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SXSW 2013 names ChronoZoom top educational resource

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ChronoZoom is a digital tool built with HTML5 and Azure for exploring the history of everything and it was just named Top Educational Resource at 2013 South By Southwest Interactive.

chronozoom

Microsoft Research teamed up with the University of California Berkeley to create a digital tool for exploring the history of everything! A history of humanity, life, earth and the cosmos. The result was the open-source product ChronoZoom, a dynamic, zoomable timeline that starts with the Big Bang and ends with modern history.

Chronozoom uses HTML5 and JavaScript code and services implemented on Windows Azure to create a rich, visual database full of historical events and timelines. The tool was developed to make time relationships between different studies of history clear and vivid. It provides a framework for exploring different related electronic resources.

The ChronoZoom project is part of the Outercurve Foundation’s Research Accelerators Gallery. The Outercurve Foundation, a non-profit, open-source foundation, provides software IP management and project development governance to 22 open-source projects.  Developers can get involved by visiting the source code project on GitHub.

In his acceptance speech, Michael Zyskowski dedicated the award to Lee Dirks, who strongly believed in and supported the ChronoZoom project. I mention that here, because I had the pleasure, and I do mean the pleasure, of working with Lee at the iSchools conference in Toronto last year. He and his wife passed away this past summer, so it was nice to see a bit of his legacy getting recognition.

Okay, enough talking, go  check out Chronozoom for yourself!

  • Want to learn more about using HTML5 on your own projects visit ietestdrive.com to find lots of cool HTML5 examples
  • Want to learn more about using Azure services for your own projects, visit www.windowsazure.com to learn more. If you are a faculty member don’t forget you can get Azure passes that do not require credit cards for your courses through the Azure Educational grants program.