The editable timeline directory – Help create a new way to visualise Wikipedia!

We have laid the groundwork for the timeline directory, now we need your help to turn it into the amazing resource we know it can be, join us and help create a new and engaging way to explore the ‘Sum of all Human knowledge’.

We love Wikipedia and Wikidata, and think they are without doubt the very best places on the internet. The idea that the sum of the world’s knowledge should be freely available to everyone in the world is something we feel very strongly about, and our dream for Histropedia is to create another way to visualise that knowledge.

Mainly thanks to Wikidata the majority of the work required to achieve this goal can be done automatically. This is an important part of Histropedia’s mission, we don’t want to re-create the wheel, we simply we want to attach it to a new vehicle. But automatic importing can only get us so far, human editing will always be necessary and our latest release now makes it possible (in the same way it is possible for Wikipedia) for anyone to help improve any of the timelines in our directory.

 

Why we need help

 

Earlier this year we presented our first version of the timeline directory, the directory was created by converting Wikipedia categories into interactive timelines.

The import was generally successful and we got thousands of amazing timelines. Unfortunately the Wikipedia categories are not very well organised and we also got thousands of incomplete timelines.

This was expected, when importing the categories we decided it would be easier to add events to incomplete timelines than it would be to clean up timelines with many unrelated results. With this in mind, the import was deliberately set-up to give preference to accuracy of events over quantity of events.

We always knew we would need an editable timeline directory and with it we now have the tools available to start improving the timelines in the directory

So now if you are browsing a timeline and you notice there are missing events you can add them to the timeline and publish your changes, instantly improving Histropedia for everyone else.

There is a lot of work to be done, but if we work together we can create a truly amazing resource for the world to enjoy.

 

Why should you help?

 

We believe the amazing work that has been done by the Wikipedia community is too good and too valuable to only be viewed as an encyclopedia, and that to truly allow everyone in the world to view ‘the sum of all human knowledge’ we have to make that knowledge available in different formats. This not only helps get more people engaging and learning, it also makes sense for different topics to be presented in different formats. For example if you are exploring history or want to look at the chronology of any subject, the best way to explore the information is on a timeline.

We also believe that a better and deeper understanding of our past is very important for understanding our present and seeing our future.

These are the reasons why we created Histropedia, and we hope you will join us on our journey to create the world’s first timeline of everything in history.

 

How to help improve the timeline directory

There are 3 ways of publishing changes to the timeline directory.

 

Publishing changes to directory timeline.

Allows you to open directory timeline, make changes and publish them to the directory.

Create new directory timeline.

Allows you to add a new timeline to the directory.

Merge with an existing timeline.

Allows you to merge a timeline you have created with an existing directory timeline.

 

Other tools for editing

The editable timeline directory also includes the following tools to help you while editing.

 

Choose name page

Let’s you choose a name for your timeline or find a timeline to merge with. This page also helps you make sure you do not publish a duplicate timeline.

Timeline info page & Revision history

Allows you to see the summary of previous edits, view a preview and revert to a previous version of the timeline. Also shows you the number of events, views and edits for the timeline.

Timeline editing guidelines

These are very much a work in progress, if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements to the guidelines please let us know.

Advanced Editing

Some of our existing timeline creating tools can be used to semi-automate the editing process and we are working on a new set of help documents showing you exactly how these tools can be used together with the editable timeline directory.

The tools we will cover in the advanced editing guide include:

Simple timeline merging

Wikipedia category tool

Wikidata query tool

 

If you would like to help improve Histropedia please sign up and choose to join community, you will be added to our new editing community mailing list and of course be notified as soon as the new advanced editing guidelines are available.

If you have already a Histropedia account you can join the community here (you will need to sign in first)

If you have already joined the Histropedia community you should soon receive an email inviting you to join the new Histropedia-I mailing list (if you haven’t received an invite please contact support@histropedia.com)