Hypothes.is

US software project for web content annotation

Hypothes.is Project

Founded| July 1, 2011 (2011-07-01)
Founder| Dan Whaley
Type| 501(c)(3)

Tax ID no.

| 45-2677817
Registration no.| C3389843
Location|

* 2261 Market St #632, San Francisco, California 94114

Coordinates| 37°45′53″N 122°25′55″W﻿ / ﻿37.7647°N 122.4319°W﻿ / 37.7647; -122.4319
Revenue| $2,521,639 (2019[1])
Website| hypothes.is

Hypothes.is is an open-source software project that aims to collect comments about statements made in any web-accessible content, and filter and rank those comments to assess each statement's credibility.[2][3][4][5][6]

It has been summarized as "a peer review layer for the entire Internet."[7]

## Concept

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The project is a system which allows annotation of web pages, using comments contributed by individuals and a reputation system for rating the comments. The plan is that the comments will be stored in the Internet Archive. Normal use is with a browser plug-in (Chrome) or a bookmarklet (others), and the plan is that links to specific comments will also be viewable without needing a plug-in.[3]

## People

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The project is led by Dan Whaley, co-founder of GetThere, one of the first online travel booking systems in 1995.[3][8][9] Its advisors have included John Perry Barlow, Charles Bazerman, Philip Bourne and Brewster Kahle.[2]

## Project

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A Kickstarter drive to raise $100,000 to fund a working prototype narrowly reached its goal on November 13, 2011.[7][10] The effort is organized as a non-profit.[11][12] It has received financial support from the Shuttleworth Foundation,[13] the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,[14] the Helmsley Trust,[15] the Knight Foundation[16] and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.[17]

In December 2015, Hypothes.is was a founding member of a coalition of scholarly publishers, platforms, libraries, and technology organizations to create an open, interoperable annotation layer over their content.[18]

In August 2022, after noting that being a nonprofit limited the company to grants and donations and with several of the key funding sources Hypothes.is relied on no longer available, they formed "Annotation Unlimited, PBC" (Anno).[19] Anno is a public benefit corporation to house the Hypothes.is mission set up to allow investment. It attracted $14M seed round, including $2.5M from the provider of JSTOR.

## See also

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* Text annotation
* Web annotation

## References

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1. ^ "Hypothes is Project - Nonprofit Explorer". 9 May 2013.
2. ^ a b Dan Whaley (ed.). "The Internet, peer-reviewed". Hypothes.is. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
3. ^ a b c Schonfeld, Erick (Oct 31, 2011), Hypothes.is: A Kickstarter Project To Peer Review The Web, Techcrunch, retrieved 2011-11-14
4. ^ Masnick, Mike (Oct 24, 2011). "Interesting Ideas: Can You Peer Review The Entire Internet, Sentence By Sentence". Techdirt. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
5. ^ Shaughnessy, Haydn (Oct 21, 2011). "Would Your Blog Stand up To Criticism? Here Comes Peer Review". Forbes. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
6. ^ Kirkpatrick, Marshall (Oct 20, 2011). "Hypothes.is: A Peer-Review Layer for the Whole Internet". ReadWriteWeb. Archived from the original on November 7, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
7. ^ a b Farley, Tim (17 November 2011). "Hypothes.is Reaches Funding Goal". James Randi Educational Foundation. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
8. ^ Sloan, Gene (Oct 22, 1996). "Net catches more travelers planning trips". USA Today. McLean, Va. p. 6D. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013.
9. ^ Fernandes, Lorna (Oct 26, 1997). "It's no small world for ITN". San Jose Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
10. ^ Hypothes.is - Taking peer review to the Internet. on Kickstarter
11. ^ David Streitfeld (April 11, 2013). "Speak Up, the Internet Can't Hear You". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-05-02.
12. ^ "Letter 947 (DO/CG)" (PDF). IRS. June 29, 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 7, 2013.
13. ^ "Active Fellows: Dan Whaley". The Shuttleworth Foundation Trust. Retrieved 2013-05-02.
14. ^ "2011 Annual Report" (PDF). Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. p. 72\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
15. ^ "Helmsley Trust Supports Open Annotation in Biomedical Research | Hypothesis". hypothes.is. 11 January 2015. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
16. ^ "A Grant from the Knight Foundation | Hypothesis". hypothes.is. 4 October 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-28.
17. ^ "Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation". June 9, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
18. ^ Perkel, Jeffrey M. (December 1, 2015). "Annotating the scholarly web". Nature. 528 (7580): 153–154\. Bibcode:2015Natur.528..153P. doi:10.1038/528153a. PMID 26632591. doi:10.1038/528153a
19. ^ "Say Hello to Anno". 18 August 2022.

## External links

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* Official website