> > What I'd like is to have a decentralized annotation service.
>
> Yes. And the sooner, the better.

Well, I laid out one possible roadmap for such a thing at
http://www.netcrucible.com/semantic.html. I do not think it is hard;
it is just that everyone would rather talk about it and try to get
someone else to do it. Decentralized annotation is very much
appropriate for this list, and much of the infrastructure that is
needed is already in place (NNTP, etc.).

Be aware that even a decentralized annotation service would very
likely meet the same objections as smart tags from many publishers.

> _Golden Opportunity_ for them to work towards winning the trust of
> the community, AND making a _firm stand_ for Civil Liberties in
> this nation.

Am I the only one who sees this as a conflict between publishers and
readers? The objection #2 that Robert (and Dave) pointed out would
exist regardless of who supplied the technology. I personally
(speaking only for myself) think it is not any big company's place to
battle in social issues like this. If publishers get upset that
someone makes it possible for a reader to "bring along" a competitor
while reading a site, that sounds like an argument that the publisher
and the reader need to work out between themselves, and if I'm the
guy who sold the copy of "consumer reports" magazine to you, I'm
gonna get the heck out of town and stop selling magazines as soon as
I see the knives come out. (I'm not ignoring the other issue
about "default" tags; we all agree that this is specific to the
market power that a particular company holds. But this is *not* the
only or even primary objection that many important people have to
annotations).