Patent ID: 8595611

Claim:
An annotation information distribution apparatus including a processor, comprising: a section that receives a first annotation which is added, by a user, to a shared electronic document in a task in which a plurality of users participate; a storage section that stores the first annotation; a section that, in a case where it is determined that a condition for transmission is met, identifies an annotation relevant to the first annotation from among annotations stored in the storage section, and composes a message in which content of both the identified annotation and the first annotation is described, in the form of electronic mail which is to be transmitted to the plurality of users; a determination section that, in a case where it is determined that the condition for transmission is not met, determines if the storage section stores a second annotation to which the first annotation is added as a reply, and about which any message has not been transmitted to the plurality of users; and a section that, in a case where the determination section determines that the storage section stores the second annotation, composes a first message in which content of both the first and second annotations is described, and composes, in a case where the determination section determines that the storage section does not store the second annotation, a second message in which content of only the first annotation is described; wherein the determination section determines if the first annotation is the reply to the second annotation based upon whether the first and second annotations are arranged at one position in the electronic document or whether the first and second annotations are arranged at overlapping positions, with respect to each other, in the electronic document; wherein the condition for transmission is whether a number of characters of the first annotation is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of characters.