User:Clementvidal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Project name - Chronoline: A dynamic and customizable chronological timeline for Wikipedia.
1. Description
Browsing encyclopedias, I once had a dream. That would be to have a custom chronological timeline displaying only items you have read. That timeline would be YOUR unique timeline. You should be able to incorporate in it only items you know. With this tool, you would see all at once how your favorite composer, scientist, artist, period, political movement, etc... relate to each others. Since it is well known that science, society and arts are strongly tied, such a timeline would constitute a very valuable intellectual tool to explore those linkages.
2. Implementation
How could it be implemented to Wikipedia? By clicking on the timeline, you would of course go back to the original article. Items could be added to the timeline in two ways: - Automatically. All the items consulted by a logged-on user would be added to the timeline. - Manually. The user will have to click on a tab: "add this item to my timeline". The user should be able to use the methods he prefers.
How would be items incorporated to the timeline? There is the problem that each (or almost each) item in Wikipedia would have to have a date (ex: 1789, French revolution), or a time interval (ex: someone's date of birth and death). Given that work done, it will be easy to automatically add an item to the timeline. Furthermore, the category of the item would automatically organize the timeline. For example, by domains (arts, sciences, politic, etc...), persons, etc...
Information overload. There is obviously the risk that the timeline would become unreadable because of too many items on it. There is however two ways to soften this problem. One is to allow no limit to the size of the timeline. So, it would just grow in size, not in confusion. The other is with the possibility to add viewing filters to the timeline.
Technical difficulties. I guess that there are many excellent programmers who already can't wait to tackle those challenges ;)
It is certainly some work, but I hope that I've convinced you that this project has the potential to enrich considerably the encyclopedia experience. As usual, comments, improvements, and discussions are very welcomed.
Clément Vidal.
