Solving Misinformation and Building The Future of Intelligent Online Conversations with Social Annotation

Brains Byte Back

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, we speak with Joe Ferraro, Vice President of Revenue at Hypothesis, a company striving to implement a conversation layer over the entire web that works everywhere, without needing implementation by any underlying site.

Ferraro kicks off the show by sharing how the goal of the company is to enable discussions and collaboration on various topics, similar to commenting in Google Docs but applicable to the entire web. He opens up about how this initially began as an idea in 2011 when the founder and CEO, Dan Whaley, identified a need to address misinformation on the web.

Ferraro shares how Whaley came up with the concept to facilitate conversations on source data, such as articles or research studies, to promote nuanced discussions and different perspectives. The project underwent several years of development and standardization efforts, leading to the launch of Hypothesis in 2019.

Additionally, Ferraro explains the origins of the name, advocating that it signifies the exploration of theories and the importance of bringing facts and conversations to the forefront. He also goes on to add that the site’s creative URL (hypothes.is) is both a domain hack and a nod to Iceland's progressive approach to freedom of speech and information.

Following this, Ferraro shares how Hypothesis is making a difference in the education space. He states that Hypothesis initially gained traction in the education sector, with millions of university students using the tool for collaborative reading and discussions. He also argues that students have embraced the ability to collaborate beyond traditional discussion boards, and the aim is to help them transition seamlessly into the workplace.

And finally, Ferraro wraps up the show by sharing how the company has recently entered the enterprise space, where the goal is to enable more efficient collaboration within organizations and relieve the administrative burden of using multiple tools.

Links 🔗

Our Guest🙋:

Find out more about Joe Ferraro here (LinkedIn) -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephmferraro

Find out more about Hypothesis (website) -

https://web.hypothes.is/

Blog Post -

https://web.hypothes.is/blog/preparing-students-for-the-workplace-with-social-annotation/

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