 indicates whether or not the annotation data can be released. Whether or not the annotation data can be viewed by other users can be controlled by setting whether or not to open. When “unpublished” is specified, the annotation data is not disclosed to anyone other than the user who set the annotation data. As a modification, “limited opening” that is open only to a predetermined user may be possible. For example, in the case of a company, limited disclosure methods such as “open only to development department”, “open only to business division”, and “open only to Japanese corporations” are conceivable. Alternatively, a user who sets annotation data may be able to specify a user to be disclosed.

  According to the figure, the user with the user ID “001” gives four annotation data with the annotation IDs “02”, “06”, “08” and “11” to the web page with the page ID “101”. It is set. Among these, the annotation data with the annotation ID “11” is set to the annotation tag “I care” of the annotation set “evaluation”. The annotation data includes comment data. Further, since the setting is public, a user other than the user ID “001” can view the annotation data on his / her web display terminal 200. On the other hand, the annotation data with the annotation ID “02” is set to be private. Therefore, it can be said that this annotation data is private annotation data that can be browsed only by the user with the user ID “101”.

FIG. 6 is a data structure diagram related to the secondary annotation among the data structures of the annotation list stored in the annotation list holding unit 150.
As described with reference to FIG. 2, secondary annotation data can be set for the annotation data.
The annotation data relating to the secondary annotation includes the following data.
1. 1. Type of annotation set 2. Types of annotation tags Comment data Annotation ID of primary annotation to be annotated
5). Public designation data User ID for identifying the user who set annotation data
When the annotation list holding unit 150 of the annotation management apparatus 100 receives the annotation data regarding the secondary annotation from the web display terminal 200, the annotation list holding unit 150 registers the annotation data in the annotation list shown in FIG.

  The user ID column 322 shows the user ID of the user who has set the secondary annotation. A target user ID column 324 indicates a page ID to be set as a secondary annotation. This page ID must be the same page ID as the primary annotation to be annotated. The target annotation ID column 328 indicates the annotation ID of the primary annotation that is the target for which the secondary annotation is set. A target page ID column 326 indicates a page ID of a page to be annotated. The annotation ID column 330 indicates the annotation ID for the secondary annotation. An annotation set column 332 indicates an annotation set, and an annotation tag column 334 indicates an annotation tag. The comment column 336 indicates comment data, and the openness column 338 indicates whether or not the data can be disclosed.

According to the figure, the secondary annotation data with the annotation ID “10-1” set by the user with the user ID “002” is the annotation set for the primary annotation data with the annotation ID “22”. According to FIG. 5, the primary annotation data of the annotation ID “22” is annotation data originally set by the user with the user ID “001” on the web page with the page ID “102”. In the primary annotation data with the annotation ID “22”, annotation data with the annotation ID “06-1” is also set.
Thus, a data set as a secondary annotation group is formed with respect to the primary annotation group shown in FIG. Similarly, data sets as tertiary annotation groups and quaternary annotation groups are formed in a chain.

FIG. 7 is a data structure diagram of a notification list stored in the notification list holding unit 154.
When the annotation data is set, the annotation setting notification unit 118 of the annotation management apparatus 100 transmits the annotation setting notification to other users. The notification list shown in the figure is a table for defining users to whom annotation setting notifications should be transmitted according to the contents of annotation data. When the annotation receiving unit 114 receives the annotation data set in the web display terminal 200, the annotation setting notification unit 118 refers to the notification list and specifies a notification destination according to the content of the annotation data.

An annotation set column 340 indicates an annotation set, and an annotation tag column 342 indicates an annotation tag. The notification destination user column 344 indicates a user who is a notification destination. According to the figure, when the annotation tag “Very important” is set in the annotation set “evaluation”, the annotation setting notification is transmitted to all registered users. On the other hand, when the annotation tag “Very important” is set, an annotation setting notification is transmitted for the business department to which the user who set the annotation data belongs. Further, when the annotation tag “I care” is set, the annotation setting notification is transmitted only to the user whose user ID is registered in the notification destination user column 344 in advance.
However, when the set annotation data is a non-public setting, the annotation setting notification is not transmitted.

  When the annotation data is set, other users are notified by the annotation setting notification, so that the web page evaluation process accompanying the annotation data is facilitated. However, if the annotation setting notification is transmitted to all registered users when the user sets annotation data, each user will receive the annotation setting notification excessively, which may reduce convenience. The web display terminal 200 may have a function of selecting an annotation setting notification to be received and an annotation setting notification to be discarded, but even in this case, the transmission amount itself of the annotation setting notification is not suppressed. Therefore, the annotation management apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment limits the notification range according to the content of the annotation data using the notification list. That is, when an annotation tag “very important” is required to be thoroughly communicated, everyone is notified of the setting, and in the case of an annotation tag of “interesting”, the annotation setting notification target is narrowed down.

  In addition to the annotation tag, the notification destination may be set according to the annotation set. For example, when an annotation set “development review” is defined, a notification destination for such an annotation set may be a user belonging to the development department. The notification destination can be rationally selected by specifying the annotation setting notification target according to the annotation set.

  In addition, the notification destination may be set according to the user. For example, if the president designates "Very important", everyone will be notified, but if the other users designate "Very important", only the department in which they belong may be notified. . Further, a notification destination may be set according to the web server 300. For example, when annotation data is set for a web page published only within a company, the annotation setting notification is made with reference to the notification destination user column 344, but when annotation data is set for a web page outside the company. The annotation setting notification may not be sent. Furthermore, when setting annotation data, the user who is the target of the annotation setting notification may be specified together.

FIG. 8 shows a web browsing screen 350 on the web display terminal 200.
The web browsing screen 350 is displayed by the page display unit 212 of the web display terminal 200. When annotation data is set on the displayed web page, the module load processing unit 204 automatically loads the annotation processing module 206 into the memory. The annotation processing toolbar 352 is a toolbar corresponding to the function of the annotation processing module 206. A user interface processing unit 218 of the annotation processing module 206 provides a user interface by the annotation processing toolbar 352.
Even when annotation data is not set on the web page, the user can cause the module loading processing unit 204 to load the annotation processing module 206 by specifying a predetermined command in the menu 368. Also at this time, the annotation processing toolbar 352 is displayed.

  The user sets annotation data via the annotation processing toolbar 352. In order to set annotation data, the user first selects a region to be annotated on the web page by dragging the mouse. Next, an annotation set is selected from the annotation set input area 354, and an annotation tag is selected from the annotation tag input area 356. As described above, in the annotation set input area 354, the annotation set selected by either the annotation set selection unit 142 of the annotation management device 100 or the annotation set selection unit 244 of the web display terminal 200 is initialized. .

  If comment input button 358 is clicked, a dialog box (not shown) for inputting comment data is displayed. The user can input comment data via this dialog box. In addition to this, an input for designating whether or not to disclose can be input by a check box (not shown). When the registration button 360 is clicked, the annotation data setting is completed. The annotation transmission unit 230 of the annotation processing module 206 transmits the set annotation data to the annotation management apparatus 100. The statistics button 362 will be described later.

  The user may specify the annotation data in the annotation data setting area 364 and further set a secondary annotation through the same user interface. At this time, the annotation data itself may be set as the target, or the secondary annotation may be set for the comment data included in the annotation data or a part thereof. Moreover, the annotation data set by others may be removed on condition that a predetermined authority is given. For example, when the user A has set an annotation tag “somewhat important”, the user B may remove this annotation tag and newly set an annotation tag “very important”. According to such a processing method, it is possible to realize a multi-stage evaluation in which the user A performs the primary check of the web page and the user B performs the final check.

In the case of the web page shown in the figure, it is assumed that annotation data has already been set in the annotation data setting area 364. Therefore, when the web page is acquired, the annotation management apparatus 100 notifies that the annotation data is set in an area corresponding to the annotation data setting area 364. The annotation display unit 226 displays the annotation data setting area 364 with a background color different from the normal so that the setting range of the annotation data becomes visible. For example, the background color may be reversed, or the background color may be set to a predetermined color such as red or black.
The annotation display unit 226 of the web display terminal 200 may perform such display processing by changing the color information included in the XHML file of the web page. Alternatively, after the page display unit 212 displays the web page, the annotation display unit 226 may display a predetermined color in the annotation data setting area 364 by overcoating. In addition to the color change, it may be notified that the annotation data is set by pasting an icon, changing the font, or the like.

  When the user moves the mouse cursor over the annotation data setting area 364, a comment display area 366 is displayed as a tool tip. Comment data is displayed in the comment display area 366. When the secondary annotation and the tertiary annotation are further chained with the primary annotation, the display color density and hue of the annotation data setting area 364 may be changed. For example, it may be changed to a darker color as the annotations are chained. Further, the color, font, and the like of the annotation data setting area 364 may be changed according to the type of annotation set and annotation tag set. When the annotation data is chained, a plurality of comment data is displayed in the comment display area 366 in series.

  When the statistics button 362 is clicked, the display mode of the web page changes according to the annotation statistics data. The annotation statistics data itself may be generated by the annotation statistics generation unit 246 of the web display terminal 200 or may be generated by the annotation statistics generation unit 136 of the annotation management device 100. First, the annotation statistics data of the web display terminal 200 is used. A case where the statistics generation unit 246 generates the data will be described.

1. When generating annotation statistical data on the web display terminal 200:
When a web page is displayed, the annotation receiving unit 232 collectively receives annotation data set for the web page. The annotation statistics generation unit 246 counts the number of annotation data set.
The annotation statistical data includes the following four types of data.
a. Total number of annotation data settings for web pages b. Number of chains of annotation data for web pages c. The total number of annotation data for the given data in the web page d. The number of annotation data chains for predetermined data in the web page The annotation display unit 226 changes the display mode of the web page according to these four types of data.
The total set number (a) of annotation data for the web page is displayed in a graph in the first statistical graph 376. The number (b) of the annotation data chain for the web page is displayed in a graph in the second statistical graph 378. The total setting number (c) of annotation data in the annotation data setting area 364 is expressed by the color of the statistical result indicating underline 380 displayed below the annotation data setting area 364. The annotation data chain number (d) in the annotation data setting area 364 is expressed by the thickness of the statistical result indicating underline 380.
For example, when the total number (c) of annotation data set in the annotation data setting area 364 is set to a predetermined number, for example, 10 or more, the color is changed to a predetermined color, for example, green, and set to 5 or more and less than 10 Is changed to another color, for example, yellow.
Thus, by changing the display mode of the web browsing screen 350 according to the set number of annotation data, the user can visually recognize the attention level of other users with respect to the web page or content to be browsed.
In addition, points may be set according to the types of annotation sets and annotation tags, and the degree of attention of the user regarding the above (a) to (d) may be quantified.

2. When generating annotation statistical data in the annotation management device 100:
When a web page is displayed on the web display terminal 200, the annotation statistics generation unit 136 of the annotation management apparatus 100 detects annotation data set for the web page and counts the number of settings. Also in this case, the set number related to the above (a) to (d) becomes the annotation statistical data. The annotation statistics transmission unit 130 transmits the generated annotation statistics data to the web display terminal 200, and the annotation statistics reception unit 236 of the web display terminal 200 receives this.
The annotation display unit 226 changes the display mode of the web page according to these four types of data included in the annotation statistical data.

FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing the process of setting and displaying annotation data.
Here, description will be made assuming that annotation data is set in the web display terminal 200a. First, the page request unit 214 of the web display terminal 200a transmits a web page acquisition request to the web server 300 (S10). The page ID acquisition unit 120 of the annotation management apparatus 100 receives the URL of the web page that is the acquisition request target (S12).

  The search unit 144 of the annotation management apparatus 100 refers to the annotation list and determines whether annotation data is set for the web page of the received URL (S14). It is assumed that annotation data is set for this web page. The web server 300 transmits the web page data requested for acquisition to the web display terminal 200a (S16). The page acquisition unit 216 of the web display terminal 200 a receives this web page data from the web server 300. Further, the annotation management apparatus 100 transmits the annotation data set for the web page to the web display terminal 200a (S18). The annotation receiving unit 232 of the web display terminal 200a receives the annotation data from the annotation management device 100. The annotation data transmitted in S18 is at least one of “annotation data designated by the user of the web display terminal 200a himself” or “annotation data designated to be disclosed”.

  Since the annotation data is received when acquiring the web page, the module load processing unit 204 loads the annotation processing module 206 into the memory (S20). The page display unit 212 displays the web page received in S16 on the screen (S22). The annotation processing module 206 displays the annotation processing toolbar 352 on the web browsing screen 350. The annotation display unit 226 of the annotation processing module 206 changes the display mode of the web page according to the annotation data received in S18 (S24). The user can input annotation data anew via the annotation input unit 228 after designating the annotation target (S26). When the registration button 360 is clicked after the input, the annotation transmission unit 230 transmits the newly set annotation data to the annotation management device 100 (S28).

  The annotation receiving unit 114 of the annotation management apparatus 100 receives the annotation data transmitted from the web display terminal 200a. The data processing unit 106 additionally registers the received annotation data in the annotation list of the annotation list holding unit 150 (S30). The annotation setting notification unit 118 refers to the notification list of the notification list holding unit 154 and transmits an annotation setting notification to the corresponding user (S32). In the same figure, the case where the user of the web display terminal 200b is designated as the notification destination is shown.

  Next, it is assumed that the web display terminal 200b requests a web page different from the web page requested in S10 (S34). Also at this time, the annotation management apparatus 100 acquires the URL of the web page that is the request target (S36). The search unit 144 of the annotation management apparatus 100 determines whether annotation data is set for the corresponding web page with reference to the annotation list (S38). Here, it is assumed that the annotation data is not set. The web server 300 transmits web page data requested from the web display terminal 200b (S40). The web display terminal 200b acquires the web page data but does not receive the annotation data from the annotation management apparatus 100. Therefore, the annotation processing module 206 is not loaded, and only the web page is displayed in the same manner as a normal web browser ( S42).

When the annotation management apparatus 100 includes the annotation statistical unit 146, the annotation statistical generation unit 136 generates annotation statistical data in S14, and the annotation statistical transmission unit 130 transmits the annotation statistical data to the web display terminal 200a in S18. After the web page is displayed on the web display terminal 200a, when the user clicks the statistics button 362, the display mode of the web page changes according to the annotation statistical data.
On the other hand, when not the annotation management apparatus 100 but the web display terminal 200a includes the annotation statistics generation unit 246, the annotation statistics generation unit 246 generates annotation statistics data in the stage of S24. When the statistical button 362 is clicked, the display mode of the web page changes based on the annotation statistical data.

When the annotation management apparatus 100 includes the context determination unit 148, the page acquisition unit 134 acquires the web page data itself from the web server 300 in S14. And the word extraction part 138 extracts a word from this web page data. The annotation set selection unit 142 compares the extracted word group with the word group associated with each annotation set, and selects an annotation set according to the content of the web page. Then, the annotation set transmission unit 132 notifies the web display terminal 200a of the selected annotation set. When the web display terminal 200a displays a web page, the notified annotation set is initialized in the annotation set input area 354 of the annotation processing toolbar 352.
On the other hand, when the web display terminal 200a includes the context determination unit 238 instead of the annotation management device 100, the word extraction unit 240 of the context determination unit 238 determines the word from the web page acquired in S16 in step S24. Perform extraction. The annotation set selection unit 244 selects the annotation set by comparing the extracted word group with the word group associated with each annotation set. The annotation display unit 226 initializes the selected annotation set in the annotation set input area 354 of the annotation processing toolbar 352.

  In any case, the annotation set is automatically selected according to the content of the web page. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the user's input effort regarding the selection input in the annotation set input area 354. Of course, the user may change to an arbitrary annotation set instead of the default annotation set. In the context determination unit 238 of the web display terminal 200, the user may set conditions for selecting an annotation set. For example, in the case of a web page related to an in-house project, a condition for selecting an annotation set may be set on the assumption that the annotation set “evaluation” is initialized.

  In S32, the annotation setting notification is transmitted, but as a modification, the user may also be notified when the web page itself is updated. For example, when the content of a certain web page is updated, the web server 300 notifies the annotation management apparatus 100 of the update. The annotation management apparatus 100 determines whether annotation data has been set at the update location, and if it has been set, deletes such annotation data from the annotation list. Further, the user who has set the annotation data to be deleted may be notified that the annotation data has been deleted. According to such processing, unnecessary annotation data can be appropriately excluded from the annotation list, so that the size of the annotation list can be prevented from becoming excessively large. In addition, by notifying only those concerned about the deletion of annotation data, it is possible to notify the user who is highly interested in the updated web page in a timely manner. As an application example, if the user sets annotation data on a web page indicating another person's web log or stock price information, the user can be automatically notified when the corresponding data is updated.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram for explaining an operation model of the annotation management system 10.
The annotation management system 10 is a system for providing an annotation data exchange service to users registered in the annotation management apparatus 100. In order to operate the annotation management system 10 effectively, it is clarified to some extent how to define an annotation set and an annotation tag and based on what criteria an annotation set and an annotation tag should be selected. It is desirable to keep it. The definition of these guidelines may change in organizations such as companies, departments, and schools. For example, in a department in charge of customer support, customer complaints about their services may be “very important” but may be “somewhat important” for production sites. Further, a complaint about the important product A may be “very important”, but a complaint about the product B that is not so may be “somewhat important”.
Here, consider a model for operating the annotation management system 10 for a sales department of a company A.

  First, an annotation set and an annotation tag to be used in this company are determined. The determined annotation set and annotation tag are stored as annotation set data in the annotation set data holding unit 152 in the annotation management apparatus 100, and are also stored as annotation set data in the annotation set data holding unit 224 in the web display terminal 200. . In addition, the guidelines for selecting annotation sets and annotation tags as described above are defined as manuals, for example, "You must not set" very important "annotation tags unless everyone should know." It is done. The guidelines themselves are also published internally as web pages. The definition of annotation sets and annotation tags and the creation of guidelines are the “preparation phase” for operation.

  In the preparation phase, when an annotation set and annotation tags are defined and guidelines are created, the operation phase is entered. Each user sets and browses annotation data according to the guidelines. In the case of the annotation management system 10 of the present embodiment, when annotation data is set, an annotation setting notification is made to other users. Therefore, whether or not the annotation data is set according to the guideline is confirmed by many users in a timely manner. On the other hand, if an annotation tag of “very important” is set even though the data is not so important, many users are notified of the annotation setting. For this reason, when setting annotation data, psychological deterrence works so that the annotation tag “very important” is not set unnecessarily. Such psychological effects are also effective in increasing the effectiveness of the guidelines.

In the operation phase, the user enters various comment data according to the annotation data. An operator of the annotation management apparatus 100 may collect words included in these comment data, and redefine or extend an annotation set or annotation tag. For example, frequently used terms among the terms included in the comment data may be hints for new annotation sets and annotation tag definitions.
In this way, by operating the annotation management system 10 while circulating the preparation phase and the operation phase, annotation sets, annotation tags, guidelines, etc. reflecting the corporate culture and organizational culture are consolidated. In other words, the consensus nurtured within the organization during operation can be reflected in the preparation phase, and therefore communication in accordance with the actual state of the organization can be promoted.

  The above description has focused on operational examples related to the setting and browsing of annotation data, but the annotation management system 10 also includes an aspect as a “search system”. Hereinafter, a description will be given centering on a search using annotation data.

FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing a web page search process during an annotation search.
As described above, the web page search is roughly classified into an annotation search using the annotation data as a search key and a text search using data included in the text of the web page as a search key. FIG. 11 shows the process related to the annotation search.
The search request transmission unit 248 of the web display terminal 200 transmits the annotation search request data to the annotation management apparatus 100 using an annotation set, an annotation tag, etc. as a search key (S50). Here, it is assumed that the annotation management apparatus 100 is requested by the annotation search request data to search for a web page in which an annotation tag of “very important” or higher is set in the “evaluation” of the annotation set.

The search request receiving unit 122 of the annotation management apparatus 100 receives annotation search request data. The search unit 144 refers to the annotation list and identifies the page ID of the corresponding web page (S52). The search result transmission unit 124 transmits a list of page IDs of web pages that match the search, here, a list of URLs to the web display terminal 200 as annotation search result data (S54). The search result receiving unit 250 of the web display terminal 200 receives annotation search result data.
Next, it is assumed that the page request unit 214 of the web display terminal 200 requests the web server 300 to acquire any of the corresponding web pages with reference to the URL indicated in the annotation search result data (S56). The web display terminal 200 notifies the annotation management apparatus 100 of the URL (S57). Then, the page acquisition unit 216 receives web page data from the web server 300 (S58). Further, the annotation management apparatus 100 transmits annotation data (S60). The subsequent processing is the same as the contents shown in and after S20 in FIG.

  According to such a processing method, the web page search using the annotation data as a search key is realized by the annotation management apparatus 100 being interposed. For example, the user of the web display terminal 200 uses the term “IR” in the comment data, “a page that is important to Mr. A”, “a highly noticed page in which 50 or more annotation tags are set”, and the like. It is also possible to set a search condition such as “included page”. Further, when a search condition is input in a natural language, the web display terminal 200 may automatically extract a corresponding annotation tag or annotation set and make an annotation search request using this as a search key. For example, when a search sentence “A page that Mr. A attaches importance” is input, “User A” is any one of “Very important”, “Very important”, “Important”, and “Slightly important”. A web page in which such an annotation tag is set may be a search target.

  According to the annotation search, it is possible not to target the content itself included in the web page, but to execute the web page search according to the content recognized by each user with respect to the web page. Of course, a search condition related to the contents of a web page may be designated as in the past. For example, a search method for a “patent document that includes the term“ education support ”in the text and has an annotation tag“ high economic effect ”set from 100 or more” is also conceivable.

FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram showing a web page search process in the text search.
First, the page request unit 214 of the web display terminal 200 transmits a search request to the web server 300 as a web search server using a term designated by the user as a search key (S70). The web server 300 searches for a web page including the designated term (S71). The web server 300 notifies both the web display terminal 200 and the annotation management apparatus 100 of a corresponding page list that is a list of page IDs of the corresponding web page (S72 and S74). At this time, the web server 300 notifies the annotation management apparatus 100 of the user ID of the user who made the search request.

  In step S72, the page list receiving unit 126 of the annotation management apparatus 100 receives the page list. The search unit 144 refers to the annotation list and searches whether annotation data is set for each web page on the corresponding page list (S76). The annotation state transmission unit 128 transmits annotation state data indicating the setting state of the annotation data for each web page on the corresponding web list to the web display terminal 200 (S78).

  The annotation receiving unit 232 of the web display terminal 200 receives the annotation state data from the annotation management device 100. The module load processing unit 204 loads the annotation processing module 206 into the memory when receiving the annotation state data (S80). The page display unit 212 displays the corresponding page list received in S74 on the screen (S82). The annotation display unit 226 changes the display mode of the screen according to the annotation state data received in S78 (S84). The display mode at this time will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 13 is a screen view of the search result display screen 370 when browsing the corresponding page list on the web display terminal 200.
In the figure, it is assumed that the user requests the web server 300 functioning as a search server to search for a web page containing the term “annotation” in the text, and the web server 300 transmits the corresponding page list to the web display terminal 200. . Therefore, in the search page display area 372a and the search page display area 372b, the URL of the web page including the term “annotation” in the text is displayed. The annotation display area 374a and the annotation display area 374b indicate the setting state of the annotation data set in the searched web page. The annotation display unit 226 displays the annotation data setting state in the annotation display area 374a and the annotation display area 374b with reference to the annotation state data.

  The web page of the search page display area 372a indicates that the annotation tag “important” and the annotation tag “worried” are set. The number of annotation tags set is indicated by a bar graph. In the case of the figure, it can be seen that the annotation tag “important” is set more than the annotation tag “worried”. On the other hand, the web page in the search page display area 372b indicates that no annotation tag is set. When the user browses the search result display screen 370, the user can visually confirm the annotation data setting status of each web page hit as a text search target.

The present invention has been described above based on the embodiments.
According to the annotation management system 10 shown in the present embodiment, the user of the web display terminal 200 can easily set and browse annotation data for an electronic document such as a web page that has already been made public. In effect, the basic function of the annotation management system 10 can be exhibited simply by adding the web display terminal 200 to a system that is already in operation and additionally installing the annotation processing module 206 on the web display terminal 200. Affinity with existing systems is high, and the application range can be easily expanded.

  Since the user only specifies an annotation target and selects an annotation set or annotation tag, intuitive input is possible. By taking consensus within the organization regarding the definition of annotation sets and annotation tags and guidelines for setting them, the reliability and reusability of annotation data as information can be enhanced. Furthermore, by adding comment data in a free description format, more detailed information such as notes and explanations regarding annotations can be made part of the annotation data. Since annotations set by others as well as annotations set by yourself can be viewed, it is easy to interpret information from the perspective of others. Also, if the annotation data is designated to be private, the annotation data can be used as a note of your own.

  As described with reference to FIG. 2, the annotation data may be set for all or a part of the web page, or may be set in units of words, sentences, paragraphs, embedded images, and the like. Alternatively, tags that structure web page data, such as HTML or XML, may be set.

Also, the annotation statistics function makes it easy to visually and intuitively confirm the attention level of the web page and the evaluation tendency of others for all or part of the web page. In other words, in addition to the content of the web page, it is possible to visually identify a web page or content that has a high degree of attention as viewed from many users.
Since the annotation management apparatus 100 can set the secondary annotation data for the primary annotation data, it is possible to perform communication in which a plurality of users discuss while linking the annotation data using the content of the web page as a starting point.

  The annotation management apparatus 100 or the web display terminal 200 has a function of automatically selecting an annotation set according to the content of the web page. With such a function, it is possible to reduce time and effort for the user of the web display terminal 200 to select the annotation set. This annotation set selection condition may be freely set by the user of the annotation management apparatus 100 or the web display terminal 200. For example, in the case of a shopping site, the annotation tag “recommendation” may always be selected as the initial setting.

By the annotation setting notification from the annotation management apparatus 100, each user can recognize the setting of annotation data by other users in real time. In particular, when important annotation data is set, the annotation setting can be made known to many users.
As described with reference to FIG. 10, it is considered that the operation guidelines for the annotation data are determined by repeating the preparation phase and the operation phase. The annotation management apparatus 100 changes the notification destination according to the content of the annotation data. Therefore, the annotation data setting is a broadcast notification to other users, so that it is psychologically prevented from setting annotation tags such as “very important” in consideration of the influence range. effective.

  The web display terminal 200 normally functions as an existing web browser, and when annotation data is detected, the module loading processing unit 204 loads the annotation processing module 206 into the memory. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the memory from being unnecessarily occupied by the annotation processing module 206 in the web display terminal 200 as much as possible. Further, since only the module load processing unit 204 and the annotation processing module 206 need be added to the existing web display terminal 200, the effort for participating in the annotation management system 10 on the user side of the web display terminal 200 is reduced. .

  Furthermore, as described in relation to FIG. 11 and subsequent drawings, the annotation management apparatus 100 realizes web page search using the annotation data as a search key. Thereby, a web page search that takes into account factors such as the degree of attention and evaluation tendency from the user is realized. In other words, not only primary information provided as a web page, but also web page search using secondary information added to the web page as a search key is possible.

  When the annotation data is used as a search key, the search may be executed using not only the annotation set and the annotation tag but also a word included in the comment data as a search key. As described with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13, even in a general web search using the web page content itself as a search key, the annotation setting status for each web page is listed on the search result display screen 370. Can be displayed. Although there are search services that display the recognition level of a web page based on the number of links attached to the web page, the annotation management system 10 of this embodiment uses data corresponding to the actual attention level and evaluation tendency of the web page. Since it can be displayed, the attention level of the web page can be calculated more rationally. In the corresponding page list, a web page with a higher degree of attention may be displayed higher.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to combinations of the respective constituent elements and processing processes, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

The page identification data described in the claims is expressed as a page ID or URL in this embodiment.
It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the functions to be fulfilled by the constituent elements described in the claims are realized by a single function block or a combination of the functional blocks shown in the present embodiment.

It is a hardware block diagram of an annotation management system. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the relationship between a web page and an annotation. It is a functional block diagram of an annotation management device. It is a functional block diagram of a web display terminal. It is a data structure figure regarding a primary annotation among the data structures of the annotation list preserve | saved at an annotation list holding | maintenance part. It is a data structure figure regarding a secondary annotation among the data structures of the annotation list preserve | saved at an annotation list holding | maintenance part. It is a data structure figure of the notification list preserve | saved at the notification list holding | maintenance part. The web browsing screen in a web display terminal is shown. It is a sequence diagram which shows the setting process and display process of annotation data. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the operation model of an annotation management system. It is a sequence diagram which shows the web page search process process in annotation search. It is a sequence diagram which shows the web page search process process in a text search. It is a screen figure of a search result display screen when browsing a corresponding page list with a web display terminal.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Annotation management system, 100 Annotation management apparatus, 102 User interface processing part, 104 Communication part, 106 Data processing part, 108 Data holding part, 110 Annotation communication part, 112 Search communication part, 114 Annotation receiving part, 116 Annotation transmission part, 118 annotation setting notification unit, 120 page ID acquisition unit, 122 search request reception unit, 124 search result transmission unit, 126 page list reception unit, 128 annotation status transmission unit, 130 annotation statistics transmission unit, 132 annotation set transmission unit, page 134 Acquisition unit, 136 Annotation statistics generation unit, 138 Word extraction unit, 142 Annotation set selection unit, 144 Search unit, 146 Annotation statistics unit, 148 Context determination unit, 150 Annotation list holding unit, 152 Annotation set data holding unit, 154 Notification list Holding unit, 156 registered user data Holding unit, 200 Web display terminal, 202 page processing unit, 204 module load processing unit, 206 annotation processing module, 208 user interface processing unit, 210 communication unit, 212 page display unit, 214 page request unit, 216 page acquisition unit, 218 User interface processing unit, 220 communication unit, 222 annotation data processing unit, 224 annotation set data holding unit, 226 annotation display unit, 228 annotation input unit, 230 annotation transmission unit, 232 annotation reception unit, 234 annotation set reception unit, 236 annotation Statistical reception unit, 238 Context determination unit, 240 Word extraction unit, 244 Annotation set selection unit, 246 Annotation statistics generation unit, 248 Search request transmission unit, 250 Search result reception unit, 300 Web server, 350 Web browsing screen, 352 Annotation processing Two Bar.

Claims (2)

A page acquisition unit for acquiring a web page via a communication network;
A page display for displaying a web page on the screen;
An annotation processing module for processing annotation data for web pages;
A load processing unit that controls loading of the annotation processing module into the main storage device or saving from the main storage device, and
The annotation processing module includes:
An annotation data input unit that accepts input for setting annotation data on the web page displayed on the screen,
An annotation data transmission unit that transmits page identification data for identifying a web page in which annotation data is set together with the annotation data, to an external annotation management device that manages the annotation data;
When acquiring a web page, the annotation management device is notified of page identification data of the web page to be acquired, and the annotation data set for the web page is received from the annotation management device. A data receiver;
An annotation data display unit for displaying annotation data set for the web page on the screen when the web page is displayed on the screen,
When the web page is acquired, the load processing unit loads the annotation processing module into a memory when the annotation data set in the web page is received from the annotation management device. . A software module installed on a web display terminal,
An annotation data input unit that accepts input for setting annotation data on the web page displayed on the screen,
An annotation data transmission unit that transmits page identification data for identifying a web page in which annotation data is set together with the annotation data, to an external annotation management device that manages the annotation data;
When the web display terminal obtains a web page, the annotation management device is notified of page identification data of the web page to be obtained, and the annotation data set for the web page is sent to the annotation management. An annotation data receiving unit to receive from the device;
An annotation data display unit for displaying annotation data set for the web page on the screen when the web page is displayed on the screen;
An annotation processing module comprising:

Images