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Project_ChronoZoom Glossary

William French edited this page Aug 11, 2014 · 2 revisions

ChronoZoom Glossary


B.C.E.

BCE stands for "Before the Common Era", and is equivalent to "BC" except that it does not have the religious connotations of "BC".

Bibliography

A list of sources for the information contained in an exhibit. This is important to verify the accuracy of information and to provide academic credit to the appropriate individuals. At the bottom of each exhibit there is a link to the bibliography.

C.E.

CE stands for "the Common Era". It starts with Julian calendar 1.

Collection

A set of Timelines, Exhibits, and Tours. The Collection entity has a Title and Tags. It is externally searchable and linkable. Collections are categorized in terms of read/write access, as follows:

  • The Commons: A Collection containing the world of community shared content.

  • Default Collection: A supercollection stored in ChronoZoom.Org which is the default content for new users. When a user logs into the site, a copy of the Default collection becomes the starting point of their Personal Collection.

  • Personal Collection: A supercollection stored in ChronoZoom.Org which is Owner:Write and World:Read.

  • Private Collection: A supercollection stored in a personally owned and managed file. This type of collection can be stored externally from ChronoZoom (for example on SkyDrive or a simple website).

Content Item

A pointer to a piece of content in ChronoZoom. The Content Item entity consists of a Url, Title, Caption, and Attribution. It is contained by an Exhibit, and is only viewable as part of an Exhibit.

Exhibit

Consists of a set of content items (artifacts), and is contained by either a timeline or a collection.

Giga-annum

Abbreviated as Ga, Giga-annum is a unit of time equal to one billion years. It is commonly used in geology and paleontology to signify time in the past. For example, 4.55 Ga indicates 4.55 billion (or 4550 million) years ago.

Mega-annum

Abbreviated as Ma, Mega-annum is a unit of time equal to one million years.

Supercollection

A set of Collections owned by a person. It is externally searchable and linkable.

Tag

A grouping for related content. Content can be made visible/invisible by selecting one or more Tags for display.

Threshold

A Threshold is a moment in time where the universe has experienced an exponential increase in complexity. We know of eight distinct Thresholds:

  • Origins of the Universe
  • Origins of the First Stars
  • Origins of Chemical Complexity
  • Origins of the Earth and Solar System
  • Origins of Life
  • Origins of Human Beings
  • Origins of Agriculture
  • Origins of the Modern World

Timeline

A visual representation of a time period. Timelines can contain other (child) timelines, and exhibits. You can use timelines to depict a range of time such as the lifespan of a historical figure or period of a civilization.

Tour

A narrated tour with an audio track and media events that perform navigations to Timelines or Exhibits. The Tour entity has a Title and Tags. It is contained by a Collection. It is externally searchable and linkable.

View Port

The current view of the timeline at a specific Date and Zoom Level.