Follow the past, present, and future of Dipity!
Created by zs on Mar 18, 2008
Last updated: 04/05/12 at 03:46 AM
Do you have a WordPress.org blog? Do you want to enable easy embedding of your Dipity timeline? Well, good news, Dipity is now oEmbed positive. Thanks to a slick bit of engineering from our developer team WordPress/Dipity users with programatic knowledge can now turn on this oSo useful feature.
So what is an [...]
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/07/22/dipity-now-oembed-positive/
One of our awesome Dipsters responded to our recent offer: create an in-depth interactive digital timeline and get a free Pro Account with Dipity. Miquiel Banks, or @kmedia09 on Twitter showed us just how it’s done with a great timeline of the Major Movie releases for 2011.
This great timeline allows you to track [...]
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/06/13/miquiel-did-it-and-so-can-you-create-a-timeline-become-a-pro/
Dipity is an effective way to integrate, organize and visualize large sets of data. Employing the timeline, flipbook and map viewing modes, users can view their data in chronological order, by media associated to their content or by geolocation. Each viewing mode provides a novel and interesting way to visualize data. However, at Dipity we are constantly pushing ourselves to figure out new ways to make the organization and presentation of data easier and more efficient. The question: "How can we make it easier for a visitor to a timeline to find the specific information they are looking for?"
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/06/03/search-within-your-timeline-a-new-feature-from-dipity/
Hello Dipsters!
This week we decided to “just say no” to cluttered embeds.
Recently, we have been focusing on ways to make our embeddable, interactive timelines look a bit better on your website or blog. Visualizing data only really works when you can actually see it! We were getting user feedback and suggestions [...]
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/05/06/dipity-timeline-embeds-now-less-cluttered/
Hello Dipsters. We’ve been listening to your requests and have taken a few steps to make timeline creation and shared editing a bit easier. It is by no means a finished product, but we have added a timeline creation wizard that we think makes the whole experience much more user friendly. In addition, we fixed a bug that was preventing users from sharing timelines via email. Finally, you can now add editors OR contributors to your timeline via their Dipity username or email. Hooray! Let’s take a closer look at the new features and changes.
Dipity chef Justin Time serving up some hot new features.
Permission Settings
We’ve changed sharing and editing a bit. First of all, you can now allow people to edit via email. The trick here is that the email you enter has to be the one that person used to sign up for their Dipity account. Since, this might not be the easiest way, we made it possible to invite people via their usernames as well. If you an invite someone to help you with your Dipity timeline who is not currently a user, they will receive an invite to sign up for Dipity. Spreading the word!
We also split collaborators into two categories: editors and contributors.
Editors:
People you invite to be editors of your timeline have full control over sources, events and settings. They can add events to the existing timeline, edit or delete events that you, or anyone else, has contributed and can also change elements like the topic thumbnail, center on date or default zoom. Be sure you want people added as editors to have that much power over your timeline!
Contributors:
Contributors can add events to your timeline, but they cannot edit or delete any existing events or timeline settings. This is the perfect permission setting if you want to open up your timeline for people to participate, but without ceding too much control of the basics. You essentially become the moderator of the timeline, as you will be able to edit or delete events added by contributors.
The Timeline Wizard:
Let’s face it, people have short attention spans these days. If they can’t figure something out right away, they will probably just put it down and walk away. To make things a bit easier, and to make sure people stick it out when building sweet interactive digital timelines, we have added a step-by-step process that guides the Dipster through timeline creation.
Step 1: Enter the basic info
The title and description of your topic are very important elements of the timeline. The title goes into the URL, and the description helps people find your timeline via search. A good title is short and to the point. A good description includes important keywords related to your topic of choice and a general overview of why you are creating the timeline.
Also, make sure to add a topic thumbnail for your timeline. This picture will appear when sharing your topic via Twitter, Facebook or by link, and will also make your timeline more appealing if it ends up on our hot topics page.
Finally, edit your permissions. Leave fields you don’t want active blank. For example, if I want my timeline to be publicly viewable, but want several other users to help contribute I would set my permissions like this:
Step 2: Add Events to your timeline
Here you will find the same easy-to-use tools to build your timeline. From this page you can add social media sources and RSS feeds to populate your timeline. You can also add events manually, which generally results in a more interesting and visually appealing timeline.
Step 3: Advanced Settings
The third and final step is the most important to the overall appearance of your timeline. Here you can toggle commenting off and on, pick a theme and more. The most vital elements of advanced settings are the default zoom and center on date. The default zoom determines the starting zoom level when a visitor first views your timeline. They can then use the zoom bar to move in and out, but first impressions are important, especially on embeds.
The center on date tool allows you to adjust the middle point of your timeline. For example, if you are look at a 10 year scale, and your timeline ranges from 1990-2006, 1998 would be the perfect center point for your timeline.
Here is an example of the same timeline embed with different default zoom and center on date settings. Check out how different the visualization of each becomes.
The History of Legos (100 year zoom level, 1965 center on date)
The History of Legos on Dipity.
The History of Legos (10 yr zoom level, 1973 center on date)
The History of Legos on Dipity.
The History of Legos (1 yr zoom level, July 1, 1973 center on date)
The History of Legos on Dipity.
We set this up in response to a call from users to simplify the sharing and timeline creation process, so we hope you like it. If you have any feedback, suggestions or praise, feel free to try us on Twitter (@Dipity) or on our GetSatisfaction page.
Remember, this is not a finished product so if you make a great suggestion, we’re more than likely to use it in an upcoming release. Please do share!
Coming soon: A screencast walking through the new features.
Thanks for reading,
Steve, Community Manager
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/02/23/justin-time-serving-up-some-new-features/
I’ll start this post off with a disclaimer: before Ed Yong’s timeline on Reprogrammed Stem Cells popped up a couple weeks ago, I had no idea about the politics and inner-workings of science journalism, or that science writers were even looking at Dipity as a tool to enhance coverage and provide context.
My exposure to science news goes as far as my frequent tendency to geek out over anything Hubble, Inca or space travel-related. However, the big influx of visitors and the buzz surrounding the Stem Cell timeline meant I had to answer the question, what exactly is going in in the world of science coverage and how does Dipity fit in the larger picture?
Reprogrammed stem cells on Dipity.
We’ve discussed the transition from traditional print coverage to online coverage before on this blog. Obviously, science coverage has it’s place in the digital news revolution. However, two things set science coverage apart from other sectors of the news.
First off, to paraphrase, other news sectors tend to cover “distinct” events. These events happen and have direct, identifiable consequences and repercussions. Scientific discovery and progress, however, unfolds slowly over time. Results must be peer-reviewed and confirmed, and new discoveries tend to lead to more questions, not less. This leads to the problem. Just because a science story is reported, doesn’t make the results valid or applicable.
As John Rennie, former editor in chief of Scientific American, writes, “Scientific publication is thus like a debutante’s ball: it formally presents a discovery to society but makes no guarantees about its eventual prospects. Yet journalism typically treats the publication of a paper in a journal as a newsworthy, validating event.”
The quote from Rennie comes from his blog on the Guardian UK, Time for change in science journalism? Another point he discussed, and the second way science journalism differs from other coverage, is the use of “embargoed press releases.” These embargoes grant reporters access to important papers published in scientific journals. In exchange, the reporter agrees not to publish anything until the embargo has been lifted. As a result, “the news media rely heavily if not exclusively on the embargoed press releases in choosing stories to cover.”
While at one end we have press release embargoes, which limit space for distinctive or original coverage, on the other end of the publishing cycle we have the Ingelfinger Rule, which means journals refuse to publish research that has been commented on or published elsewhere.
The rule was originally created to prevent health studies that had not been peer-tested from gaining public exposure. However, according to Matthew Battles of the Nieman Journalism Lab, “the rule more obviously helps journals protect their revenue sources — and it is for this reason that it has been widely adopted by most science publishers, even those who operate in fields with no public-health ramifications.”
In his piece, On an embargo-driven beat, science reporters aim to build for context, Battles points out the growing call to reevaluate the approach to science journalism as it goes digital. He admits that while science reporters don’t want to leave the concept of peer-review completely behind, as the world changes, “the double-barreled threat of embargo and the Ingelfinger Rule can have a deranging effect.”
In addition, scientists are starting to utilize social media tools and blogs themselves, meaning that scientists are responding rapidly to other’s work and exposing poorly done research faster. Such responses, though quick, are chaotic and seem to come from everywhere at once. Science journalism needs the online infrastructure to support the new flood of information. That is where Dipity comes in.
Ed Yong used Dipity on his blog in response to Rennie’s call to “approach science journalism differently.” He aggregated years of papers and studies to give a more complete picture of the context on the axis of time. According to Yong, his use of a Dipity improved his coverage of this particular topic “by looking at the stories that lead up to new discoveries, rather than focusing on every new paper in isolation.”
The timeline kicked off all sorts of conversations about best practices in science journalism and the use of tools like Dipity. Although I recognize that Dipity isn’t a be all and end all solution to the problems presented by adherence to outdated conventions of peer-review it is one of many emerging tools science reports can and are looking at to break the monotony.
This is a new age for journalism in general, and the specific challenges presented to scientific journalism inspired one science writer to test out Dipity as a potential tool to break from the regimented traditional science coverage lorded over by major journals. The results caught us by surprise, and it looks like he inspired others.
We are excited about the prospects and it seems that change has been a long time coming. As Apoorva Mandavilli writes in her article, Peer Review: Trial by Twitter “open, online peer review is hardly new. Since Internet usage began to swell in the 1990s, enthusiasts have been arguing that online commenting could and should replace the traditional process of pre-publication peer review that journals carry out to decide whether a paper is worth publishing.” Dipity gives scientists and reporters the ability to create context around an issue that can visually demonstrate the most important developments in science and research to journals, peers and the public.
We hope that Ed and others will continue to use Dipity timelines in order to improve their coverage of scientific developments, increase public interest and understanding, and help create a fairer system to determine what developments warrant reporting. Thank you to Ed Yong, John Rennie, Matthew Battles, Bora Zivkovic, and anyone else who has taken the time to use or write about Dipity!
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/02/16/dipity-and-the-age-of-enlightenment-in-science-journalism/
Protests in the Middle East have sparked imaginations worldwide. Everything from dreams of stable, moderate Arab democracies to fears of worldwide apocalypse to accusations of CIA conspiracies are flying around the internet. Whatever the reality and result of these epic events is, they will surely paint a lasting and drastic impression on the world.
The protests, however, are not isolated events. There are many different plot lines that caused the unrest to reach its fever pitch, for Ben Ali to flee Tunisia, or Mubarak to announce he will not seek reelection. These protests will resonate all over the world for generations to come, with the consequences, benefits and repercussions making themselves evident only with time.
Tara Todras-Whitehill, AP
There can be no doubt as to the scale of what is happening. This is certainly the biggest worldwide event since 9/11. According to the Business Insider, Al Jazeera’s website has seen a 2500% increase in web traffic since news of the protests in Egypt hit the air, with almost 60% of that traffic coming from the USA. In addition, nearly a quarter-million protestors filled Tahrir Square in Cairo yesterday.
This is only the beginning. Governments in the Middle East and elsewhere will feel more vulnerable, and the people more confident and inspired about their ability to affect change.
So how do we responsibly and effectively track something this huge? Episodic stories with no historical context and no follow up no longer suffice. There is too much access to information and too many sources of information to stick to the plan of traditional and finite news coverage. I believe the answer lies in recognizing and embracing the need for persistence in the new age of digital journalism.
Last week, we had the privilege of sitting down with Ed Lenert, Attorney and Adjunct Professor of Media Law at USF, who, among many other brilliant things, brought up the idea of persistence versus episodic stories. An episodic story is a one and done. A story with no lead up to, or follow up from the event. Try to think of a news story that fits in this category… Tough, isn’t it?
Despite the fact that almost every story worth reporting has a relevant pre and post text, many papers and networks cover only the most important or “sellable” part of the event, leaving the reader to find out the real context and consequences for him or herself. As a result, story after story appears on the front page, before fading into obscurity and out of the public consciousness.
Some readers will follow up with more research and some will not, but in today’s fast-moving world the onus should fall on the journalist to provide the whole story. Giving the pretext, the context and the follow up are not only important, but with the wide variety of tools available and being developed for and by journalists, easier than ever to share. The persistence of each story is something Ed imparts to his students, and something he illustrated poignantly with a personal anecdote.
Ed was riding AirBART from the Oakland Airport one day when a man approached the bus at a stoplight. The bus driver let the man board, who promptly knocked him out. The man, obviously on drugs, began to run the pockets of the passengers. Ed sized the guy up, wondered if he could take him down, and decided the answer was probably no. Ed grabbed his bags and ran off the bus. Police arrived minutes later and arrested the aggressor.
The next day a brief mention of the incident appeared in the paper. The suspect had apparently been a local football star (so no, Ed couldn’t have taken him down), but had fallen on hard times. Ed wanted to know more, but the paper didn’t provide the information. It shared the “sellable” episode of a man assaulting and robbing bus passengers, but not the circumstances that led him to do so, or the outcome of his trial and subsequent sentencing.
Not only is this information important for the narrative value, but also because it increases accountability within the court system, BART and law enforcement. The before and the after are not only relevant, they can be the difference between stagnation and positive change.
So taking this one small example and expanding it for the big picture, we come back to an internationally significant story, protests in the Middle East. How will the news media account for the amazing amount of information and persistence of the story? How do we dig deeper than the “sellable” violence, unrest and political upheaval to expose the true story behind revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt?
One news provider tackling this type of coverage head on is Voice of America. VOA news used a Dipity timeline on multiple articles concerning Egypt to present the career and legacy of soon to be deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Here is that timeline:
Hosni Mubarak’s Career on Dipity.
Not all of VOA’s readers know about Mubarak’s career, but it is easy to argue that understanding the leader’s history helps paint a better picture of what is going on today. By building a simple and easy to follow Dipity timeline, VOA is providing it’s users with a genuinely complete picture of the event. Kudos to them.
So, VOA used Dipity to provide context, but how can you follow up on a story? I’ve been keeping tabs on the situation in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia on our home page, updating the timeline regularly when new stories are reported. I plan to keep updating this timeline as things develop, addressing a persistent story with persistent coverage. As this story will still be unfolding a year from now, I could continue to update it, creating something truly all-encompassing.
Middle East Protests on Dipity.
Dipity is a new and effective tool for the age of digital journalism. With Dipity, editors, writers and researchers can track stories, photos, videos, locations and moments in time in a single space. The application is free to try and provides newsrooms with a tool for their arsenal that does not require a lot of time, resources or effort to build and maintain.
Furthermore, Dipity is not just good for supplementing or broadcasting coverage of a story, but can also be used for research. For example, writers could track stories that revolve around a certain issue, person or incident, referring back to their Dipity timeline for context when writing a new piece. I’ve said it many times, Dipity’s potential applications are limitless.
However, Dipity is not the only tool out there. Storify, Historypin and Intersect are just three digital tools journalists should take a peak at when looking for ways to enhance their coverage.
As events in Egypt and elsewhere prove, traditional coverage on it’s own will no longer keep readers engaged. Adapting to the new needs and preferences of readers is crucial for the survival and growth of news media.
If you are a journalist or editor and are looking for new ways to expand your toolset, provide persistent coverage, or simply increase reader engagement, then Dipity is for you. If you would like to find out more, or join in the conversation about digital journalism, we would love to hear from you. Find us on Twitter (@dipity) or Facebook and we would be glad to answer any of your questions, help you get started, or just take a look at your timeline.
Thank you for reading,
-Steve
Dipity Community Manager
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/02/03/a-brave-new-world-the-middle-east-and-persistence-coverage-in-the-age-of-digital-journalism/
All good things must come to an end so although our Dipity community will continue to make useful and amazing timelines, this will be the last of this five part “best of” series. We will continue to feature Dipster timelines on our blog, so feel free to send any interesting timelines our way.
Last time we took a look a an i.materialise blogpost on 3D printing turned into a very detailed Dipity timeline, as well as The Stueben Glass Timeline tracing the long history of the art glass manufacturer. Both were great examples of collaboration and innovative uses of the Dipity platform. This week we focus on two more amazing applications.
1. 2011 MLS Super Draft Tracker
Description: All the picks and trades from all rounds of the 2011 SuperDraft.
Timespan: January 13, 2011, 12:00PM to January 13, 2011, 4:10PM
As a long time reader of MLS-Rumors.net I was excited a couple of weeks ago when we had a little talk about Dipity timelines with the site owners via Twitter. Then, on Thursday, we got the tweet that they were employing Dipity to create a live draft tracker for the 2011 MLS Super Draft.
2011 MLS SuperDraft on Dipity.
Since Dipity can be updated in real time, it makes for a good tool when covering rapidly developing events. For example, the Washington Post used Dipity to follow the extraction of each of the 33 Chilean Miners in 2010.
MLS Rumors took that same concept and applied it to sports. I had never though of using Dipity as a draft tracker before, but why not? As you can see from the embed, its a great way for fans to follow along. Along with the basic stats, pics and description of the pick, MLS Rumors used the Dipity event to add video highlights of players and links to player profiles. Using the timeline I was able to follow along with my Sounder’s picks and furthermore, learn a bit about our incoming draft class.
Great job on the timeline and we hope that your site continues to grow as exponentially as the MLS talent pool!
2. Elainie Lillios Concert Calendar
Description: A “future” timeline of Elainie Lillios upcoming events and concerts.
Timespan: January 3, 2011 to April 30, 2011
We first head from Elainie when she asked for help getting started on a History of Music Timeline. She wanted to add all of her students as editors of the timeline so they could work on it together. Once we got things working, she shared her personal timeline with us. We are sure glad she did.
Elainie is a composer and made a timeline of her upcoming concerts with Dipity. She then embedded the timeline on her website. Click on the image below to check out the embed.
In Elainie’s words, “t’s FAB! — Much cooler than a simple calendar!” We couldn’t agree more. Why show a simple text calendar when you can add images, links and more and display it all in a perfect chronological order?
Elainie Lillios Activities on Dipity.
I had never thought of using Dipity as a planner or calendar for the upcoming year, but now that I see it in action, I am more than convinced. And of course, any good time machine should work properly in the past, present and future.
So there we have it, ten amazing, innovative and surprising ways Dipsters have utilized our platform. Whether its a data visualization, calendar, educational project or draft tracker, our users seem to be doing it all. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, probably way more times than any of you want to ever hear, there is NO LIMIT to how you can utilize Dipity. Try it out today!
-Steve, Community Manager
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/01/18/the-ultimate-time-machine-ten-amazing-ways-dipsters-use-timelines-pt-5/
Happy new year Dipsters! I hope your 2011 is as amazing as 2010 and more. On that note, way back when in 2010, we took a look at some very cool Dipity applications. So far we took a look at Deportation Nation and The Education Technology Consortium of Northern Arizona University, The Robert R. Taylor Network and South Sudan Info Timeline, and finally The History of Art Controversies and Growing Up In The Victorian Era.
Each of the timelines represent a novel and creative way to visualize data with Dipity. For the new year, we have two more awesome Dipity applications. Let’s check them out.
1. Rearview Mirror 2010: DIY 3D Printing
Description: Inspired by an i.materialise blogpost, this timeline uses a retrospective on the field of 3D printing in 2010 to create a visualization of the recent history of a growing and more widely recognized technology - 3D printing.
Timespan: Jan 1, 2010 - Dec 31, 2010
i.materialise author Joris wrote on his blogpost about his “abject horror there was no ‘year in review’ for 3D printing.” He decided to correct this error with the most comprehensive, unbiased and inclusive retrospective he could come up with. He must have done something right, as his post generated quite a few comments and even got picked up by a Dipity user who used the data to produce an excellent Dipity timeline.
Dipity user TeamTeamUSA, AKA Miles, was i.nspired by Joris’ article and shared it with us here at Dipity as well as with the post’s author.
Here is the Dipity timeline:
Rearview Mirror 2010: 3D Printing on Dipity.
This couldn’t be a more perfect example of what gets us feeling nerdy and sentimental about our product. Web 2.0 means more individuals are publishing content, and when more people are publishing content, there is a higher chance that someone, somewhere is producing extremely high quality and pragmatic information.
This is just one example where someone fused an important and interesting data set with the data visualization tools offered by Dipity. It is a textbook case of web users inspiring others, and Dipity is glad to be part of that chain by offering the tools for timeline creation.
Kudos to Joris and Miles, and thank you for sharing!
2. Steuben Glass Timeline
Description: A complete history of Steuben Glass.
Timespan: 1903-2010
Founded in 1903, Steuben Glass is an American art glass manufacturer founded in Corning, New York. The company let us know about their timeline via their facebook page and we are sure glad they did.
The Stueben Glass timeline traces the long history of the company through acquisitions, placement of work in art galleries, store openings, celebrity work and critical acclaim. The timeline also shows releases of major collections and attaches photos to show you the work that has made the company so successful.
Some of my favorite discoveries were that Steuben created the crystal egg that was the central focus of Risky Business starring Tom Cruise and that Steubun designs have been featured in over 47 major museums internationally. That is quite an accomplishment.
Steuben Glass on Dipity.
Dipity is a great way to look at company history, particularly if your company produces something beautiful and artistic that should be shown to the world. If you design amazing glass art like Steubens, a simple text version of your history just isn’t going to cut it. Sure, a wikipedia page is informative, but it isn’t interactive, full of media and visually stunning like a Dipity timeline.
Thank you for creating this excellent timeline and thank you for sharing!
We’ll be back soon with a few more awesome Dipity applications. Stay tuned and if you have suggestions feel free to post them in the comments section below.
Happy Dipity-ing!
- Steve, Dipity Community Manager
http://blog.dipity.com/2011/01/06/the-ultimate-time-machine-ten-amazing-ways-dipsters-use-timelines-pt-4/
Bloggers, journalists web 2.0 savants, etc., are you using the interwebs to take a look back at the best of 2010? Whether you want to review the biggest stories, the best photos or the funniest videos you can enhance your article or blog post with a Dipity embed. An interactive data visualization from Dipity can integrate media, links, location and timestamps to represent your 2010 as a chronology, flipbook or map.
Essentially, Dipity is a free and easy way to create a high quality inforgraphic. You can present complex information quickly and clearly without any knowledge of programming or design. It’s so easy a 5th grader can do it!
I took about an hour out of my day today to create a 2010 news timeline. I focused on the biggest stories of 2010 and tried to be inclusive as possible. I took most of my information from this Wikipedia page. In text form, it can be pretty exhausting to read and process. As a data visualization, it is an easy and fun to follow chronology, complete with a visual aid for each major event.
2010 in Review on Dipity.
Here is an example of the flipbook view. The flipbook operates like a slide show, offering a cool pictorial recap of the past year. You can even use your mouse wheel to scroll through photos.
2010 in Review on Dipity.
Another way to review 2010 is using the geolocation tags added to each event to see where major news went down. Click on the locations to see details about the event.
2010 in Review on Dipity.
So, whether your are a photographer, journalist, blogger, techy or just an everyday web user, try using Dipity to bring your look back at 2010 to the next level. Timelines are easy to build and you can add links to articles, photos, videos and more or upload your own content. Once you have your timeline, all you have to do is click the embed button on your timeline. A pop up will ask you to define the parameters, zoom level, colors and more, providing you with an HTML code to copy and paste into your website or blog. What are you waiting for? Do Da Dipity!
Feel free to leave us links to what you come up with.
Happy and healthy to you and yours!
-Steve, Dipity Community Manager
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/12/30/looking-back-on-your-2010-take-a-leap-forward-with-a-dipity-embed/
Dipity is reaching into it’s old school bag of tricks to bring back the thumbs up/thumbs down event ranking system. Soon, you will see a symbol attached to each of your Dipity events. Clicking these will help determine the priority of each event appearing on your timeline. As a result your Dipity data visualization will be that much more effective as the most important information will be displayed based on user preference rather than by random assignment.
We use a detailed and useful algorithm to determine event ranking that assigns points based on videos, images, link, description, latitude and longitude and if the event is a “rich event” (a manually created and not an imported event.) However, even with this formula in place, Dipity does not always emphasize the most important elements of a timeline. The good news is that the thumbs and thumbs down button far outweigh the other determining factors, make it as easy as a click or two to hide or highlight any of the events on your timeline.
Unlike Roman times, a thumbs down won’t kill the event, it will just push it below other higher ranked events. The event ranking is always subject to change if and when other users weigh in with a click. Both the timeline creator and visitors can use this tool to help determine what Dipsters think are the most important elements of any topic. This gives each timeline an aspect of community where other Dipsters can participate and help make your topic as informative and relevant as possible.
This feature should be available next week. try it out and let us know what you think… thumbs up or thumbs down?
-Steve, Community Manager
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/12/28/thumbs-up-for-dipity/
Last week we celebrated two more Dipsters, RRTN and David Widgington and their fabulous applications of our timeline platform. RRTN looked at the history of African Americans at MIT as well as major accomplishments in science, architecture and innovation. David looked at a current humanitarian and political issue, the South Sudan Independence Referendum.
Both methods of using Dipity explore key information that helps connect, inform and build community around important issues. This week, we look at another hot button issue, immigration.
1. Deportation Nation: A Timeline of Immigration Criminalization
Description: The United States is not just a nation of immigrants, it is also a nation of deportation. This timeline shows how the U.S. immigration system became focused on enforcement and criminalization.
Timespan: December 2, 1783 - Present
Deportation Nation doubled up on their Dipity-ing with a Flipbook embed on their home page and a timeline embed here.
The Deportation Nation site is very sleek and well-designed and the staff there has managed to incorporate Dipity seamlessly. The two different view modes showcase the strength of the timeline, both in the extent of the detail as well as the interesting and relevant photos they added to events.
Deportation Nation: Timeline of Immigrant Criminalization on Dipity.
A dense topic like immigration in the United States is tough to approach without understanding the basic history and context. Given that there are so many sides to this one issue, it is important to educate readers about how we arrived at the current juncture, and where we are going from here.
A chronological history is the perfect tool to help do so, and Deportation Nation did an excellent job maximizing Dipity’s history-telling capabilities. This timeline gives viewers all they need to know by presenting, with a high level of detail, the history of US policy on immigration.
Understanding the historical facts and trends of US policy just might help someone change their personal stance on the issue. If not, at the very least, they leave the website better informed on how and why community’s besides their own are affected by immigration law.
The Deportation Nation timeline is a great example of history in context and action. The embeds look great and the timeline itself is very informative. Great job and thank you for sharing!
2. The Education Technology Consortium of Northern Arizona University
Description: Tracks the Twitter and Blog updates of the ETC at NAU to build and inform the ETC community of the latest news, developments and accomplishments.
Timespan: March 27, 2009 - Present
While not the most visually appealing use of Dipity, this application shows how Dipsters engage technology in an attempt to reach out to their users. Serving as the header for their community blog, the timeline aggregates all the tweets and posts via RSS feed to update, in real-time, every bit of information the ETC sends out to their students, teachers and whoever else may be following along.
This is an excellent way to give the community a central starting point, and a great way to show technology at work. Dipity is becoming a popular educational technology tool, and the ETC is showing just one more way you can use timelines in education and elsewhere.
ETC Community on Dipity.
I use my personal timeline to track my Dipity blogs and Tweets, but had never thought to embed the timeline as a header. When the ETC blog first popped up on our radar, I slapped my forehead, wondering how I hadn’t thought of this before. As I have said in the past, users constantly surprise us with their ability to apply Dipity in new and innovative ways. If you can think of one, or have one to show us, please do share.
Thank you to both ETC and Deportation Nation for sharing their amazing timelines with us.
Join us in the new year for a look at 2 more amazing Dipsters.
Happy Holidays and Happy Dipitying!
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/12/23/the-ultimate-time-machine-ten-amazing-ways-dipsters-use-timelines-pt-3/
Last week we released our second ever Dipity 3.0 Screencast, a tutorial on how to use Timelines as sources to build a great infographic or data visualization on Dipity. Unleash the full power of the web’s best time machine.
Check out the video below to learn all about how you can use timelines as sources for your topic.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/12/20/importing-and-copying-timelines-a-great-way-to-build-share-and-collaborate/
Last week, we took a look at two awesome timelines by The Washington Post and the Ferry Lane Primary School. The Washington Post looked at The History of Art Controversies while Ferry Lane Primary students looked at Growing Up in the Victorian era.
We learned just two more innovative ways to use Dipity as a data visualization or infographics tool. We’re quite impressed with our users. Now let’s take a look at a couple more Dipsters making the most out of our timelines.
1. Robert R. Taylor Network @ MIT Explores African-American Contributions to Science and Technology
Description: Three content-rich timelines explore Black History at MIT, African-American Astronauts and African American Inventors.
Timespan: 1751-Present
From their website:
The Robert R. Taylor Network at MIT honors the first African-American graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by highlighting the role of blacks and members of other underserved communities in architecture, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (ASTEM).
The Robert R. Taylor Network’s timelines are a unique, visually appealing way to explore the achievements of African-Americans in the fields of Architecture, Innovation and Science. My favorite of the three major timelines is the history of African-Americans in space.
Senegal Exhibit Timeline on Dipity.
This timeline has a very nice background and each event stands out because of the sharp colors, high-resolution photos and detailed descriptions. It tells a very interesting story about the important contributions of a specific group to one of the things that sets the USA apart from other countries, our extensive space exploration programs.
Second is the RRTN Inventors Timeline.
RRTN Inventors Timeline on Dipity.
This timeline traces the history of some interesting inventors and inventions to come out of the African-American community at MIT, such as laser surgery for cataracts, the wrench, super soakers, the super computer and more. It is a very detailed and informative timeline.
Finally, we have the Black History at MIT timeline:
Black History at MIT on Dipity.
This timeline also sports a nice background and a long history of MIT graduates, alumni accomplishments and important dates in the institute’s history. They do a nice job including a wide range of dates, facts and events. It really helps you visualize the history of the African-American community at MIT, as well as giving you context about issues important to the community. If you are a visual learner like me, this is a great way to discover something new.
To see these excellent Dipity timeline embeds on the RRTN website and learn more about the organization and it’s goals visit them here.
2. The Sudan Info Timeline
Description: The South Sudan Info timeline focuses on the key issues, events and problems occurring in Sudan in an attempt to inform the public on what exactly is happening leading up to the Southern Sudan Independence Referendum on January 9, 2011.
Timespan May 26, 2004 - January 9, 2011
Created by our user, David Widgington, this topic is a great example of how a Dipity timeline can educate and cultivate interest around a political cause or topic. In this case, the cause is Sudan, which you probably know is a place where some pretty terrible things have been happening if you have read the news lately. The idea is to track events leading up to the January 9th referendum, so viewers can better understand the outcome and consequences of the vote.
South Sudan Info on Dipity.
Often, with stories like Sudan, we hear about them once in the news before they quickly and silently slip from the social conscience. However, with a Dipity timeline, we can continue to track issues and keep them relevant as they develop. The South Sudan Info timeline is an excellent example of how Dipity can help end the 24-hour news cycle phenomenon that seems to be keep viewer attention spans short and jumpy.
Thank you to both David and RRTN for using Dipity. Tune in next week for two more amazing Dipity applications from our users.
If you, your class, your friend or a complete stranger have made a timeline that you think we should know about, feel free to let us know on twitter (@dipity), Get Satisfaction or via Email.
Happy Dipitying!
-Steve, Community Manager @dipity
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/12/15/the-ultimate-time-machine-ten-amazing-ways-dipsters-use-timelines-pt-2/
I’ve said before that there is no limit to the ways people can use Dipity. Over the past year, we have seen people use Dipity for class projects, journalism, sports, publishing and more. Although no one has figured out a way to wash dishes or clear out the gutters with our platform, Dipsters have continued to surprise us with their timelines, ideas and suggestions.
This segment will take a look at ten incredibly cool ways Dipsters are using our website, two or three a week for the next few weeks. We couldn’t be more proud of or impressed with our Dipster community. Keep it up!
1. Tracking Art Controversies, The Washington Post:
Description: A look back at art controversies in recent years.
Timespan: 1985-Present
The Washington Post built this Dipity timeline and embedded it on their site as a response to the outcry after “Ant Covered Jesus” was removed from the National Portrait Gallery. The work was on exhibit from October 30th to November 30th as part of a show on sexual difference in American portraiture.
By building a timeline around some of the biggest art controversies in recent times, The Washington Post can help readers easily and quickly grasp the context of what kind of art tends to be disruptive and how what is defined as “controversial art” has changed over the past 25 years. Is it the sacrilegious, the unpatriotic, the confusing? A timeline like this helps readers come to their own conclusion.
In addition, if a journalist or student was doing research for a project on Art Controversies, this might be a perfect plate to start. It gives an excellent outline of the major events leading up to “Ant Covered Jesus.”
Art controversies on Dipity.
2. Ferry Lane Primary School, Tottenham, England
Description: I started an interactive timeline for our topic – “Would you have liked to be a child growing up in Victorian London.” What should we add to it?
Timespan: 1919-1901 (Queen Victoria’s Life)
Year 5 teacher, ICT and Science coordinator Jack Sloan (@jacksloan) popped up on our Twitter timeline one day asking for contributors to his class’s Victorian Era timeline. The question was: Would you have liked to be a child growing up in Victorian London?
Visitors were asked to put their suggestions for relevant facts and dates as well as an explanation of why they should be added in the comments section. The project looks to be a success as around 20 comments were posted and resulted in a very nice Dipity timeline. The events give a sense of Victoria’s life as well as major technological breakthroughs in the region. As a result, the viewer has the necessary information to truly answer the question “Would you have liked to ne a child growing up in Victorian London?”
Well, would you?
The Victorians on Dipity.
That’s all for this week. Next week we will take a look at a couple more amazing uses of Dipity. If you, your class, your friend or a complete stranger have made a timeline that you think we should know about, feel free to let us know on twitter (@dipity), Get Satisfaction or via Email.
Happy Dipitying!
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/12/08/the-ultimate-time-machine-ten-amazing-ways-dipsters-use-timelines-pt-1/
Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Radar Alex Howard sat down with our co-founder and CEO, Derek Dukes for a Q&A on the subject of data visualization and infographics. In the interview, Alex and Derek discuss Dipity’s genesis, business model, and the opportunities attached to rich datasets.
O’Reilly Radar is a tech website with some very good writers providing insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies. We are honored to be part of their publication. To check out the site click here.
Also, check out a Dipity timeline of the Radar’s RSS, Twitter and YouTube feeds:
O’Reilly Radar on Dipity.
A few brief excerpts from this well-edited and informative article:
Alex: How did Dipity come about?
Derek Dukes: We started a couple years ago. We’ve focused on giving people the easiest possible tools to create timelines from a variety of different content sources. Over the last year or so, we’ve really started to get most of our traction. That was based on providing two services:
1. Letting someone like the Washington Post or government agencies take datasets, showcase them, and surface data in interesting ways.
2. Giving consumers the tools to make their own timelines with data from across the web.
Alex: What’s driving interest in data visualizations?
DD: There are three things that are happening in the consumer market that are growing the market for data visualization. First, there’s more data to do interesting things with, which wasn’t true three or four years ago.
The second thing is that because we have touch interface tablets and high-resolution monitors, people expect to be able to do something interesting with data. It’s not enough just to publish data in real-time anymore. Meaning and understanding have to be extracted from the data in interesting ways.
Third, with the advance of browser technology and increasing adoption of HTML5, things that were technically very difficult are now easier to roll out and scale. It’s not like we have to build a one-off custom Flash applet that takes advantage of a limited data set. You now can build a robust platform in HTML5 that can use a variety of different data sources.
Alex: How can visualizations help businesses with their own data?
DD: Think about Google. Google sits on a huge volume of data. They choose to visualize and sort that data in a particular way that becomes useful. The consumer simply wants to get something out of the data. It could be getting a link to a relevant website or finding out what happened on the Bay Bridge this morning. The goal is to move from a big dataset into understanding.
To read the entire text of the article, click here.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/12/07/the-oreilly-radar-dipity-taps-data-for-infographics-and-revenue/
One of our many new and improved Dipity 3.0 features is the ability for all users to create timelines quickly and easily by simply typing in a search query about any topic. Much like a Google search, a websearch timeline will instantly generate a variety of News, Videos, RSS feeds and pictures around a keyword. Unlike Google search however, the results are presented in chronological order and users can interact with the information in a dynamic and innovative way.
The best part of this tool is that creating a digital timeline from search is as easy as one, two, three… literally.
To create your own search-based topic follow these basic steps:
1. Choose a keyword for your topic and enter it in the search bar. Something specific like, “Felix Hernandez Cy Young” works better than something broad and general like “Baseball.” Once you have typed your topic, hit enter or click the search button.
2. You will be taken to the search results page. If there is already an existing topic for your search term, you will have the option to create one by using the “Click Here” link. Clicking this link will automatically created a public timeline using YouTube and Google News and Newslink Searches. You can always add more content later.
3. Admire your brand new timeline. If you want, you can add more sources to your topic in the “Events and Event Sources” menu. This will allow you to add Flickr and Twitter content as well as populate your timeline with content based on other key words. For example, you could add “Mariners Baseball” or “King Felix” to your timeline.
Here is an embed of the King Felix timeline:
Felix Hernandez Cy Young on Dipity.
We came up with the create from search feature so users could instantly generate topics about breaking news and events and keep them updated with the push of a button. It is a great way to track developing news stories, research a topic for an upcoming or ongoing project, establish context around a theme or simply browse the things you normally search for in a new and innovative way. Whatever your use for this feature it won’t take up much of your time to give it a try. It only takes a few seconds!
For proof, we made this handy Screencast Tutorial about how make timelines from websearch. I was able to create nine new Dipity timelines in roughly four minutes. I challenge any of our users out there to see if they can do more!
Enjoy!
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/11/19/creating-topics-with-websearch-the-quickest-way-to-make-timelines-on-dipity/
Dipity timelines are an innovative and unique way to track the progress of political campaigns and electoral processes. Dipity’s search aggregation function grabs content through various APIs and pulls election results, stories, blogs, opinions and tweets from across the web 2.0 universe to give you an unbiased and wide-ranging view. Since content on our site is 100% user-generated, Dipsters can be sure that a Dipity timeline is one of the most objective and inclusive ways to browse election results on the internet.
For example, the California Election timeline is built from simple Google News searches for each individual candidate and proposition. Dipity scans each search term for the 20 most recent mentions of any given term and automatically populates the timeline. Once a user has added search terms to populate a timeline, Dipity automatically updates as the story develops. This keeps Dipity topics up to date and helps deliver the most recent news of any subject, especially ongoing or long processes like political campaigns and elections.
Here is an embed of California Election Tracker timeline:
CA Statewide General Election on Dipity.
The ease of building and updating timelines on Dipity makes it a perfect tool to track the news. Speaking with Dipsters, we have found that our users find Dipity useful as a primary way to broadcast news to a community, as supplemental coverage to an existing blog, website, or ongoing story, and as a personal tool to track updates on a topic when writing a paper or developing a project.
Here is a look at some excellent political and/or election timelines from around the Dipity Community:
Kansas Election History in List View by User LauraTG
A 50-year history of Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District on Dipity.
Representative John Dingell’s Biographical Timeline in Flipbook View:
Dingell’s Drive in Five Decades of Progress on Dipity.
The Guardian UK’s Election Road Trip on Map View:
Guardian.co.uk US Election Road Trip 2008 on Dipity.
If you have any other examples of awesome political or election timelines, feel free to share them in the comments section below and we’ll ad them to the blog!
Thank you for reading and happy Dipity-ing.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/11/05/2010-elections-vote-for-dipity-election-tracking/
Thank you to our awesome Dipity users, GFHS and Discarte8 for making these excellent video tutorials on how to build timelines with Dipity. Watch and learn about just two of the ways you can use Dipity’s data visualization platform to learn, research and track major developments and projects. Happy Dipity-ing!
The GFHS tutorial video. A great example of how students can use Dipity to research and learn about topics of their choice:
Click to watch the video
Discarte8’s video. A great example of how to track major projects and development in a visual display:
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/10/26/dipity-tutorial-videos-some-great-demonstrations-of-how-to-use-dipity-from-our-community/
Some exciting news on the Twitter wire last week as Yahoo released a prototype of an interesting news search engine that “generates timelines that stretch into the future as well as the past.” Developed by Yahoo’s Barcelona Research Lab, the new search service, Time Explorer, visually displays the frequency and volume of news events on a Simile timeline.
Perhaps the most striking feature of Time Explorer is the ability to search in the past AND the future. Yahoo’s goal is a lofty one: essentially to build a news search engine that predicts future outcomes of today’s issues using predictions found in the text of past articles. For example, I searched for World Cup in the past and the site came back with 456,000 plus results with the word “World Cup.” Search the same term in the future and you are directed to articles that make predictions of where the upcoming World Cups will be held, or who the US Soccer coach will be in 2014, very cool stuff.
Since Yahoo has decided to dip their toe into the business of interactive data visualization I wanted to take a closer look at how Dipity and Time Explorer stack up. Since Time Explorer is relatively new and still under development, I decided to even the playing field a bit. It would be fruitless and perhaps unfair to compare the two based on the scope of applications, user-friendliness, visual aesthetic or integration capabilities. As the original and most widely used visual timeline site, Dipity has a clear and expected advantage on those fronts. However, let’s take a closer look on some fronts where Time Explorer can compete, specifically search capabilities, news aggregation an the “serendipity factor.”
Search Capabilities
Time Explorer is built from the data of 1.8 million New York Times articles published over a twenty year period. Within this limited data set, Time Explorer’s search capabilities seem to be extremely effective. Search results are sorted based on the popularity of each article and offer keywords that you can adjust to further refine your search. For example, if searching for “Global Warming” produces an article with the keyword “Arnold Schwarzenegger,” users can click the name to search this keyword, see more or less articles with the keyword, or even exclude the term from their search. Time Explorer also offers users information on each article’s popularity, source and author. In addition, users can select from searching the past or searching for the future. The future search function looks for articles that discuss future predictions for specific topics.
In the visual portion of the search, users can scan specific dates for articles by scrolling through the area at the bottom of the screen. This helps to quickly shift through time periods in order to look for articles from a specific time period. I find this to me the most useful feature of the visual aspect of Time Explorer.
Dipity, unfortunately, does not have a search engine powered by Yahoo!. However, Dipity users can search through a much larger amount and type of information. Instead of offering users access to a preexisting database, Dipity allows users to use existing search APIs from other sites (Google News, Newsline, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) in order to gather information and media and create their own topic. For example, in order to create a timeline about Tiger Woods, I might try integrating a Google News search using the terms “Tiger Woods Golf Career,” and then add “Tiger Woods Affair.” Using these two separate search terms will yield a more complete topic based around the subject, Tiger Woods. We can also use a YouTube search to add in some videos of that sweet swing, or a news report or two about the upcoming divorce.
In addition, Dipity itself offers over 800,000 preexisting user-created topics to search through. Each one of these topics feature multiple events, full of text, photos, videos, music and links and more. In fact, there are so many events on Dipity, that it is tough to even offer an estimate of just how extensive the database of information is.
My favorite feature of Time Explorer is the ability to visually scroll through time periods on the lower section of the timeline. It makes finding articles in relevant time periods easy and fun. In addition, Time Explorer clearly features a stronger traditional search engine than Dipity. However, it remains to be seen how well this search engine will function as they expand their database. As they expand to include other publications besides the New York Times they may have to find a way to standardize how each publication ranks the popularity of their articles. In addition, since Time Explorer seems to be focused primarily on allowing users to search their database instead of actually contributing to it, someone is going to have to enter all that data. I would hate to be their intern.
Searching for topics on Dipity can be frustrating. Users cannot search for manually created topics. Only publicly created topics made through web search are part of Dipity’s search database. However, Dipity has a distinct advantage in the fact it provides a new type of search service, one that can pull in multiple types of information from multiple places. Essentially, the potential for creating content using search on Dipity is endless.
Victor: Push. Time Explorer search is as powerful as Dipity search is innovative.
News Aggregation
As we said above, Time Explorer offers a limited database of articles to choose from. At this point, users can only search New York Times articles. I am sure they plan to add other publications, in which case, the ability for users to predict future trends should only increase. I really enjoy the simplicity of the search and the ability to emphasize, add or take away keywords to narrow down exactly what they are looking for. That said, the main element of aggregation in Time Explorer is on the future search end. Users can find predictions for the future about their search topics based on past articles and trends. As the database grows, this information can only become more relevant and detailed. Very cool.
Dipity, on the other hand, focuses on aggregating news in the present tense. Most aggregated sources are based around the 20-100 most recent posts and then regularly updated. That means, the longer the topic exists, the more information will be pushed to the timeline and the more detailed a topic will become. Also, the variety of information such as videos, photos, RSS, tweets and more create a rich multimedia experience.
Time Explorer really can help predict the future, and that is not something Dipity aims to or is capable of doing. However, Dipity can create a much more rich data visualization that integrates and updates present information on current events. The two essentially explore important news topics on two different levels, Time Explorer focuses on the past and the future, while Dipity focuses on the present.
I can confidently say that people who read their news on the internet are much more concerned with current events, and not the past or future. Therefore, while Time Explorer is an effective research and prediction tool, Dipity is more pragmatic for those simply trying to get the latest update on a trending topic.
Victor: Dipity. Not saying the past or future are any less important, but these days people tend to live in the present.
Serendipity Factor
The potential for serendipity with both Time Explorer and Dipity is enormous and exciting. The two timeline tools offer an innovative and dynamic new way to search for and visualize information. While Time Explorer allows users to explore the past and how it might affect future events, they can only do so via existing content. Dipity, on the other hand, allows users to generate their own content in order to explore a topic. Dipity might not allow users to automatically reach as far back in time, but it is extremely effective at aggregating and exploring information as it happens.
Victor: Push. Both sites can lead to some amazing discoveries.
In the end, the two timeline sites offer significantly different sets of tools for data visualization. Although the overall aim diverges, many elements of what Dipity and Time Explorer intend to accomplish overlap. Better said, while Time Explorer plans to mine the future, Dipity is currently set up to mine the present. We look forward to seeing how Time Explorer develops and are excited about the possibilities.
So, our question is: what do the readers think? Do you prefer the data visualization capabilities of Dipity or Time Explorer? Would you use one or the other or both? Give both Time Explorer and Dipity a try and let us know which you prefer. If you want to share your results, feel free to do so in the comments section.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/09/01/yahoo-releases-timeline-prototype-how-does-it-stack-up/
For those of us who use technology on a day-to-day basis, we don’t often stop to think about the story behind the buttons we are pressing. When is the last time you took a moment to ponder who invented the command key on your keyboard before you closed a window or saved a document? Did you know that standard power button you use on everything from your laptop to your air conditioner to your X-Box 360 actually has it’s origin in World War II?
Since we already take for granted the vast array of new devices and technologies that permeate our daily lives, it becomes even harder to remember the small details that were once inconceivable. That is why I found Gizmodo writer Bryan Gardiner’s piece on the history of symbols and icons so refreshing and informative. Bryan attempts to trace the history of some of the most widely recognized and utilized symbols in the digital world, such as the At, Ethternet, BlueTooth and USB icons.
What surprised me most, besides the fact that Apple employees or engineers came up with almost all of them, was how many images could be traced back centuries to iconography from Greek Mythology, Danish Kings or accounting machines from the 1800’s. There is a rich and meaningful history behind most of these symbols, and where there is history, there should be a Dipity timeline.
I decided to take Bryan’s article and whip up a topic on Dipity using his images and descriptions. It was easy to copy and paste image URLs, descriptions and dates. All in all, it took me about 25 minutes to create the perfect visual supplement to Bryan’s written content. Here is the result:
The Secret History of Those &$%#ing Symbols on Dipity.
Dipity timelines are the perfect tool to use alongside any article or blog that addresses the history of any particular topic. In the past we have looked at Rick Rollin’, Chere Mamo, Kia Hamsters and even The World Cup. Whether ancient or modern, ongoing or done and gone, the topics we have addressed on our blog have been greatly enhanced by the use of an embedded timeline. Embeds are available to anyone who has a connection to the internet.
Our belief at Dipity is that the applications for timeline technology are limitless. The visualization of data in a chronological format is relevant to anyone who uses the internet, and that is a huge market. Our vision is that, much like the symbols and icons that make up part of our daily interaction with computers, our timelines will soon be one of the many technologies that web users utilize without thinking twice. One day, when users take timeline technology for granted, a blogger somewhere will attempt to find out where it all started, and they will end up right back here, at Dipity.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/08/17/the-secret-timeline-of-those-ing-symbols/
Can you imagine being cooped up with your family on a 43-foot sailboat for a month? How about a year? How about seven? In 2003, the Crafton family liquidated their properties and possessions and departed from Florida on an 83-month, 30,000 mile journey circumventing the entire globe, stopping in 23 countries and catching the eye of the Washington Post staff writer Steve Hendrix. The Washington Post, a long time client of Dipity, published this amazing article on August 1, 2010 and supplemented their coverage with a Dipity timeline.
The timeline tracks the Crafton family journey starting with their departure from Florida in 2003 and ending with their return to Maryland on June 5, 2010. Dipity allowed Steve Hendrix to add photos, descriptions of events and places, dates and locations from the seven year saga. The result of aggregating this information in a single Dipity timeline is a dynamic way of visualizing and telling a story, in this case an epic family journey.
Click here to view the timeline
Newspapers like The Washington Post (see The Seattle Times) use our site as a powerful, cost-effective and dynamic tool to supplement traditional coverage and combat falling newsroom budgets.
However, the beauty of Dipity lies in the simplicity of the platform. Both large, powerful companies and everyday web users can find a way to utilize the tools we offer. Whether you want to promote a new product line, or simply track and share your family history with relatives, Dipity provides an innovative and fun approach for your clients and followers.
The Crafton family's 7-year sailing journey on Dipity.
We are pleased to be part of the Washington Post’s coverage of this amazing journey and hope to see many more Dipity timelines on their website in the near future. In the meantime, if you or anyone you know has made an interesting Dipity timeline you want to share with us, feel free to post it in the comments section below. Thank you and happy Dipity-ing!
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/08/02/around-the-world-in-2555-days-relive-the-journey-with-dipity-and-the-washington-post/
On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered precious gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. The discovery sparked a massive gold rush, bringing over 300,000 people to the San Francisco area in search of riches. Nowadays, it’s silicon, pageviews and RTs that have software engineers, community managers and programmers flocking to the Bay Area in search of wealth and fortune. However, without sales and marketing, all the amazing ideas and technology appearing everyday would be stuck underground and out of the public eye, just like all that pretty, shiny gold.
Dipity needed it’s own prospector and just as the search began for a viable candidate, Evan arrived from the far off regions of the Pacific Northwest. After only two weeks in the city, Evan applied for and became Dipity’s new Sales and Customer Development Representative.
Of strong Nordic stock, Evan was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. He attended the George Washington University in Washington, DC where he majored in International Business. He has spent the past several years gaining sales and development experience in the laboratory equipment industry and is excited to make the switch to online media. Evan is an Aries, an avid mountain biker, skilled cook, dog owner and 100% single for all you ladies out there.
Evan brings a wide variety of tools to our team. He is an incredibly likable guy with great people skills. He could sell you your own shirt, which he did to me on his first day here. Even with his fortunate gift for gab, what impressed us most during the interview was his passion and enthusiasm for the product. Evan took the time to learn Dipity inside and out, and has already come up with some great ideas on how to improve the site.
Evan's First Day in San Francisco.
In his own words Evan says that, “Dipity is simple, robust, adaptable and intuitive - I am thrilled to join the team, and look forward to helping shape what is obviously going to be bigger than anything that has ever happened before… anything.”
We are excited and happy to have Evan join our growing team . Evan was brought on to help turn our hidden value into massive profits, and we are confident in his abilities. Welcome to Dipity!
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/07/23/dipity-strikes-gold-taps-sales-development-rep-to-sell-it/
In a long line of internet memes only one has clogged up our HootSuite Dipity keyword search for over a month. Do Da Dipity: the 2009 KIA Soul Hamster Commercial. For the last few weeks every time I log in to update Dipity followers (become one!) about the latest dipitiness, I see a long string of tweets from people all over the world who can’t seem to get enough of this video. The video features a couple of ghetto, rapping hamsters cruising around in their KIA Soul. Other, less hip hamsters drive toasters, cardboard boxes and washing machines. The message is a clear one: compared to common household appliances, cars offer a much more stylish and practical mode of transportation. I trust the hamsters, don’t you?
This excellent bit of marketing from KIA suddenly has the hip-hopping hamsters as the hottest rodents since Alvin and the Chipmunks. At Dipity, our twitter feed has been flooded with the refrain from the end of the commercial, “Do Da Dipity.” We thought we’d capitalize on the vicarious publicity by exploring this internet meme with our own KIA Hamster timeline:
Do Da Dipity on Dipity.
My favorite part of the ad is the music. The commercial features the song “The Choice is Yours” by hip-hop group Black Sheep. Black Sheep were an integral part of the Native Tongue hip-hop movement in the early 90’s. They were famous for being the first to openly parody gangster rap and also gained recognition for their unique beats and intelligent lyrics. In 1991 the group released their first album A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. The album debuted at #30 on the Billboard charts with the single “Flavor of the Month.” However, another song from the same disc, “The Choice is Yours” would land them in a KIA commercial.
Check out the Black Sheep timeline on Dipity:
The Black Sheep on Dipity.
In an interesting turn of events, the artists, Dres and Mista Lawnge were not aware that KIA was using their song in a commercial. “I wasn’t even contacted. I have yet to receive payment on it but don’t get it twisted, I will,” said Dres during an interview with Vibe Magazine. “I’ve been talking to KIA for the past week or two so certain things might be done moving forward in maximizing what we’re trying to do. But Universal, the record label, was basically the ones that signed off on it and gave them permission to use my likeness so that’s a different story that might wind up having a life of itself as well.”
Lawsuits, and sometimes internet trends, tend to take on a life of their own, much like these rapping hamsters. So much of creating a buzz online revolves around creative, funny and/or original content. Dipity is an innovative way to explore such trends, but is also a new and cutting-edge trend in itself. We are getting nearly 500k page views a day, and that number just keeps on growing. Catch on! Sign up for Dipity today. After you do, be sure to tell your friends they don’t know Dipity. The choice is yours… Do Da Dipity!
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/07/13/doo-dah-dipity-whats-with-the-kia-hamsters/
With the propagation of digital news, wildly popular blogs, and citizen journalism, the rate at which major topics and issues find their way to the headlines and fade into obscurity can be alarming. For example, nearly ten years after the start of the war in Afghanistan, news and pictures from the continuing conflict have practically disappeared from the front pages of websites and newspapers alike. However, some historical and cultural events seem to encourage endless exploration, revision and research. Such is the case with “The Greatest Generation,” or the men and women who served our country in World War II.
Chere Mamo: Letters from a Charmed Life is a project which takes 700 pages of photographs, letters, postcards and documents collected by Walter Wolff, a European Jewish refugee turned American Intelligence Officer. These documents give life to the voice of a young immigrant on the brink of adulthood, suddenly swept up by the tide of war and carried “home” to Europe. His experiences and journey are unique and personal, with accounts ranging from sorting through Mussolini’s documents to overseeing Nazi prisoners of war.
These enlightening and riveting documents were painstakingly translated from French and German to English by Walter’s daughter, Nina Wolff Feld. Nina first contacted us a week ago about her wonderful project. She had stumbled on and created a detailed Dipity timeline to supplement and leverage existing content on her website. You can find the timeline embed on her homepage: Chere Mamo.
CHERE MAMO TIMELINE on Dipity.
In Nina’s words, her timeline “allows for the unique possibility of meshing the chronology of events that occurred in the Wolff family leading to their final escape from the clutches of Nazi occupied Europe to America. By using this tool, it is possible for the first time to follow their journey through the eyes of history as it unfolded.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Dipity is a great tool to add that extra level to whatever project you are working on. For a project like Nina’s that revolves heavily around the historical context and chronological order of important events, open source digital timelines serve as a valuable source of information.
We are glad that Nina found, used and ultimately loved our timelines. We wish her the best of luck on her project and hope she will continue to create awesome topics.
***Nina is currently looking for a publisher for her work. If you are interested, or know someone who might be interested in publishing this important book please contact Nina’s literary agent:
ROSALIE SIEGEL,
INTERNATIONAL LITERARY AGENT, INC.
609.737.1007
rsiegel@ix.netcom.com
http://rosaliesiegel.com
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/06/18/chere-mamo-utilizing-dipity-to-engage-history/
Monikers like “Web 2.0″ or “New Media” serve only as general placeholders in the evolving world of the internet. Technologies and popular sites come and go, but one trend that is here to stay are internet memes. An internet meme is simply the propagation of a digital file or hyperlink from one person to another via the internet that often consists of a saying, joke, rumor, image, website, video clip, animation or off beat news story.
In April of 2008, Dipity created an Internet Memes timeline. Since then, the timeline has received over 3.4 Million hits. The timeline features internet sensations like Epic Beard man, David After Dentist, Leeroy Jenkins, and NinaCat, just to name a few.
Internet Memes on Dipity.
One of the most popular and prominent Internet Meme’s has been RickRolling. RickRolling began as an internet prank where one person is provided a link to something allegedly awesome. However, when they click the link they are directed to Rick Astley’s video: “Never Gonna Give You Up”… something decidedly not awesome.
I am sure almost anyone who uses popular social media tools like Facebook or Twitter, email, YouTube or chat has at one time been “RickRoll’d.” However, if you have been in a cave since 2007, you should definitely watch this video about how awesome it is to be RickRoll’d. (after the break)
You’ve now been officially RickRoll’d, along with everyone on my Adium chat client buddy list.
Anyways, today’s obsession with RickRolling comes from an email shared with us by Allen Leng, who came up with the concept and built this awesome infographic along with his team in Washington State. See the graphic at the bottom of this blog post
The infographic was featured on the Online Schools Blog so I decided to break it down and put each event in the history of the RickRolling fad in context. What we see now is a brief outline of the evolution and growth of this amazing Internet Meme.
After creating each event I added a custom-made background from the graphic. Custom backgrounds are a great way to create attractive timelines and are available to our Partner clients.
But I digress, here is the history of RickRolling. Enjoy!
The History of RickRolling on Dipity.
Via: Online Schools
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/06/03/internet-memes-get-rickrolld-by-dipity/
Dipity has not even celebrated it’s 2nd birthday, but we sure are growing up fast. In the last few months, we have seen record growth in accounts, page views and unique visitors on an almost daily basis. This only strengthens our belief that digital timelines that can filter and broadcast information containing timestamps, geolocation and realtime updates are an increasingly applicable and vital tool.
As a consequence of our rapid growth, users may experience problems with slower load times or event edits not showing up as fast as they should. We are working hard to add servers and keep Dipity up to speed, and in the meantime, developing an amazing, innovative new widget (more on that soon) that will absolutely blow your socks off. Another exciting development at Dipity is the growth of our team.
Until recently, Ben has been our only engineer, left to fend for himself in a vast jungle of requests for bug fixes and new features from overzealous project managers and copywriters. However, help has arrived in the form of our new full-time engineer Derek Brooks.
Look at that Pudum
Derek, A.K.A. Broox, hails from Port Byron, IL and holds a degree in Computer Science from Cornell. He currently resides in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife Kari (sorry, ladies). He has done some very impressive work for Adium, SiteMan, Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl., and Red 5 Interactive. He has been interviewed by YM magazine, The BBC and various local radio stations and publications. Needless to say, his reputation in web work precedes him.
We are excited to bring Broox on board and he has proven to be a great asset from the very start. But don’t take it from me, read Derek’s “Dipity Doo Dah!” blog post and he can tell you all about his new job venture himself.
Welcome to the team Broox, we are excited to be working with you!
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/05/27/dipity-adds-application-engineer-staff-grows-143/
It is surprising how much compelling content already exists on the web. All this media is just lying around and waiting to be synchronized into an easy-to-navigate page. Take, for example, the amazing professors you can learn from on YouTube. The list of the most popular online professors comes courtesy of Lauri Buckley over at the Online Classes Blog. On May 10th Lauri posted a list of the ten most popular Professors on YouTube. Check it out here.
After reading her blog I decided to create a Dipity timeline for each professor. Once I created the individual timelines, I was able to aggregate them into one single page: “10 Most Popular Professors on YouTube.” I did so using the Dipity Add Sources tool, the sources in this case being other Dipity Timelines.
Now I had the customized content I wanted in one place, all in a nice chronological order. Too bad I took out all of those student loans…
10 Most Popular Professors on YouTube on Dipity.
To learn more about how to added sources to your Dipity Timeline, check out this video.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/05/20/why-spend-money-on-college-study-with-top-professors-on-youtube/
On June 11, the most important sporting event in the world kicks off in South Africa. South Africa is the first African nation to ever host a World Cup. The tournament represents a major step forward for the country and continent as a whole. As Nelson Mandela said, “Sport has the power to change the world … the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else can.”
At the World Cup, 32 sides from all over the world come together transcending politics, violence, cultural and religious differences, etc. simply to play soccer. Dipity would like to take this opportunity to express our excitement for the upcoming matches, as well as give viewers a chance to experience how Dipity can take the coverage of such an event to a whole new, exciting level.
For the past few months leading up to the World Cup, I have been manually creating timelines tracking the qualifying campaigns of all 32 teams playing in the 19th FIFA World Cup. Each timeline contains every official FIFA World Cup qualifier result, geolocation, timestamp, a short description, link to a relevant article and accompanying video highlights of the game.
USA in Timeline view:
USA Soccer on Dipity.
The result is an easy-to-follow, chronological way to track a team’s progress. A new fan recently boarding the bandwagon might use these timelines to find out more about their newly adopted squad. A casual fan may miss the majority of their team’s games, and use Dipity to catch up on the highlights. An avid fan might simply want to relish in the glory of their team’s success by watching video clips yet again.
Essentially, manually created timelines can serve as effective visual tools to promote sports franchises, players, and events, in addition to other applications of Dipity. Manually created timelines allow the user to select the appropriate video, article or picture from a vast universe of content in order to tell a story exactly how they want.
France in Flipbook view:
France Football on Dipity.
No sporting event in the world rivals the popularity of the World Cup. In 2006, an estimated 5.9 Billion viewers tuned in for the length or the tournament, an average of 93 Million per game. 284 million people tuned in for the final match alone. To place that in perspective, the 2010 NFL Superbowl posted an all-time high in viewers: a paltry 108 million. March Madness attracted approximately 128.5 Million viewers over the entire tournament.
If we can use Dipity to tell the story of the world’s largest sporting event, there is no reason we cannot apply the same concepts to the individual athlete, the corporate law firm, government agency, high school or college classroom, or museum. Dipity is exciting not only for the tools it offers, but also because of the diverse set of people who can utilize said tools.
England in Map View:
England Football on Dipity.
Dipity is a novel way to automatically aggregate and broadcast news and visual and social media. It is also an innovative way to manually select your content and tell a story. So, what’s yours?
—————————————————–
To see all 32 World Cup Teams’ Qualifying Campaign History, click here.
To see how Sports Franchises and Websites are using Dipity check out Deportivo Independiente Medellín’s Website, or The Seattle Offside.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/05/11/dipity-salutes-south-africas-2010-world-cup/
Social Media is a valuable tool. It offers us the democratization of knowledge and the ability to publish content with ease. Not only is it changing how we share information with our social and digital communities, but also what information we tend to value enough to follow and broadcast.
Geolocation, timestamps, realtime updates… these are all technologies that impact web users on a daily basis. Ten years ago, they were simply concepts that existed, without a defining purpose or direction. But along came Web 2.0, offering internet users an amazingly simple way to connect with others and share details about the who, what, when, where, why and how.
Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Blogger all do their part to try and funnel the fire hose of information that comes through the internet. Everyday more sites pop up to try and claim their corner of the 2.0 market.
Some new sites, such as (recently Google’s) Aardvark represent a step forward in social media. Others are simply a step sideways or even backwards. I believe that Dipity represents a major leap forward, and here is why:
Dipity offers Web 2.0 users a platform to integrate previously disparate and chaotic information in a single location and browse it visually and chronologically. Existing web content already contains timestamps and geolocations. Dipity seamlessly integrates that information and lets us publish or view it in a way that makes sense to the human brain.
A very early adopter of some key web 2.0 concepts was the Dollar Bill tracking project Where’s George?
Where’s George? is a project that tracks paper money as it travels from person to person across the United States. Individuals find dollar bills with the “Where’s George” stamp and log on to enter the serial number and location of the bill.
I came across such a bill recently when purchasing Mexican food, and decided to use both Where’s George and Dipity to track the dollar’s progress. Where’s George gave me information about the geolocation, timestamp and user comments, which I published on a Dipity timeline.
Here is the result; Previously disparate information, suddenly accessible in a chronological and visual format:
Where's George? on Dipity.
Here is what that looks like in Dipity Map view:
Where's George? on Dipity.
This is just one example Dipity timelines can help users get more out of Web 2.0. We can use Dipity to track a dollar bill, but also an important news story, an ancient culture or a superstar athlete. The applications are limitless.
Dipity is a filter for the vast amount of information offered by Web 2.0. Users and companies can take existing information and sort through it to find the most important elements. This is part of the power of Dipity, and we hope you will take a chance to explore how Dipity can optimize your Web 2.0 experience.
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/05/05/dipity-making-cents-of-web-20/
On April 12, the Seattle Times was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the Lakewood, Washington police shootings and the 40-hour manhunt that followed. The paper supplemented traditional news coverage by experimenting with some of the most popular digital tools online, including Facebook, Twitter, Google Wave and Dipity.
The Seattle Times utilized Dipity’s customizable embed feature to offer a visual map view and timeline view of events leading up to and following the shooting. By doing so, visitors could explore the full range of coverage in real time, including articles, photos and videos, in their chronological and geographical context.
It was the eighth Pulitzer Prize in the publication’s 114-year history and the first since 2007. Since their last Pulitzer, the Seattle Times has faced a falling budget, debt restructuring and a 40 percent decrease in newsroom size.
Despite the setbacks, the newspaper’s staff reaffirmed the quality of the publication with quick research, compelling content and comprehensive journalism. The Seattle Times also put on display their willingness to adapt and evolve to the changing profile of their readers.
Online, interactive media tools such as Dipity timelines can help print publications offset falling budgets and understaffed newsrooms. In 2009, newspaper revenues fell to the lowest levels since 1986, down 27% in a year to $27.6 Billion.[1]
As newspapers look to evolve instead of shutting down the presses, many turn to the Internet to bolster both revenue and readership. By offering supplemental tools and coverage such as timelines, newspapers can drive viewers to their websites and keep them engaged longer. Media outlets can monetize this traffic: more users, more time spent and more clicks mean more revenue.
As Dipity is just one of the many supplemental tools publishers can use to attract internet-savvy readers, we feel privileged to be part of Seattle Times award winning coverage. Heartfelt congratulations on your Pulitzer Prize and thank you for mentioning Dipity in your article!
To read more about Seattle Times coverage of the shootings, click here.
To see how Seattle Times used Dipity to supplement their coverage, click here.
Learn how Dipity can increase user engagement on your site, click here.
[1] Zack’s Equity Research: Publishing Industry Stock Review
http://blog.dipity.com/2010/04/21/seattle-times-traditional-real-time-coverage-win-pulitzer/
Pavlov lovers rejoice. Now, YOU can scratch your Pavlovian induced itch any time you want by simply pressing a button and getting Dipity to update all of your feeds, right now, as you watch in amazement.
Basically, we’ve heard from all of you over the past couple weeks that having you feeds updated when YOU wanted them updated was super important. So here’s what we did. For every topic on Dipity you’ll now see a button in the ‘Show Sources’ slide out that says ‘Update Sources Now’. Just press this button and Dipity kicks in to action, looking at all of the sources attached to that topic and updating the information as it finds it. This update works for all sources: Flickr, YouTube, Google News, RSS Feeds and any other service you’ve added with ‘Add Sources’ (See the image below)
Dipity will still be updating topics as we always have, at least once per day so don’t worry, you don’t have to change the way you currently use Dipity.
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/10/19/update_now/
We’ve always been fans of our the good folks over at Mashable. In a sea of tech blogs, Mashable chooses to ‘Go Deep’ in social media. That’s why when they named Dipity’s TimeTube as part of their mashup ‘Awesome 8‘ we had only one response: Awesome.
We’re in good company so check out the rest of the folks on the list and if you’ve some how missed out on TimeTube ch-ch-ch-check it out!
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/10/14/dipity-timetube-is-awesome/
Dipity Tutorial #1 (A Basic Overview) from Derek Dukes
You asked for it! We’re rolling out a series of video tutorials! We hope these tutorials will begin to address some of the questions about Dipity and set you up to be a power Dipity user. We’ve built these based on feedback e-mails and from our Get Satisfaction presence. The videos provide step-by-step visual demonstrations and narrations of different Dipity features! You can find them on Vimeo and YouTube. We’ll also be rolling out a page on the site that has all of the videos, look for that shortly. We’ve got 6 more in production which will zooming in on certain features so you’re getting the most out of your Dipity experience.
Cheers
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/07/08/hot-off-the-press-dipity-video-tutorials/
Visa's Go Visualization
Advertising Age just published an article on how the next frontier doesn’t seem to be better search, but better synthesis. Given that there are so many people publishing images, video and text (tweets, blogs etc.) the velocity of that information is increasing and there are so many point of views on each event that we’ll need better tools then just search to make sense of all of the information.
Garrick Schmitt says ”the art of “data visualization” has exploded recently and it is fundamentally changing the way we create and consume narratives about events, products and services”, here at Dipity we couldn’t agree more. We’re constantly thinking about how best to aggregate new types of information, sort and display those in the most interesting ways to improve the context of the information we have access to.
It’s a great read check it out here: Data Visualization Is Reinventing Online Storytelling
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/03/20/advertising-age-on-data-visualization/
I took a field trip today to talk with our newest customer, San Jose Museum of Art . The museum is using Dipity on their web site, and they had let us know they were using it on a kiosk in the museum.
I was not prepared for this…
WOW! I got a little teary-eyed when I saw that for the first time. Kind of like what it must feel like for a parent who sees their kid off to college.
They told me that this was a very popular feature, with some folks spending lots of time exploring the timeline, and other visitors watching. Imagine that — timelines as a spectator sport!
We’re very impressed with how SJMA is using Dipity, and we discussed many more possible uses for them — not the least of which is a museum timeline that can use Dipity’s content update features to notify interested visitors when a new exhibit is added to the schedule.
This was truly an inspiring meeting…
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/03/11/dipity-kiosk-at-sjma/
Today we released new sharing features focused on events, with an emphasis on Facebook integration.
Now when you are looking at an event you can share it with anyone. Be it on Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, or Facebook. The link that is sent out will bring a person back to the timeline page with that event popped up (and optionally to the original asset URL for our paying customers).
Click the Facebook icon, authorize Dipity to post to your Facebook wall, then preview what it will look like. One of the coolest parts of the Facebook integration is that if you share an event with a video on Facebook, your Facebook friends can watch the video right there in your Facebook mini-feed.
This gives you a new channel for sharing, whether it’s your favorite video found on one of our MTV Video timelines, an event from one of the celebrities who use Dipity, or if you represent a brand or personality and are looking for a platform to simplify managing your content on the myriad of social sites online.
Give it a shot, and give us a shout if we can help out.
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/03/03/new-share-events-on-facebook/
If video killed the radio star, what did the internet to do video? While you ponder that check out the latest and greatest from the Dipity Labs: Dipity.TV
What is Dipity.TV? Think of it like a video jukebox. All your favorite bands, all of their videos organized as only Dipity can do it. You can surf your favorite band’s videos on an interactive timeline. Not only do you never have to give up Rick Asley but you can see how Michael Jackson went from the ‘King of Pop’ to the ‘King of Flop’.
Beyond just individual artists Dipity.TV is a video time machine. Rocking out to your favorite hair bands of the 80’s is just a click a way with ‘Best Of‘ timelines by decade. It’s not just about oldies but goodies, Dipity.TV also has a pulse on who’s hot now such as Rihanna, U2 and the hard to resist Jonas Brothers.
We wanted to show the great things that can be done when information moves freely. Each search also helps Dipity.TV build its huge collection of MTV embed codes, which MTV is providing only until mid-March.
Enjoy!
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/02/27/i-want-my-dipitytv/
This week we rolled out a new datafeed importer. If you’re currently using a Simile Timeline in your site, giving Dipity a whirl is only a couple of clicks away!
Simply create a new blank timeline. Then add a “Simile Timeline XML” datasource to it, and point us to the URL where your Simile XML file is located. You can continue to update your Simile XML with whatever mechanism you use, and Dipity will pick up the changes at least once per day.
After you get the timeline in Dipity, explore the cool features we make it easy to use. Add a video, a photo, or a map all with our interactive interface. Switch to look at the different views, and then with only two clicks, get embed code that you can use back on your site! Our goal is to make this as easy as possible, so please send us feedback if you run into any trouble.
Simile excels at packing a lot of text into a small space. It has some really cool features like variable time scale and the ability to mark eras. Dipity is geared more toward showing off your media and giving you and your viewers a rich experience. Simile requires any changes be made to a source code file, while Dipity gives you a web interface to build your timeline, a REST API to push and pull content from, and a feed infrastructure to gather data automatically from other sources.
Monet Timeline on Simile (click image to interact):
The same timeline XML data, but visualized on Dipity (click the image to go to the Dipity timeline page):
David Huynh, the creator of Simile, has moved on from MIT and is now doing amazing things for Metaweb, just up the street from us in San Francisco. We look forward to spending some time with him to talk shop.
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/02/19/simile-timeline-xml-importer/
With the help of a hotshot designer and information architect from New Zealand, Dipity got a makeover today.
Petra Quilitz of Quilitz&Quilitz Ltd really got into what Dipity stands for and submitted a very comprehensive set of ideas for us. We were absolutely floored with her understanding of our problem space and her ability to execute on that understanding. We haven’t implemented everything that she suggested (yet) but made some important strides today. Awesome work, Petra!
With this redesign, Dipity takes a step forward in the timeliness of its look and feel, gets bolder and sharper, and first and foremost showcases your content. We’ve decided to forego the “sunny day in the park” thing we had going on, and instead let your content do the talking over a neutral background. Giving you the ability to choose a theme for your timeline is on our shortlist of to-dos, so if you really liked that fair weather theme you will be able to get back there soon.
There are some under-the-covers things that went out today that should make things feel zippy, and be easier on your computer’s processor and memory. We also started using Amazon’s CloudFront content delivery network last week, and that’s proving to bring a measurable improvement to page load times.
Most of this is in preparation for some more very exciting stuff we’re going to be rolling out in the next week or two. I can’t say much yet, but our focus is going to be on offering our incredible platform to whomever wants to use it, however they want to use it.
Please let us know how you like the new look and feel by sending Feedback from the site.
These are awesome times to be a Dipster!
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/02/04/dipity-makeover/
In the spirit of change that seems to be every where these days. We here at Dipity HQ have decided to get caught up in it as well. As of last week we started testing out different versions of things. Some fancy people would call this ‘A/B’ testing; As in some get to try A and try B then we get to see which one works better. Anyhow, it’s sort of like small little lab experiments. We have some we test them, some of you will see them for a short them then they will go away. The bigger goal is that over time we roll in our learning into the product and Bam! New Awesomeness!
So what do you have to do for all of this? NOTHING! Just use the site as usual, if you notice something different and you like it, maybe let us know, if you see something you don’t like, PLEASE let us know by sending us feedback.
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/23/testing-testing-1-2/
Our friends at circaVie are closing down for good in a couple of days. In Dipity’s “good ole’ days” they were a company that made our knees shake a bit when we would analyze our competition. After all, they were backed by megalith AOL and it seemed that they knew what they were doing, especially in terms of visual design.
They hit their niche well and built a strong following. Unfortunately, they’re shutting down their site on the 15th.
We have been hearing from their users for the last few weeks asking for ways to get their data off the AOL ship and into the cuddly and everlasting arms of Dipity. To respond to their pleas, we’ve built and released a life preserver today.
Visit the circaVie Timeline Import Page, log in or sign up if necessary, paste the URL to a circaVie Timeline, and click “Import Timeline”. It’s that easy. We’ll pull in as much as we can from your timeline.
So welcome circaVie users! Please let us know how the import goes by clicking the “Feedback” link at the top of every Dipity page or by asking a question in our help site powered by Get Satisfaction.
Circavie Timeline Import Page
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/12/circavie-importer/
Looks like the NRDC’s work is getting even more recognition, this time from the HuffingtonPost. Thanks to the folks there as well.
Arianna: make sure to mention us on ABC’s ThisWeek this week!
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/08/thanks-to-the-huffington-post-too/
The most satisfying things about working at Dipity by far is getting to see our users’ hard work recognized.
The folks at the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) put together a complete record of the Bush Administrations record on the Environment yesterday, complete with pictures, video, and article links.
Naturally, we were thrilled to find it on the front page of TreeHugger.
Bush Administration’s Abysmal Environmental Record in Cool Interactive Graphic Form
Thanks to the NRDC for all the hard work, and to TreeHugger for the post. We’ll keep on trying to keep Dipity green.
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/08/dipity-on-treehuggercom/
Dipity called in sick for a few of you guys today, but we’ve shaken that bug and we’re back up and kicking.
Looks like the problem started with a little traffic spike over the weekend and it got the best of one of our servers. Some of the other machines were a little distracted by all the commotion, but we gave them a pep talk and they have their eyes on the ball again.
I’ll keep this one short (aka I’m out of metaphors for database slave replication issues), but things should be working for you again, and thanks for hanging in there.
Good luck to all you DipStars, and we hope you’ll keep letting us know how things are going for you.
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/05/dipitys-all-healed-up/
This weekend Dipity caught a cold. It started feeling achy late Friday / early Saturday morning. We started looking at the symptoms and trying to figure out the best remedy. We’ve been working hard on the problem since Saturday morning and things look to be on the up and up.
We estimate that we’ll be fully recovered by the end of the day. Please let us know if you find something that’s not working quite right and give us as many details as possible, urls, pages etc. You can simply click the ‘feedback’ link at the top of the page and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
We’ll keep updating this post as things develop, you can also follow us on twitter for updates about the service: twitter.com/dipity
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/05/dipitys-caught-a-cold/
Last week we moved the DHQ (that’s Dipity Headquarters to the uninitiated) to a swanky new three-sided location in South Park. We had spent the last year and change in a quadrilateral live-work space in a slightly less savory location. While we’re going to miss our friends at Luna Taqueria and SOMA Cafe, we’re looking forward to making some new Amis and Amigos on our new street. It’s a shorter and less, shall we say, “dangerous”, walk from the Caltrain Station so those of use who are not yet cool enough to live in SF are happy.
Our triangular office is quite spacious, yet has only 75% of the walls of the previous location. Architectural genius! It even has a little stairway that leads to the basement — which is where we’re going to put Derek’s army desk if he gets too loud.
Our neighbors and landlords are Get Satisfaction — a great solution for small to mid size businesses to provide customer support. We also share logo typefaces, so it’s clearly a match made in heaven. The building was once inhabited by the great and powerful Twitter, so we’re hoping some of that mojo is still left. Maybe in the basement…
We are really looking forward to what 2009 will bring to Dipity, and what we’ll be able to build for you in our “acute” new space. When you visit dipity.com, send us Feedback. We really love to hear what folks have to say, and jump at the chance to help out when there are problems.
http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/02/welcome-to-the-dipity-triangle/
We just launched our “Election Center” today, and new community features for the 2.0 release. Check it out at http://www.dipity.com/election.
The new site lets users to follow their candidates, and show off their allegiances. Users can get official updates from the campaign via YouTube, blog posts, twitter messages, Flickr photos, etc. through Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s Dipity channels. Votes are counted and compared to see how interest in the candidates stack up.
On the heals of our 2.0 launch last Thursday, we’re hoping “Election Center” will be a good way to shows off the capabilities of the new Dipity. Users can get the best updates about anything they care about, and one thing we know a lot of people care about right now is the election.
We also have some cool new features. Users can now carry out conversations around any update. Updates with comments show a special icon on the timeline view and users can carry on a conversation about any update from the candidates, or on any channel.
Follow your favorite candidate, and be sure to leave a comment too!
http://blog.dipity.com/2008/10/09/election-center-launched-follow-your-candidate/
Now you can post to twitter from within Dipity! Just hit "Write a Twitter message!" on your own personal page.
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