{"id":990,"date":"2015-10-22T22:03:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T11:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/?p=990"},"modified":"2015-10-23T09:21:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T22:21:53","slug":"40-years-of-museum-computing-a-timeline-js-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/2015\/10\/22\/40-years-of-museum-computing-a-timeline-js-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"40 Years of Museum Computing: a Timeline JS experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Humanities in Public is an initiative by <a href=\"http:\/\/digitalfabulists.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Digital Fabulists<\/a>, described as &#8220;the first step towards nurturing a community of researchers who are skilled communicators using cutting-edge tools to blow stuff up (metaphorically, of course).&#8221; We kicked off last week, with a session looking at a few basic tools for producing maps, timelines, digital narratives, presentations, and more.<\/p>\n<p>One of these was <a href=\"https:\/\/timeline.knightlab.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Timeline JS<\/a>, a tool I had seen before but never tried. This time around I just happened to have some (slightly scrappy) data handy so decided to throw the two together. The result is a partial timeline showing some key events in the history of museum computing from early experiments in the mid-1950s to the emergence of the web in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>[Disclaimer: this was more a Timeline JS experiment than an effort to produce a comprehensive, accurate timeline of museum computing history so there are some fuzzy facts and numerous glaring omissions.]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/iframesrc='\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/timeline3\/latest\/embed\/index.html?source=1J0kmKm0beG7KgXZQCOhFaQ88YM8Kd4WFsuJEcQopIX0&amp;font=Default&amp;lang=en&amp;initial_zoom=2&amp;height=650'width='100%'height='650'frameborder='0'\/iframe\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/timeline3\/latest\/embed\/index.html?source=1J0kmKm0beG7KgXZQCOhFaQ88YM8Kd4WFsuJEcQopIX0&amp;font=Default&amp;lang=en&amp;initial_zoom=2&amp;height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After a slight\u00a0problem with date formats caused by some careless pasting from an Excel spreadsheet I quickly got the hang of the requirements and what you see above only took a couple of hours to put together, with most of that time spent sourcing images, checking usage rights and related tasks.<\/p>\n<p>Now I have seen the\u00a0data presented this way there&#8217;s more I would like to do. But it&#8217;s a quick means to a slick-looking end, based on a process as easy as filling out a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>*Timeline updated on 23 October 2015 to correct the name of the Swinburne College of Technology.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Much of the timeline data came from\u00a0Jones-Garmil, Katherine. \u201cMuseums in the Information Age.\u201d In Hands On: Hypermedia &amp; Interactivity in Museums: Selected Papers from the Third International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums (ICHIM 95 \/ MCN 95), edited by David Bearman, 2:1\u201312. Archives &amp; Museum Informatics, 1995. http:\/\/www.archimuse.com\/publishing\/ichim95_vol2\/jones-garmil.pdf.<\/p>\n<p>Other sources included:<\/p>\n<p>Olcina, Paulette. \u201cThe Unesco-ICOM Centre: Documentation in the Service of the Museologist.\u201d Museum International 23, no. 1 (January 12, 1971): 59\u201362. doi:10.1111\/j.1468-0033.1971.tb01752.x.<\/p>\n<p>Gardin, J. C. \u201cMethods for the Descriptive Analysis of Archaeological Material.\u201d American Antiquity 32, no. 1 (January 1, 1967): 13\u201330. doi:10.2307\/278775.<\/p>\n<p>Sher, Jakob A. \u201cThe Use of Computers in Museums: Present Situation and Problems.\u201d Museum International 30, no. 3\u20134 (January 12, 1978): 132\u201338. doi:10.1111\/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02128.x.<\/p>\n<p>Castillo-Tejero, Noem\u00ed. \u201cKeeping a Record of the Cultural Heritage in the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.\u201d Museum International 30, no. 3\u20134 (January 12, 1978): 179\u201384. doi:10.1111\/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02134.x.<\/p>\n<p>Bergengren, G\u00f6ran. \u201cAutomatic Data Processing in the Registration of Museum Collections in Sweden.\u201d Museum International 23, no. 1 (January 12, 1971): 53\u201358. doi:10.1111\/j.1468-0033.1971.tb01751.x.<\/p>\n<p>Porter, M. F. \u201cEstablishing a Museum Documentation System in the United Kingdom.\u201d Museum International 30, no. 3\u20134 (January 12, 1978): 169\u201378. doi:10.1111\/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02133.x.<\/p>\n<p>Olcina, Paulette. \u201cPerspectives.\u201d Museum International 30, no. 3\u20134 (January 12, 1978): 218\u201320. doi:10.1111\/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02140.x.<\/p>\n<p>Hart, Tim, and Martin Hallett. \u201cAustralian Museums and the Technology Revolution.\u201d In Understanding Museums: Australian Museums and Museology, edited by Des Griffin and Leon Paroissien. National Museum of Australia, 2011. http:\/\/nma.gov.au\/research\/understanding-museums\/THart_MHallett_2011.html.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"csl-bib-body\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Humanities in Public is an initiative by Digital Fabulists, described as &#8220;the first step towards nurturing a community of researchers who are skilled communicators using cutting-edge tools to blow stuff up (metaphorically, of course).&#8221; We kicked off last week, with&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/2015\/10\/22\/40-years-of-museum-computing-a-timeline-js-experiment\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,31,85],"tags":[173,172,171],"class_list":["post-990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-humanities","category-history","category-museums","tag-musetech","tag-museum-computing","tag-timeline-js"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2X6WE-fY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mikejonesonline.com\/contextjunky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}