Current mood: working
Current music: none
Entry tags: web2.0, timeline, mit, jewelkilcher, simile, xml

Web 2.0 Goodness

One of the groups I work for, The Simile Group, released a javascript program for visualizing temporal data. It's called Timeline. It allows you to plot XML data on a graphic and then to click and scroll that graphic (like Google Maps).

I made a Timeline biography of Jewel Kilcher to give me some idea of how it works. She just released a new album called "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland", which I thought was excellent. She's touring to support it now, and I'm going to go see her later this month at Mohegan Sun. She's got a Country album comming out next year too, that I can't wait to hear. Anyway, here's what it looks like:

<center>

(click a thumb nail to access the running program) </center>

I have a list of patches I want to write for the program. One itch is that it doesn't do a good job with layout when events are non-concurrent but share start and end days. Another is that it doesn't support the idea of events happening as part of a larger event in concurrence with events that are not part of that larger event with out significant screen real estate consumption. You really need 700px's in height to see my Timeline and use it easily, already. We'll see if I can find the time for the patches. Overall, it's a cool app though. The API is well developed and makes good use of the OO paradigm.

It would be worth while to play with. It would have been nice to see on CNN.com during Sept. 11, for example. The documentation and source code are available from the Timeline page on Simile's Website.

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