ChronoZoom is a free open source project that visualizes
time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
on the broadest possible scale from the
Big Bang to the
present day. Conceived by
Walter Alvarez
Walter Alvarez (born October 3, 1940) is a professor in the Earth and Planetary Science department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is most widely known for the theory that dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, developed in ...
and
Roland Saekow and developed by the department of Earth and Planetary Science at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
in collaboration with
Microsoft Research and
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
, Alvarez unveiled the first ChronoZoom prototype at UC Berkeley's 2010 Faculty Research Lecture. Although that demo is no longer available to the public online, a second version rewritten in
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
is now available and open source. ChronoZoom was inspired by the study of
Big History
Big History is an academic discipline which examines history from the Big Bang to the present. Big History resists specialization, and searches for universal patterns or trends. It examines long time frames using a multidisciplinary approac ...
, and it approaches the documentation and visualization of time and history in the same way that
Google Earth deals with
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
. ChronoZoom allows users to see the true scale of time over cosmic, geologic, biological and social periods.
Purpose
The primary goal of ChronoZoom is to make time relationships between different studies of history clear and vivid. In the process, it provides a framework for exploring related electronic resources. It thus serves as a "master timeline" tying together all kinds of specialized timelines and electronic resources, and aspires to bridge the gap between the humanities and the sciences and to bring together and unify all knowledge of the past. ChronoZoom is planned as an educational tool as well as a research tool, by allowing researchers to plot various time series data next to each other for comparison.
Versions
The 1.0 proof of concept was released on April 29, 2010 at the 97th Annual Faculty Research Lecture Series given by Alvarez.
A 2.0 beta was released on March 14, 2012, completely rewritten in
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
and available as open source via the
Outercurve Foundation.
Work continued through 2014 supported by Microsoft Research (Redmond). The work continues as of 2015 supported by
Axiell (Sweden),
Fontys University (
Eindhoven), and the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
.
The project code is freely accessible on
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...
.
ChronoZoom on Github
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Awards
* 2013 SXSW Interactive Awards Winner (Educational Resource)
* 2012 Digital Education Achievement Award Winner (University Project)
See also
* Microsoft Live Labs
Microsoft Live Labs was a partnership between MSN and Microsoft Research that focused on applied research for Internet products and services at Microsoft. Live Labs was headed by Dr. Gary William Flake, who prior to joining Microsoft was a princi ...
* Seadragon Software
Seadragon Software was a team within the Microsoft Live Labs. Its product, Seadragon, is a web optimized visualization technology that allows graphics and photos to be smoothly browsed, regardless of their size. Seadragon is the technology powerin ...
* Timeline
A timeline is a display of a list of events in chronological order. It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates paralleling it, and usually contemporaneous events.
Timelines can use any suitable scale represen ...
References
External links
ChronoZoom HTML5ChronoZoom at the Outercurve FoundationMicrosoft Research Summit 2010: Visualizing a Universe of Data
ChronoZoom: travel through time for education, exploration, and information technology research
{{Microsoft FOSS
History websites of the United States
Computer-related introductions in 2010
Microsoft free software
Software using the Apache license
Timeline Software