i use scrapbook and it’s pretty good. the features can be pretty clunky in terms of the sticky note function and in-line editing — like funny things happen with line breaks, and there’s no precision with inserting your notes amongst the text on the page, if that makes sense. i mostly use scrapbook for taking snapshots of receipts and really long articles.

anyhow, hope you’re well.

I look forward to learning more about ShiftSpace, and I’m sure your next release will provide even more to be intrigued by. Who knows, I may end up writing about ShiftSpace and other Web annotation tools in some kind of formal way. That would be a good way to justify me spending so much time on it…

I’m helping out on the ShiftSpace project and I appreciate your writeup.

I hear you on the overly-complex issue. I’m trying to think of how we can retain our “platform-ness” (allowing others to build their own tools) while presenting the user with a more simple, straightforward experience. It’s a big challenge I think. Our lead designer, Mushon, has some ideas that I think will make the next release more appealing on that front.

We’ve discussed group collaboration before on our mailing list (http://is.gd/c8Di), but so far we haven’t implemented any of the ideas that were brought up in that thread.

One other thing to consider is that since both the client and server are open source you could host your own separate ShiftSpace server, creating an “alternate universe” separate from our community of users. Kind of like how WordPress allows you to host your own blog.