A web annotation tool that makes it easy for people to express themselves by reacting to anything online – an article, a photo, a video, even a specific snippet from a page. This tool uses an annotation plugin which allows people to give feedback in the form of comments and reactions.

Co-created by Porter Bayne, Tyler Brock and Eric Chaves, Antenna aims to change the face of online conversation. After a successful beta test on news site Hypervocal and (full disclosure) Latoya Peterson’s site, Racialicious, Bayne, Brock and Chavs decided to revamp the overall design and user interface in 2012. Created around the idea that all reader engagement is preceded by some emotion or thought, the widget allows the user to express that emotion in their reaction to content on a whole page or parts of a page online, encouraging smarter use of information and participation, from shopping to public policy: for example, how do we making ratings systems more accurate and more self-descriptive (what does it mean to say a restaurant has 3 stars?).

The biggest challenge for Antenna (before called ReadrBoard) is distinguishing itself from all the other online user reaction tools. The developers must make the case for how Antenna provides a higher quality of participation.