| ChronoZoom | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developers | University of California Berkeley,Moscow State University,Microsoft Research |
| Initial release | April 29, 2010; 15 years ago (2010-04-29) |
| Repository | github |
| Written in | JavaScript,HTML5,C# |
| Type | Website |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| Website | www |
ChronoZoom is a free open source project that visualizestime on the broadest possible scale from theBig Bang to thepresent day.[1] Conceived byWalter Alvarez andRoland Saekow and developed by the department of Earth and Planetary Science at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, in collaboration withMicrosoft Research andMoscow State University, Alvarez unveiled the first ChronoZoom prototype at UC Berkeley's 2010 Faculty Research Lecture.[2] Although that demo is no longer available to the public online,[3] a second version rewritten inHTML5 is now available and open source.[4] ChronoZoom was inspired by the study ofBig History, and it approaches the documentation and visualization of time and history in the same way thatGoogle Earth deals withgeography.[5] ChronoZoom allows users to see the true scale of time over cosmic, geologic, biological and social periods.[6]
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.[7] 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.
The 1.0 proof of concept was released on April 29, 2010, at the 97th Annual Faculty Research Lecture Series given by Alvarez.[8]
A 2.0 beta was released on March 14, 2012, completely rewritten inHTML5 and available as open source[9] via theOutercurve Foundation.[10]
Work continued through 2014 supported by Microsoft Research (Redmond). The work continues as of 2015 supported byAxiell (Sweden),Fontys University (Eindhoven), and theUniversity of Amsterdam.[11]The project code is freely accessible onGitHub.[12]
