Digital Inclusion Commentary Site

This website uses an innovative structure to present information in the style of a book, but allowing readers to post their own comments to annotate the text.

When you visit this site, you are presented with a table of contents (left panel in the screenshot below, edged in green to highlight):

Click on a chapter name to read it. This will then display the chapter text in the left panel (shown below), and you can scroll down the page to read the full text.

Note in the picture above that where there is a section heading, there is a number in the left margin (this is the paragraph number), and a speech bubble icon in the right. These indicate the points where you can view or add comments about a section of the text.

If there is a number beneath a speech bubble, this indicates that comments have been written about the paragraph. Clicking on the speech bubble will let you view comments by displaying them in the middle panel of the page; for example:

If you would like to comment upon a section, click on the speech bubble next to the section heading. Alternatively, if you would like to make a comment about the chapter as a whole, click on the speech bubble and page icon at the top of the chapter.

Clicking on the speech bubble will bring up the following short form (edged in green in the screenshot below) in the middle panel of the page, which you can use to post a comment.

In order to post a comment, you must submit your name and email address. Your email address won't be publicly viewable. You can also submit a link to a related or useful online resource in the URI field (this is optional), and at the bottom is a longer text box to write your comment in. When finished, click the button. Your comment won't appear on the site immediately, but will be publicly viewable as soon as it has been approved by a moderator.

You can keep up-to-date with recent activities on the site using the panels at the right, which allow you to navigate the website by chapter, contributor or recent postings, for example.

This structure has been developed by the Institute of the Future of the Book and can be used on the Wordpress platform by installing the Commentpress theme.