Even though the Internet Movie Database isn't a competitor for us in terms of the kind of service it provides, the IMDB offers interesting perspectives on the use of interactivity in a database, and ideas on how the annotation feature can be structured.

#1 Main screen entering any specific project (film) page - two interactive sections on the first screen are pointed out in red - one allows users to add comments, the other allows users to rate the film. Yellow buttons on the page, as aligned with the second arrow below, are used throughout the site to indicate points where the user can add or edit information.

#2 Users can also click on indivdual items within the page, each of which link interactively to other information on those terms within the database - for instance, if the user clicks on "Bill Murray", the database entries on that term appear, along with items in that entry that can be edited by the user. In this case, the user can edit the biography (after clicking into it), add (but not delete) images, and edit the filmography. Each of these require the user to be a registered user of IMDB, and all input is filtered.

#3 All the subsections are made up of information sumitted and monitored by users. In the case below, there is a separate section called 'trivia' which consists of trivia about a specific entry submitted by users. In the case of more popular entries, like the one below, pages get eyeballed several hundred times daily, and so the monitoring for errors is done in a fairly horizontal manner without any top-down editing required.

#4 Adding, but not removing, comments (as opposed to 'reviews') to the site are fairly easy, and users who do not register are also allowed to put there comments in. Users are however encouraged to register, add personal information to link them to their comments, thus, it is possible to trace the history of an individual's comments. In addition, the arrows below point out that most of the information is required to be inputted in specific formats.

#5 Users can interactively post messages message boards relating to any specific entry. This is a related resource to the annotation system we have in mind. Users have the option of following or ignoring certain threads of messages as they wish, and of reporting other users who misuse the message boards. As seen below, the moderators for the site have deleted a posting judged inappropriate.

#6 For entering information to the site, users need to use a variety of interfaces, depending on the kind of task. Here is an example of the interface to update one's profile. Notice that the user's past history, such as threads ignored, show up in the profile.

#7 Here is an example of a page that is dynamically generated, and in which the user has no interactive features. In this case, the database was asked to combine two data elements "Bill Murray" and "Dan Aykroyd" and exhibit the results. In such cases, the results change only if users change information in either of the primary data elements "Bill Murray" or "Dan Aykroyd"

#8 Certain items in the database have more layers of authorization for altering existing information. These are elements such as the main details, reviews, and business information relating to films. To add or delete from these, users must be registered and follow a certain protocol. In the case below, the user has tried to alter the entries under some of these protected elements, as shown by the arrows. As seen in the two steps below, this form is evidently more restrictive than the earlier format that allowed users to add message board entries.

#9 Here is a second step, in which the user is asked to enter the name of the actor and character they played - this format is standard through the entire system.

#10 Finally the system verifies existing matches to any information entered by the user. Any new information added by the user gets indexed in the same fashion. Notice below, the user has just added "Prabhu" as the name of an actor, the database asks the user to verify which of the following individuals is being referred to, and a reference to the individual's other entries is added. In this case, the user is asked if 'Prabhu' who is also listed under the entry "Agni Nachatram" is the person being referred to. If unsure, the user may click on the entry to check.

#11 One existing annotation system is Microsoft Word's footnotes. Some key differences exist between this and a web implementation of annotation - in the case of Word documents, the annotation does not need to be interactively linked to other existing information on the document, whereas a web implementation may need documents to not only cross link within themselves, but also to other documents within the database.

Strengths:

• Very active critical mass of users, interactive areas are eyeballed very often
• Currently largest database of its kind on the Internet
• Very simple web interface, unchanged for several years, with almost no graphics
• Links are very easy to find, and highly intuitive
• Very high interlinking within the site
• Vast collection of keywords covering most genres of cinema - listing under keywords has also been done very effectively, at least for the 'more visited' films
• Excellent search facilities
• Does a good job of creating a 'community' of users, thus regular users contribute often to the site
• A lot of work put into the creation of categories - almost any perceivable information on films is listed under individual entries.

Weaknesses:

• The facilites to update information are not intuitively available to users, difficult for first-time users to add comments
• Significant scrolling often needed to get to points where the real interactive information lies
• Descriptive information and instructions are too detailed and take up large portions of the screen - the fonts used are large, making this a bigger problem in the case of long entries

Competitive Analysis Summary

Good Features:

• Excellent and highly reliable information on projects
• Good database structure for long-term expansion
• Open structure allowed it to find acceptance among online users and film buffs, who now form the critical mass of contributors who power the database (even though imdb.com was later bought over by Amazon, they carried over their initial body of contributors)
• Very convenient (although unattractive) design for browsing

Mistakes to Avoid:

• Keep less need for moderation - imdb.com has a very large amount of data coming in daily, which must require a lot of moderation.
• Make a more attractive design