Open hypermedia as user controlled meta data for the Web

This paper introduces an approach to utilise open hypermedia structures suc h as links, annotations, collections and guided tours as meta data for Web resources. The paper introduces an XML based data format, called Open Hyper media interchange Format, OHIF, for such hypermedia structures. OHIF resemb les XLink with respect to its representation of out-of-line links, but it g oes beyond XLink with a more rich set of structuring mechanisms, including e.g. composites. Moreover OHIF includes an addressing mechanisms (LocSpecs) that goes beyond XPointer and URL in its ability to locate non-XML data se gments. By means of the Webvise system, OHIF structures can be authored, im posed on Web pages, and finally linked on the Web as any ordinary Web resou rce. Following a link to an OHIF file automatically invokes a Webvise downl oad of the meta data structures and the annotated Web content will be displ ayed in the browser. Moreover, the Webvise system provides support for user s to create, manipulate, and share the OHIF structures together with custom made Web pages and MS Office 2000 documents on WebDAV servers. These Webvi se facilities goes beyond earlier open hypermedia systems in that it now al lows fully distributed open hypermedia linking between Web pages and WebDAV aware desktop applications. The paper describes the OHIF format and demons trates how the Webvise system handles OHIF. Finally, it argues for better s upport for handling user controlled meta data, e.g. support for linking in non-XML data, integration of external linking in the Web infrastructure, an d collaboration support for external structures and meta-data. (C) 2000 Pub lished by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.