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Events Dictionary and Timeline Status Report
Last Updated: August 11, 2008.
Pema Geyleg of Bhutan is actively implementing an Events and Timeline Database application using Ruby on Rails technology. We expect to have a robust working implementation by the end of 2008, and then a public release in by Spring 2009. The application will work in tandem with the Place Dictionary to provide a powerful pair of applications dealing with time and space respectively. Just as the Place Dictionary will output spatial data to maps so that users can visualize places and broader spatial patterns, the Events Dictionary will output temporal data to timelines so that users can visualize events and broader temporal patterns. Both will be integrated with THL's image, audio-video, and textual collections, so that all such objects can be indexed by their spatial and temporal coordinates.
This technical work is on the basis of a previous implementation by Matt Frost in the 2007, which was itself based upon an initial prototype in File Maker Pro in the 2002-4. Various faculty and graduate students have generated data using these earlier tools, as well as simple word processing documents and spreadsheets. Once we complete the new application, we will work on migrating this content.
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to request an update, and we will do promptly. Limited staff resources and many projects will sometimes mean activity outstrips documentation.