Out of all the tools that I have used for Digital Humanities in my English 256 class, the most interesting tool was Timeline JS. Before this class, I never heard about it. Timeline JS allows you to create timelines of anything that you want. It could be a timeline of someone’s life which includes the series of events that this person has passed through and the accomplishments he/she has done. It could also be an important event that has recently occurred, or different stories and events integrated within each other.
The benefits of timeline JS is that it is very simple, an open source that anyone could access, and the idea that it is different. Instead of just reading the history or the journey of someone’s life, Timeline JS makes it look interesting and catches the eye of the reader. The timeline of someone’s life could be the simplest thing you can think of, but actually many more important topics could be tackled through Timeline JS . For example, when you open Timeline JS, you can find examples of some timelines that are made. Those include: “Women in Computing” which talks about the important contributions that women have made to the world of computers. Another example is “Contributions to the Space Exploration” which talks about Evelyn Boyd Granville, who was one of the first women that earn a PHD in mathematics and focused on aeronautics and space in her work field. Instead of researching all about these topics and reading many, many pages, summarizing these events in a timeline would be the perfect solution.
Timeline JS is very user friendly and it is very easy to use. I learned how to use it in a couple of minutes. However you have to be accurate in order to get the perfect timeline. Since I am researching Jane Austen, I decided to do a timeline about her and the books that she released in order of the oldest to the most recent. What is very interesting about this tool is that you can add pictures, videos, maps, and audios.
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