Re: Journaling software with a timeline...

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2848

Posted by 100341.2151
2005-02-24 00:08:45

For those interested, here are some brief notes on “Living Time” - the journaling/life history software mentioned in earlier posts.

Like LifeJournal2, to which it is fairly similar, Living Time allows for both contemporaneous journaling and a life history approach. Both programs are products of the personal growth industry so they tend to be geared to the interests of that audience. This can mean (IMO) that they are not as powerful or flexible as they would ideally need to be for serious research purposes - I am thinking of the tasks of organizing data for detailed historical accounts, biographies, autobiographies, criminal histories, and so on. Living Time comes the closer of the two, I think.

What they do clarify are some of the basic features required by this type of software - e.g.:

A powerful database engine (Living Time uses Filemaker, and has versions of its software for Mac and PC);
A comprehensive but clear main record form (or set of records) for entering data - including descriptions of events, reactions, etc. - chronologically;
Ability to generate numerous lists - of people, events, locations, sources;
A means to categorize events - and maybe people (e.g. by relationship);
Facilities for attaching notes, comments, annotations, etc., to entries;
Flexible timelining facilities - i.e. ability to adjust timescales;
Facilities for comparing timelines of different individuals (?);
Numerous report types;
Different ways of viewing the data;
Excellent search facilities.

...all in all the requirements are probably most like those of the best genealogical programs (e.g, The Master Genealogist), but at a different level of detail. They are also, not surpisingly, somewhat akin to novel-writing software with its emphasis on the unfolding of characters, events, and plotlines, over time.

Although I did not particularly like the interface of Living Time - fake parchment background, limited scope for window re-sizing, fussy and cluttered windows (“icon-itis”) with limited scope for users to customize - it comes closest so far to my own particular needs for a program concentrating on a life history approach.

As with all such programs, the danger is of finding oneself locked into it with no means of exit. But Living Time can export as *.txt, *.htm, and *.csv files. It also has a variety of import methods, too.

I had supposed that there might be a viable niche market for something a little more powerful - leaner and meaner, too - than Living Time, given the importance of chronological and timelining approaches to so many academic disciplines. But I’m not an entrepreneur, so I am probably wrong :-).

Derek

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