Some details
Histropedia is a creative startup company, established in May 2012. The idea for the project was born from discovering a gap in the Wikipedia community to simplify how historical information was viewed. The idea has sparked interest from many investors and the company has long-term growth prospects.
The core principle behind the project is to allow learning and sharing of knowledge in a way that is fun and engaging
The objective of the project was to develop a web-based application where users can graphically view historical events on an interactive timeline to transform the way that we visualise history.
The interface should be engaging and intuitive to enable ordinary users to adopt the platform and contribute to viral marketing and its protected widespread user base and success.
This was achieved by developing a graphical timeline that is both scrollable and zoomable with swift rendering of events. Existing data is pulled from the Wikipedia website to create a repository of events with machine readable dates and images taken from the Wikipedia articles, allowing them to be displayed on the timeline.
The application has three distinct sections: a GUI where the user interfaces with the Histropedia database, the backend Histropedia database, which is where all the events are stored, and the scanning program, which analyses the Wikipedia data to extract key information about each event, such as title, date, location, etc.
This application resulted in a free, open-source, interactive program, which harnesses the might of Wikipedia and Wikidata in a visually interesting and educational way. Users can view existing timelines, edit them, or create their own - which can be shared or kept private. It has wide applications, from school projects, and academic research to more leisure- oriented pursuits such as genealogy or creating timelines of anything from historical figures to Harry Potter characters. Timelines can be shared via social media and commented on in a stimulating environment.
Geeks was able to create an exciting and innovative history project which enables people to interact creatively with historical data and present it in a visually interesting way, stimulating their interest in history in an educative and enjoyable manner.
