Data Visualization Active Research Assignment

What I Wish I'd Done Last Weekend on Dipity.

I had no significant issues in signing up for or using Dipity. I had never used a site like this before, and I found it interesting that the site combines aspects of data visualization with social networking. I liked the simplicity of the sign-up process (it opened in a pop-up window and only asked for the basics). When I tried to save my timeline after completing it, the last three entries seemed to disappear, but they were just in another area of the page. The timeline itself was a bit difficult to navigate; I had to zoom in to get it to display all of my data.
I think that interactive timelines can be of use in several fields, most obviously education; younger schoolchildren can better absorb notoriously dry information such as history and dates, etc., if they can look at pictures and click on links and videos pertaining to each event. Interactive timelines could also be of use in developing storyboards for films and television, as they provide an easy way to organize sequential information, and are more compact and less wasteful than paper. The military might use interactive timelines in developing attack strategies; forensic scientists could use timelines to organize data and visual information progressing from when a crime was committed to when the body was found. They might also be a useful feature in PowerPoint presentations; an interactive timeline would allow the audience to view a concise representation of the data before learning about the different components, and the presenter could easily pull up photos and links at any point in the presentation.