[TrailFire] is a SocialAnnotation service, similar to DiiGo. Trails are a kind of userdefined WebRings on the fly, where sets of annotations take the role of Webpages. Annotations can contain, rich text, audio and even video content.
A short [video introduction from the CEO of TrailFire] can be found on YouTube.
What about starting our research on TrailFire with the tools of TrailFire itself. -- HansWobbe, FridemarPache
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It's rare for me to be able to take a look at something and immediately see that I want to start using it. So far, this seems to be one of those pieces of software. That being said, I have no idea what-so-ever of their business model yet, so I'll be cautious about becoming dependant on it until I know what it may end up costing me. -- HansWobbe
Thank you Hans for starting this page. Therefore I inserted your name in the initial authors list, removing the placeholder notice and inviting interested peers to start a trail on TrailFire.
What name for the trail do you suggest? TrailFire? Is there such a trail already, we can join? If we join an existing trail, can we use all trail functions or only comments? What about the wiki-like joined editing? -- [fridemar]
- <HansWobbe...
- I doubt we need to concern ourselves with these issues too much since...
- Trails are designed to be extremely independant.
- A referenced object, such as a page, can be an intersection for several trails.
- ...
- I'm not sure what ...wiki-like joined editing... means.
- Some of the MicroContent tricks I've started using include ...
- I use wiki pages in my bliki (that have the same name as the trailMarks I leave on other pages) for larger blocks of text that are easy to edit, can be part of a TransClusion and that can efficiently link to other wikis (especially those for which I have InterWikiMap support).
- I also use DiiGo to Bookmark these all of pages since that allows me to add Tags in an evironment that automatically generates RssFeeds for any set of interesecting tag sets.
- ...
- all in all, its becoming a very efficient (for me as a Author, at least, although I would hestitate to recommend it to many others, at this early stage) system.
- -- HansWobbe>
Hans, I take up the ball, you played. Just as you did it, I used different annotation systems to get a critical mass of participants for our initiative. Besides that I appreciated in the public news blog of TrailFire the growing wikiness of this innovative social annotation system. Find a copy of my comment as a DiiGo annotation below.
I annotated the FAQ of TrailFire with DiiGo annotations and I am going to use additionally WikAlong. On the other hand, it would be a pity, if this topic would be cut off the MeatballWiki, which is a community of existing and potential new communities.
What about an AnnotationWiki, where all annotation streams of the different annotation communities can flow together. In this way mutual benefit can be created:
- any annotation can use the rich link context of the used AnnotationWiki
- the AnnotationWiki gets a wider exposure in the web.
By natural selection, those wikis with the greatest "cumulated wisdom of the crowds", are candidates for the most appropriate AnnotationWiki.
I am going to set up a trail in TrailFire, called AnnotationWiki. This Trail is set up in wiki-mode, such that everyone is invited and enabled to edit the chain.
Hans, do you allow me to blog this page? In the sense of reciprocity you are given the same permission, of course. I know from your engagement in CommunityWiki, that you are open for such a question. Using the button "Blog This page" is a great timesaver. Otherwise each author had to reassemble their stuff.
For the sake of simplicity: If somebody writes on this page, please make it explicit, if you dont want to be included in the "Blog This" or "Clip This" practise. As long as there is no veto on this page and the current authors have given their licets, each author, signing with their real name, is allowed to blog a snapshot of the whole page on their own weblog. Thank you. -- [fridemar]
PS.: You find my Diigo annotation on: http://blog.trailfire.com/news/2007/04/contact_list.html