Hypothes.is
Used Annotator in its earlier history as part of building an open annotation platform for the web.
Showcase
Showcase
Historical adoption
Annotator was used in real projects across the web.
This page is a cleaned-up version of the historical showcase from `annotatorjs.org`. It matters because it shows that Annotator was not just a demo widget. It powered work in education, research, publishing, public discourse, and collaborative reading.
Open Video Annotation Project
Applied Annotator-oriented ideas to media-rich commentary on fragments of video.
H2O
Used annotation in web-based casebooks and classroom tools from Harvard’s Berkman Center ecosystem.
Annotation Studio
Supported close reading and collaborative interpretation in teaching and humanities contexts.
Infinite Ulysses
Built a public annotation and social reading layer around James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Lacuna
Explored collaborative digital reading and annotation in learning and teaching environments.
More Historical Users
- edX used annotation in online learning contexts.
- Max Planck Institute for the History of Science used annotation in research contexts.
- OERPUB worked on open education publishing and annotation-related workflows.
- KarmaNotes used annotation around shared learning materials.
- The Madison Project supported public discussion of government documents.
- PeerLibrary used collaborative annotation on academic publications.
- Safari Tutorials used annotation in training contexts.
- Paper Grader used annotation in grading workflows.
- Siyavula used online textbooks and learning resources with annotation-related needs.
- Universitat Oberta de Catalunya maintained open applications and teaching tools around this ecosystem.
- Writing and publishing tools used Annotator as a substrate for in-context discussion and commentary.
- Research and digital humanities projects used it to support interpretation, discussion, and collaborative reading.
Why This Matters
Evidence of product reality
The showcase is useful because it proves that Annotator had real-world adoption. It was used in projects that cared about education, publishing, public reasoning, and collaborative knowledge work. That history is one reason the current reboot effort is worth taking seriously.
