Timeglider

Hey, everyone: I am on a quest to bring you new and awesome ways to locate and organize information - and I just love today's find.
It's called Timeglider, and it's a free, web-based timeline creator built on an Adobe Flash platform.



Timeglider allows you to build a multi-layered timeline, so if your information is very dense, you can prevent visual clutter by assigning importance values to your events: readers see "the big picture" at first glance, and then zoom in for more detail - from century at a glance to hour by hour. To move forward and back along the timeline, just grab and drag, and multicolored "event" lines allow readers to visually follow long term events, and see how they overlap and interact. I also love the fact that you can import images, and everything that you mouse over brings up an information box. It's visually interesting, AND interactive: that makes me happy.
The first thing readers will see when you share your timeline (which is private until you give out the url - no casual searchers can find or use your research!) is the introduction that you write, then, by clicking "start", they can start travelling through your timeline.

I can think of soooooo many applications for this program: for student presentations, for educators who want a graphic way to present information, for historians. Genealogists could use it, as could journalists following a story or novelists doing plot development. Hey, even if you've got a wedding or some other complicated event to plan, you could use Timeglider.

Take a tour of some of the sample time lines on the Timeglider site. (You can start with the Wright Brothers example above, but it's hard to get the full effect in that little box. ) It's really cool. And here in the Browsing Room, that's what Thursdays are all about.
Until next time,
Bookjones